Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus…
(Hebrews 12:1-2)
“You should carry a gun.” My neighbor spoke the words at my kitchen table, above her cup of Sweet & Spicy tea. It was after nine at night. Anina was in bed, and Marnell was in his office. Our neighbor had stepped down the street to talk for a bit.
A few years ago, in the fall of 2019, you may remember we hosted two teenage brothers in our home for several months. During that time, many of you contributed to a fundraiser for the older brother to take a trip to Washington DC with his school class in the summer of 2020. Hopefully, you received his hand-written thank you card for your kind generosity. Several people, when seeing the illustrations for the Brady Street Boys books, have asked if the characters are based on the two boys we had in our home.
(Re-posted following loss in website update.) On a walk with Anina in the back alley one day (or was it under the red tree on
I mentioned in my Tuesday email newsletter (you can subscribe below if you haven’t already) that I have a memory of my Mom singing the
People say life comes at you in stages. You don’t start parenting with five children. First you have one and shudder to imagine what it would be like to have three. Then you have three and that feels doable but now you gape in disbelief at people with eight. People also say the most difficult point is three children. Under these pleasant delusions I entered the summer of 2016 in confidence.
It’s worse, now that I’m a parent, to imagine the brain’s frantic attempts to make sense of this. What to do with the little shoes? The outfit for next week, next month? The book, Bad Dog Marley, torn and taped from excessive use? The potential that you saw in the child, just beginning?
