I took this picture of Wyatt for the boys in the background.

We've been in an extra-challenging season, learning to new sides of Benjamin's PDA profile of autism. I've been posting brotherly bonds and family adventures as a banner over us. We're still doing the things that matter. We choose these moments to mark us.

If you read our last update, you might have seen that we are fundraising to buy a family van. What you might NOT have seen is my stomach lurching and face twisting when I asked our beloved friends, family, and people of the Internet for help.

We have been sustained as missionaries in South Africa by people's giving for almost thirteen years. THIRTEEN YEARS...

This week I was tempted to count the "no's" in my forever-long prayer list, measure shortcomings, and surrender to the overwhelmedness of undone areas. No one would have passed a judgment if they knew what I was entertaining. In fact, a quick scroll through social media would have given the storm in my mind a big "Yes and Amen!"

I'm writing at 5am. I have been up since 2:30am with pregnancy insomnia. I've tried to stretch my sore body, pondered how to stretch our finances, and made lists of things to do. My early morning "bonus hours" were squandered with monotonous and vexing thoughts.

Have you heard about Words to Live By!?! Read this short blog for everything you need to know about it. Chris and I are passionate about this discipline. I promise… it will change your life! I want to share my 2022 Words to Live By with you to encourage you to write your own! Mine my change over time as I settle into declaring them out loud daily, but here’s what I’m starting with. You can click the button below for a list of declarations that you can use to make your own. I used this list and a few other resources I’ll share below as well. Let me know if you’ve written yours too!

Several years ago, Chris and I each wrote our “Words to Live By”. We chose our own lists of God’s truths we wanted to speak over ourselves, family and future every morning. Science and scripture both prove that the direction of your thoughts determines the direction of your life, so why let whims or the world write our realities for us?

The holidays have come and gone. Predictability and knowing what day it is have gone out the window in the last weeks of school holidays. We're relishing late summer evenings and relaxed routines, while looking forward to the structure and new school stationery that makes it feel like the new year has really begun.

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope your Christmas Day is filled with joy, laughter and wonder. Many are feeling extra strain or pain this holiday season. That's ok too... because it's really not ALL about Christmas. There's more to our Savior than one miracle in a manger or a date in December.

My toddler and teenager are both on hair-raising missions to establish their identities. My sons are drawing lines, testing boundaries, and discovering strengths, weaknesses, preferences and purpose within our family system. They are right on track developmentally! People in every stage of life are on that same plight of finding themselves. Feedback from relationships, success, social media, or past experiences often draw the boundary lines of who people are or the worth they believe they behold.

The festive season is upon us! For some, it stirs up awe and wonder. For others, it's a fresh wave of grief or painful memories. No matter what, this time of year can get extra full. Calendars, expectations and to-do lists are filling at rapid speed.

Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." I've always thought about renewing my mind as an illusive thing, mastered only by people who write books about it. I've always wanted to renew my mind, but never realized I already do every day. We all do

I wanted to share an article I wrote for Help Club for Moms with you. I LOVE extra opportunities to write and teach - because that’s when I learn the most. I wrote this article weeks ago during a very stressful time. I remember the pending deadline to submit an article about the Word of God and feeling overwhelmed about what to say. But isn’t that always where God shows up?

Last week, we found out we are expecting a healthy baby boy in April! We rejoiced over our blessings, and tears of grief stung my face simultaneously. My first pregnancy in 2018 was very brief. Our daughter, Annabel Brave, was born straight into heaven. Moments after seeing a hearty baby boy dance around my womb, I lamented for my little girl like it was the day I lost her.

Life seemed extra life-ish this week. There were extra-high highs, extra-low lows, and a lot of situations where I found myself thinking, "I have no idea what to do here." Need, questions and sometimes fear wrapped around me, so I started waking at 4:30am to beat my toddler to the start of the day. I simply worshiped in the quiet moments before life woke up.

Happy Heritage Day, South Africa! 🇿🇦 Many South Africans will fire up their braai's today, and some will don traditional clothing and dance as we celebrate the cultural wealth of the nation. Cultural celebrations resound with belonging as we come around shared history, songs, food, and clothing that remind us of where we came from.

I remember tearfully leaving my grandmother's house the day I moved to South Africa in 2010…

Has the weight of the world ever kept you up at night? I'm pregnant while raising a toddler and a teenager - the perfect combination to need sleep and to lose it! I've tearfully prayed through many nights this week for my children and the world they are inheriting. The darkness seems to shout louder and louder with confusion and temptation coming from every direction. But God is not surprised at the world He is entrusting our children to. He is not lacking in wisdom, compassion, or omnipotent love.

I was sick this week with a head cold that left me foggy during the day and sleepless at night. I rarely made it to my treasured morning quiet time with the Lord before the day got going. My teenage son had a hard day in the midst of it. Two hard things happened to him on the same day, one of them requiring a tough conversation between us.

Hurricane Ike devastated the Gulf Coast of Texas in September 2008. Three years prior, I lost the home I grew up in as a result of Hurricane Rita in the same area. The destruction of Hurricane Ike was record-breaking. I was immediately hired as a crisis counselor with firsthand experience in this unexpected kind of loss. I worked with first responders, school children and staff, churches, addicts, business owners, emergency services, homeless men and women, and everyone in between.

Have you ever known your thought life was out of control but didn't know how to change it? Recently, I felt betrayed by my own binging brain. Lies, confusion, worry, frustration - you name it, I gorged on it. I knew exactly what was happening. I could look outside of myself and see God's hand on me, yet my state of mind was wrought with negativity.

This week a friend sent me a picture with a thank you note. It was a picture of a letter I had written for the Help Club for Mom’s book. She said, “These words really ministered to me today.” I went back to that letter, and guess what… they ministered to me! Those words were certainly from God’s hand and not my own because I needed them for myself this week too. I wanted to share it here with all of you in case they might speak to you too.