I’ve always been a sucker for a beautiful sunset. I’ve been known to pull off to the side of the road just to take a picture of one. I think my first purchased piece of art was of a sunset, my phone is filled with sunset pictures and, of course, my favorite color is orange! I find sunsets to be … well, magical. I think the reason I am so taken by sunsets is that it is clear evidence of something only God can do. Man can and has made [...]
Happy Valentine’s Day! You can’t have a Marriage Blog and not have an entry regarding Valentine’s Day - the day set aside to celebrate romantic love! Advertisers and retailers would like you to believe that Valentine’s Day has to do with gifts of chocolate, jewelry, flowers and lingerie. Networks are busy flooding the airways with saccharine sweet love stories. And while all of this is a great way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, we all know that it takes more than gifts and romance to make love last. But what does [...]
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is hearing and singing Christmas carols. There is something comforting about the familiarity of the carols and how we are still singing the same songs that we sang as children. My absolute favorite Christmas carol is “O Holy Night.” I’m not sure why, but I love to sing it—especially on Christmas Eve. One line in the song says, “a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.” As I listen to the news this evening with its political polarization, mass shootings and unrest in the [...]
We know it has been quite a while since our last blog. One of the reasons our lives became quite hectic over the last several weeks is that we moved! We moved from our family home of 20+ years where we raised our 3 children (and a dog) into a much smaller (and hopefully easier to take care of) home. So, all the sport’s equipment, children’s artwork, important files/papers, furniture, clothes, even paper clips had to be either, given (or sold) away, thrown away or packed in a box! We [...]
Recently, Brian sent me this cartoon. We both found it funny --- probably because it hit a little too close to home. Why is it so hard for both of us to say “I was wrong?” More importantly, why is it so necessary to say it when you have done or said something that is wrong? In a previous blog, we talked about the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness not only brings healing to the one receiving the forgiveness, but also to the one offering it. “To forgive is to set [...]
I remember the day my husband and I sat in the doctor’s office in Washington DC’s Children’s Hospital and received the news that the concerns we had over Mary’s lack of development were indeed due to brain damage. Trying to absorb the full implication of the doctor’s words was overwhelming. So, we took in what we could process and started on a lifelong journey to absorb the rest (Brian and I absorbing things at different rates). When we heard the news, I thought of the shattered dreams I had for [...]
Earlier this month we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary! We have to admit that there were days early in our marriage that neither one of us thought we would make it this far. But by God’s grace, and hard-work and commitment to make it work on our part, we were able to celebrate this milestone … happily! Anniversaries often allow you to stop and reflect on where you’ve been and where you are headed. Also, in the month of June, we celebrated another anniversary. It has been one year since [...]
Recently, we went out to dinner with a group of people we were just getting to know. The group was an eclectic mix, for sure; a businessman, educator, person in the medical field, someone from retail, a counselor (Laurie) and a software entrepreneur (Brian). It was interesting to us that we were able to land on a topic that seemed to be crucial in each one of these diverse areas. The conversation centered on how “listening” was vital in any relationship (business or personal) and how we, as a society, [...]
“Lord, I can’t do this!”. I don’t know how many times I have stood in my kitchen (or bedroom, or wherever) and have uttered these words. Perhaps it was when Mary had a meltdown in public or I had to clean up a mess she had made or when someone said something hurtful or dismissive to her. I’m sure that sometimes, it was just an emotional reaction to something I didn’t want to do. But there were times when it was a literal statement, “This is beyond me, Lord. I [...]
We haven’t written our blog in the last few weeks as we were in China. We toured the country and visited our daughter, Emily, who lives and works in China. No matter how often we have said the words “our daughter lives and works in China” (and she has been there 3 years!), it is still hard to believe. She lives in a working-class city in inland China … and from what we can tell, where almost no one speaks English! We are very proud of her and the work [...]
