Love Means Showing Up
Last October, I sent out a Bat-Signal, asking for help. I was in a stuck place emotionally where I could only see the things that were broken. Some of my kids were having a hard time, the election was looming and life felt heavy. I knew I had so much to be thankful for, but
A few weeks ago, I visited my son Caleb in Ann Arbor for the first time. He’s a freshman in college and I wanted to see what his new life looked like. The town was enchanting and I loved spending a few days with him. The whole experience was reassuring and wonderful, until I drove
I love calendars and goal setting and the hope of a brand new year. A few days ago, my husband Bryan and I sat down and looked over the goals we’d set for 2018. As I looked back over the year, I noticed that some things that had been priorities just disappeared. We’d had to
“They loved their children just as much as we love our children.” I was taking notes during an anthropology class in college when my professor said this. I looked up from writing because something about this statement brought me up short. The class was on Native Americans. Every time the professor would introduce a new
I hesitated to write about this because I would do just about anything to take away my own depression and don’t like that it is part of my life. I have learned, though, that not making eye contact with this illness doesn’t make it go away. I know that February can be a hard month
Strangers regularly point to my twin daughters and ask me, “Where are they from?” An airport shuttle driver asked my husband Bryan a few years ago, “Did you get them from Haiti?” My husband responded, “No” and kept moving. I was a little embarrassed. Bryan answered the question, I suppose, but he wasn’t exactly
As a spiritual practice and an act of intentional denial, I hardly ever weigh myself. I’ve found that weighing myself makes me kind of crazy and I prefer to just judge my general health by how well my clothes fit. I decided, though, to join a contest at the new place where I’ve started
I was terrified about my daughter entering adolescence. I’d heard so many horror stories about the dramatic changes that happen to teenage girls; I was braced for her to turn into a monster. She honestly didn’t change that much. Caroline is still herself—just stretched out a little. She’s still lovely. I should have been more
I’m fascinated by this whole Colin Kaepernick situation. When I first started hearing about his kneeling during the national anthem at the start of NFL games, I thought it sounded pretty reasonable. His statement, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and
I should have paid closer attention to the online invitation. We are part of an adoption playgroup for transracial families and they were hosting a pool party. It’s a really nice group of people, but we don’t have a lot of overlap in our lives with the other families except for the fact that we’ve