Home is four walls he built with his two hands. Home is a little pink house that has grown bigger through the years and isn’t even pink any more. Home is where the chickens cackle to let me know they’ve laid another egg and I better race out to get it before they do. Home…
Backwards sixteen years. My almost-twelve-year-old world had changed overnight: I had a brand new baby sister. Positively adorable, positively perfect. A real live baby doll to dress and photograph. When she was little, I helped with a lot of the cooking and cleaning—I helped be a mommy. And I told that little person I’d expect…
Every day, this mother’s heart walks around outside her body she learns a whole new definition of trust. Every day, I think of the words of the mommy who described in aching detail the emotions of losing her son to SIDS. Every day, I think of the 4-year-old boy who just died in a farming…
A neighbor happened to call the other afternoon. “How do you find the time to hang out all that laundry?” she asked. “It gets the girls outside,” was my reply of the moment. But as I thought about her question later, I realized that I look forward to that time hanging out the laundry. Yes,…
Dearest, Sometimes, I awake in the middle of the night from dreaming of you. I think to myself, I haven’t written Merritt in forever—or called him, or anything! I miss him! And then I remember—I’m married to you! You are sleeping right next to me! It washes over me anew then, as I snuggle up…
Seasons change. Siblings grow up. People get married. School and jobs and marriage take siblings all around the country. Not too long ago he was my baby brother who I took delight in dressing in different outfits and taking pictures of and having as my personal baby Jesus in the Christmas plays. Now he’s a…
Dear Daniel, You’re going bald on the top of your head, you’re developing a double chin, and your baby acne has come out in full force. But you’re starting to coo and even smile a time or two! I’ve had to cut your fingernails three times now and you’re outgrowing some of your newborn outfits. …
The door closes behind my husband, off to work. I take a deep breath. The day is ahead of me. Along with a table full of breakfast dishes and un-eaten food, an overflowing laundry basket, and a desk covered with unpaid bills and unwritten thank you notes. But before I can attend to them, there’s…
Dear Daniel, Your big sisters love you very much. Before you were born, I was getting out some coming-home clothes to pack in the diaper bag, when Ruth finally realized that you were, as she phrased it, “Running around in your tummy without clothes on!” It was quite the revelation to her. As was the…
My mom blesses us with her gift of organization as she helps pick up after our 1-year-old and 3-year-old. His mom blesses us with her gift of teaching as she passes on her knowledge of gardening. My mom loves to shop (and return things). His mom loves to garage sale (and sell things). My mom…
Motherhood should come with an hourglass. Today was the day I thought I was due with my third little one. But as of last night, he is already three weeks old. Where did the time go? How can he already be so big—even developing a double chin—when he hadn’t yet figured out how to nurse…
If you met me, you’d find a girl with dark red hair who still feels closer to 20 than to 30 (even though it’s not true) and is taller than most of her friends (but not her brothers). You’d see two little girls bouncing around me, and a swollen stomach indicating another little one on…
The End.
The End.