“Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.” (Albert Schweitzer) Ironic confession for summer’s sweet center: I am starved for Sabbath. Between finishing our book on miscarriage, a delightfully busy season at work, and all the kids home from school (all day, every day. EVERY… Read More
The book is done. Edits complete, permissions secured, page proofs underway. We spent months writing on miscarriage, my spouse and I. Grief and loss, marriage and parenting, sacraments and prayer. All the themes of our life together, wrestled and woven into words on a page. Writing a book together was a work I never expected… Read More
Before we lost our twin daughters after birth two years ago – suddenly, tragically, publicly – there was another loss. Smaller. Earlier. Quieter. Five years ago we lost a baby to miscarriage. I wrote about this loss here and in my book Everyday Sacrament. Miscarriage was devastating. It upheaved what we knew about parenting. How… Read More
Here is today’s first reading. The promise of the new Jerusalem, part of the prophecy of Isaiah. Here is today’s Gospel. The healing of the royal official’s son, the second sign in the Gospel of John. And here is my whole heart, caught between the two. The same Scripture passage from Isaiah was read at our daughters’… Read More
Two years ago, I had two hearts beating beneath my own. Twins. I was overwhelmed most of the pregnancy, to be honest. Worry multiplies with multiples. How would we care for two babies at once? What would life look like with five kids? Deeper, darker questions slid underneath, slimy and squirming. How could I love… Read More
Two years ago in February, our twin daughters Maggie and Abby were born. As identical twins, they had developed a complication called twin-to-twin-transfusion syndrome. They needed to undergo in-utero surgery to try and save them. The surgery was unsuccessful. The girls had to be born via c-section at only 24 weeks old. Maggie lived one day.… Read More
This post contains affiliate links. Three years ago, I said yes. (A small yes. More like a “sure, why not?”) I never expected it would change my life. When a friend asked if I’d be willing to check out another blogger’s new idea – to create an online ministry devoted to Scripture for Catholic women –… Read More
He laughs now, this rolling plump of a babe. Chortles like a chuckling gentleman when I tickle under his chin. The laughter is intoxicating; we are all addicted. His doting brothers swarm the changing table for a chance to coax out another. In the instant when his round eyes brighten and his soft mouth opens… Read More
Right now is a season of harvest. That’s what I keep telling myself. It seems strange, to start a blog post like this: here’s another book I wrote. As if I am pulling these out of the oven and sliding them onto the cooling rack with only a flick of the wrist. Far from it.… Read More
It’s steadily fall now. Even I can admit it, a summer-loving girl who hates to kick the flipflops to the dusty back of the closet. The light is lower each afternoon, the mornings darker. The seasons have turned again. I’m trying to soak up what’s good about this one. The splash of colors on trees,… Read More