February 21, 2022
February 21, 2022
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Night Watch

UPDATE: This morning when Mom woke up, she was chipper and her chest pain was gone. So … declining, but not dying — that’s what the nurse says. Still, I’ll be glad when Dad and Kathy (and her daughter Kaitlyn) get here, and Father has a chance to bless her. The weight of the decisions of caregiving can be heavy, and God knows how fallible I am. As caregivers, we can only make the best decisions we know in the moment, ready to adjust as new information becomes available. Right? I had just pulled in from the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference and prepared dinner for […]
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February 10, 2022
February 10, 2022
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Joy in the Muck…

This week the 50+ year old septic field at the cabin gave up the ghost, and we discovered the hard way exactly what happens to septic tanks when a forest grows up around it. Tree roots, as it turns out, LOVE septic tanks. Not reciprocated, of course… but at least now we know how to get our plumbing speaking to us again. So I’m a happy camper. As we were going through all this, a friend texted to let me know that her job interview did not pan out. It has been a hard road for her, and my heart went out to her because […]
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December 24, 2021
December 24, 2021
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2021: The Year in Review

A year ago today, as you see from this photo, we were cozied up at the cabin in East Jordan, Michigan. The snow outside the window sparkled, and through the fir trees you could just make out Lake Charlevoix. I’ve always dreamed of living by a lake, and though I couldn’t exactly dive in from my back deck (who am I kidding, I’d never just dive into a lake because I’m afraid of fish), it was a lovely sight. The fire roared and crackled. The kids had their mouths full, so they weren’t bickering. The dogs were splayed on the rug, exhausted from an earlier […]
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October 5, 2021
October 5, 2021
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Strange but True #PrayerStories

Has God ever done something extraordinary to get your attention? Some heavenly sign that changed the way you looked at life? On a cold winter’s day in January 1983 I woke up in the ICU. About a week had passed since my car accident — leg in traction, tubes coming out all over my body. My car had slid down a hillside road on a patch of black ice, and skidded into oncoming traffic. The impact was so hard, my seat belt broke. I had severe internal injuries, crushed pelvis and femur, and required a complete blood transfusion. I spent a month in the hospital, […]
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September 9, 2021
September 9, 2021
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The Day I Argued with God: A healing #PrayerStory

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about why God heals certain people, and not others. My uncle Don passed away yesterday, and I also found out that a friend from my Bethany days — a lovely, prayerful lady who has been battling brain cancer for several years now — has had her cancer return. When I go for my uncle’s funeral next week, I hope I get a chance to hug her one more time. (Please pray for Joyce.) It was at Bethany that God began to teach me about the reality of healing, and God’s purpose for it. Jesus healed many people over […]
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August 7, 2021
August 7, 2021
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Transfigured Silence

This weekend I’m enjoying a little down time on retreat at the St Joseph and Mary Retreat House near Mundelein Seminary. As it happens, it’s right near the National Shrine of St Max Kolbe, so I know where I’ll be heading on my way home! Tonight’s readings included the Gospel about the Transfiguration, how the glory of the Lord burst on the senses of all present, so they could see with new eyes the divine reality present right in front of them. There in that darkened chapel, after the final benediction, the monstrance glowed with a captivating shine. Suddenly a song from my youth group […]
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November 18, 2020
November 18, 2020
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#PrayerStories Home Is Where You Are

Yesterday was Mom’s 80th birthday. She requested pepperoni lasagna and angel food cake with strawberries … a rather convoluted menu, to be sure, but she dug in with relish to the pasta and had two slices of the cake. Diabetes be damned. My favorite part of the evening, however, was when she sat down in her chair and my father’s dog, Gracie, came upstairs to find her there. Gracie came to stay with us on Saturday — I drove down to Tennessee to meet up with my sister, who did not want Dad to come home from the hospital with a house full of hyperactive […]
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November 6, 2020
November 6, 2020
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Mommy Monster Grows Up

Nearly two decades after venturing into the wonderful world of foster-adoption, I look back on the road my husband and I have taken, shake my head, and give thanks that we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I don’t have THAT much courage. It was a bit like our recent trip to Acadia National Park, when my husband made me heave myself over boulders the size of refrigerators in order to get to the reward at the top of the mountain: “You think THIS is hard? Just you wait!” Here … take a look at the first post. One morning when […]
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November 5, 2020
November 5, 2020
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#PrayerStory A Matter of Trust

Like many women my age, I am a “sandwich mom,” constantly struggling to juggle the demands of a vocation with more layers than an onion. One day my husband looked at me and said, “I feel bad about this, and I know it’s crazy, but some days I see you cutting up your mother’s dinner and wonder, ‘What about me?'” I understood exactly what he meant, and it broke my heart. My husband and children have not had my undivided attention, and have dealt with the associated stress of caregiving, for going on four years now. I am so grateful to Craig, in particular, for […]
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