In 2010, I found myself on a bumpy, creepy-crawly 18-hour bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to a remote village on Lake Tanganyika. I saw the brightness of the stars in the complete absence of electricity for a month. I learned to "grocery shop" at the market, and how to turn two skinny, living chickens into dinner for 20.

I've dealt with blood sugar imbalances my entire life. Doctors said I was destined for diabetes, obesity, and was unlikely to have children due to the hormonal imbalance at the root of it all. They were the experts, so I accepted my fate... until I couldn't anymore. In my late 20's, I was alone in the South African bush. My world was closing in on me. I needed hope in something beyond what I could see and faith that my fate wasn't sealed by a broken endocrine system.

Lifa is halfway through 11th grade and thinking about what comes next. Benjamin and Wyatt are ever-changing whirlwinds of personality and preferences - full of tackling, tickling, and tantrumming. We are going deeper and wider all at once at church and working through a missionary kind of sting we’re encountering for the first time after 14 years. Oh, AND, I’m learning how to cohabitate in my own body with an ever-present and absolutely crazy companion called perimenopause.

unMother’s Day: This one is not just for moms.

Chris and I stood on stage at the beginning of both servcies to welcome everyone. I had been awake since 3am with a rotation of small child issues, and Benjamin was having a harder than normal day. If I didn't need to be on stage that morning, I would kept the little guys home with me. Things were heading south quickly...

I love to listen to people's stories and understand why they tell them the way they do. We all have a timeline, speckled with highs and lows. But it's the narrator, not the timeline, that tells the story.