PROVERBS 16:1-3  To humans belong the plans of the heart,     but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. 2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them,     but motives are weighed by the Lord. 3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do,     and he will establish your plans. The first time I ever sent a text message, I was twenty, studying abroad, and standing on a cobbled street in St. Andrews, Scotland. It was drizzling, per usual and I was …

Even if you haven’t heard of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs,” you can feel it in your bones. In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with this handy pyramid to explain when, why, and how we are motivated. Here’s how it goes: Way down at the bottom, at our most basic level, we have to have our physiological needs met. If you were a baby, innocent and helpless, these are the things you’d need first. Things …

“A Wrinkle in Time” could not come at a better time. Though this story is timeless, I see now more than ever the world beginning to note and celebrate differences in ways we have not before. Mrs. Whatsit is an old lady when we first see her. And then she is a centaur. And once she was a star. This is the magic. Sometimes the world will feel “dark and stormy” much like the beginning …

ROMANS 5:6-8 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We are well on our way towards Easter. The resurrection is drawing near and with it all the celebration of our …

We all say we just want to keep our kids “happy, healthy, and safe” but if we’re honest, that’s not possible all at once and all of the time. I wrote for The Washington Post​ today on the endless trade-offs we makes as parents–the one “plus” we split into three semi-decent “status quos” in order to keep the balance. It is an endless game of give and take.

So, the “twin thing” really is a thing. It starts in the womb. When I first found out I was having twins, I felt them ganging up almost immediately. They kicked and slept and hiccupped in tandem. When they made their debut, I am fairly sure they negotiated a crying cycle that shouldered out even a minute of silence. I gave thanks that they were not identical, that I had a boy and a girl …

March is cerebral palsy awareness month. Would I have known this if my child did not have cerebral palsy? Probably not. Would I be wearing a green ribbon and thinking not of leprechauns and Mardi Gras and Easter, but instead of this diagnosis? Probably not. But because my son does have cerebral palsy and because it is the thing I must write on every medical and financial and government form, I do know what March …

JOHN 14:9-11 Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; …

None of this was in the baby books or my English books or the novels and poetry that had formed the substance of my thirty years of existence. But the great thing about being a parent, especially to a child with special needs, is that it makes you a lifelong learner. It redirects your attention in all manners and at any given time. It makes a right-brain like me a little more of a lefty. …

“I don’t want you. I don’t want you. I don’t want you.” It’s the phrase we fear in the deepest darkest pit of our psyches where junior high dates and first periods go to die. It’s the phrase that spills angst all over our best laid plans for autonomy. Now put that on repeat and blast it on your biggest 80s boom box and you’ve got a sense of my current mental state. No woman …