Tag Archives: love

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“If you could do one thing to make the world a better place, what would it be?” Alec asked at the supper table the other night.

My first thought was to stop killing babies in the womb, but I couldn’t very well explain that to my seven-year-old. He has no idea that such a horrific thing is happening in the world, and his little mind would have a hard time grasping the idea that not everyone thinks that a “tiny baby” is important and precious and worthy of protecting. He’s had some other bubbles burst when it comes to the evil that exists in the world, but that’s not one I’m willing to burst yet, especially not when I’m carrying his own little very-much-anticipated little sibling inside me.

So I couldn’t say that, and as I was trying to think of something, I realized that he probably didn’t come up with that question all on his own.

“Were you asked that at school?” I asked him. And when he said he was, I asked him what his answer had been. ...continue reading →

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Nine years ago today, Eric picked me up for prayer meeting, but we didn't walk over to church. Instead, we got in his pickup and drove to the same spot where he'd asked me out, and he got down on one knee, and he finally asked the question I'd been waiting for him to ask for so long.

And the answer of course was yes.

Picture from our engagement photo shoot.

...continue reading →

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Once upon a time, October 25th didn’t mean much to me.

Who knew it would become a date looked forward to for months? Eric's birthday.

I had the funny idea to look back and see what I was doing on all the October 25ths before I met Eric. Apparently nothing picture-worthy, except for in 2008, when I was both chopping wood and wearing a wedding dress (not at the same time). The wedding dress seems like a funny coincidence. The dress was not mine, and neither was the wood actually, and I think I'll spare you the pictures, but suffice it to say, October 25th didn't mean much to me before 2014.

And once upon a time, come to think of it, Eric didn’t mean much to me either.

Who knew . . . 😊 ...continue reading →

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Valentine’s Day, and the days surrounding it.

Last year, it was candles and flower petals and chocolate-covered strawberries. It was takeout from Outback Steakhouse in the comfort of our own home. (Thanks, Covid.) It was hand-written cards and a quiet evening. Literally the calm before the storm. Because it was also an ice storm. A long power outage. An absent husband from all his running around helping other people.

This year, there were no candles, flower petals, or strawberries. There was no storm either.

Life isn’t ever perfect. Sometimes one part of it is, sometimes another part of it is, but it’s never all just entirely perfect. And that’s part of the beauty of it. ...continue reading →

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Two years and seven months ago, I came home from a summer stint in Madras to the news that a new family was moving from Ohio and that they were going to attend our church. It was so odd to me that I asked Andy a couple times if it was actually going to happen. In all my years at Hopewell that I could remember, nobody had ever moved from back east and started attending our church. It'd mean new people in the youth group, new faces at church, perhaps new friends.

I wasn't overly excited.

I should have been.

But how was I supposed to know that in that family of seven that traveled across the US in a U-haul and a van was a boy who would turn to a man before my eyes and that that man was the one whom I would marry?

I had no idea. . . ...continue reading →