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The nation is still reeling from Friday. The Supreme Court’s decision has created waves of emotion – jubilation, vindictiveness, grieving, anger, despair… responses have been swift. The rainbows boldly painted across our nation have added to the dizzying swirl of reaction and unbridled words. Scandalous rainbow. For me, I look on that prism of light and I see so. much. more. The scandal of that rainbow stretches far back into history. Back into days when “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5) Back into the days when the pervasiveness of egregious sin demanded the response of the Righteous One. His response? “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.” (Genesis 6:17) All life. Every creature. Everything. The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23a) All life, except one man and hi...

On the first day of this month, which also happens to be National Foster Care Month, we picked up a sweet little baby boy – our second foster placement – from the hospital nursery. Once again, we’ve had weeks full of diapers, burp rags, middle of the night feedings, and precious baby snuggles. Our hearts have enlarged again to make room for Baby M. This time has been a little different. When we picked up baby D, we knew that saying goodbye was possible. This time, we picked up M knowing firsthand just how painful that can be, and had to make a decisive choice to love with abandon – to remind ourselves that all we can do is fix our eyes on Jesus, trust His sovereign plan,  love this child well, and treat his family with dignity  no matter what. It’s all we need to do. Fostering is wonderful, and difficult. It’s also often very misunderstood. I continually have conversations with people clarifying common misconceptions. Today, the last day of National Foster Care Month, I...

There is something terribly daunting about an empty page. A blinking cursor. How can I cram these weeks and months into words, to make my silent blog not-so-silent? Do I even want to? I wasn’t sure. So it sat quiet. Life was not quiet. Fall flew by in a blur. October was crammed full of meetings and school and work and prep for my upcoming  trip to Thailand . Ready or not, we were leaving on a jet plane. And then, Thailand. How do I describe Thailand? Amazing. Wonderful. Providential. Holy. Devastating. Heartbreaking. Life-altering. I laughed so hard I’m sure I looked crazy and cried so hard I thought my heart would just burst open. We saw children sold in front of us, and we saw children offer themselves for sale. We spent afternoons playing jenga and drinking sprite with new friends who would be sold that evening. We saw God move. We loved people. We left it all on the field. I came home exhausted and spent in a way I cannot describe. Jet lagged, yes. But much m...

A few weeks ago a friend was telling me how organized and on top of everything I seem to be. And I burst out laughing. I certainly don’t feel organized and on top of things! In our hectic life, I usually feel like I am two steps behind and holding on for dear life, constantly running late and wondering what I am forgetting (or very well aware of what I haven’t had time to do.) However, after struggling to learn the ropes as a mother, homemaker, homeschooler, and a part-time work-from-home-mom, there are a few tips I can share with my friends who want to know how we do things. I certainly don’t do it “all,” and I won’t even claim I do these things well… but I can tell you how we seek to manage certain aspects of life to maintain sanity and some semblance of order. :) Women’s lives are exceptionally seasonal. Every day, week, year is so different. In these years with young children, they grow and change and just when we find something that works… it doesn’t anymore. For me, I have fo...

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while now know that human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women and children has become something I just can't shake. Five years ago God began to deeply stir my heart to speak for the voiceless and to act. But how? It's a complex issue and there aren't easy answers. Some victims are literally in chains, many are held in invisible bonds of drug addiction or psychological control. Some women find themselves deceived and sold against their will, some think they have no other alternative, or choose to enter a life of degradation as the best of the terrible options they see in front of them. It's a deep darkness. But God is at work. Jesus is light that overcomes the dark, hope that shatters hopelessness. Now, five years after God began to tug at my heart with this issue, after I've blogged and shared and hosted events and done what little I could... it is my great privilege to say that I will be part of a t...

Baby D is two months old. I know his snuggles and sounds, his sleeping and eating patterns. I dearly love this little guy like he is my own. Every week I get him ready for his visit with his biological parents. Every single week I choose to believe that he is  safer in the arms of his heavenly Father  than he is in my own. I bathe him and get him dressed and kiss his little cheeks and pray over him and hand him over to the social worker. This journey is so wonderful and so hard. The thought tugs at my mind every day –  what if we have to give him back?  And the thought that I hate and constantly have to battle with truth whispers in the dark –  if he goes back to his family, was this all worth it? “If he goes back to his family, was this all worth it?” On selfish love and #fostercare. CLICK TO TWEET Last night I sat and talked with a sister in Christ and fellow foster parent. I snuggled little D’s downy head in the sling on my chest as she ch...

Two and a half weeks ago we got the call – our first foster baby. For a little over two weeks we have been transported back in to the land of new-baby-dom, full of a variety of pacifiers (why are there so many? After eight years of mothering that Babies R Us pacifier wall still mystifies me), bottles, diapers, lost sleep, and snuggles. And we have completely and totally fallen in love with this little guy. But he is not ours. It was easier to say it before he was placed with us, but  he really isn’t ours . This weekend I met with dear friends over Bibles opened to the book of  Exodus  and we talked about Jochebed, Moses’ mother. God’s timing was not coincidental for me to ponder this crazy-sounding act of faith – crazy faith that causes a mother to hide her baby from a blood-thirsty Pharaoh, and then carefully lay that sweet little one in a basket and float him down the Nile river. I mean really… that sounds insane. But it’s not crazy at all. God keeps bring...