Read part one here or part two here… In January, we attended the CROSS conference and were awakened to concepts and ideas that changed our framework of thinking even more. The theme of the conference was, “Consider your whole life.” They pressed the issue over and over that we only have one life and that […]

It Takes a Village – Part 3

I hadn’t talked about adoption in T H R E E years… Xav’s sudden proclamation took me by surprise. I was shocked! The Holy Spirit had been changing his heart and I had nothing to do with it. As soon as we got home, we began talking about adoption quite a bit and started researching […]

It Takes a Village – Part 2

May is national foster care awareness month… and honestly, this is the first year I have ever noticed the foster care village. Of course, I’ve known a few families who have fostered over the years, but my overall awareness of everything related to foster care has been very minimal up until a few months ago. […]

It Takes a Village – Part 1

Dear Luke, Olivia, and Ella (Lukey, Liviegirl, and Sissy), I don’t know why God chose to have me become your nanny, but I know that the 253 days I spent with you changed my life. When I first stepped into the role of being your nanny, I had no idea what I was doing. I […]

A Letter to the Hamlin Kids

There is a lot of change happening in Brumwell Town these days! I haven’t shared any of it yet because it has all been so up in the air, but this week three major life updates started to fall into place! It is so weird to me that they all happened in the same week… […]

Time for an Update

Backstory: A couples months ago I posted about working out and how I’ve started to really actually enjoy it over the past year. Then July 24th rolled around and Xav decided that it was time to fulfill his long time dream of running an obstacle race (with me). The only problem was that the Michigan […]

The Spartan Beast

Xav and I “officially” discovered Parks and Rec (the TV show) several Thanksgiving Days ago on our way to a family lunch… but it wasn’t until our honeymoon that we became true fans. On one of the days, we were planning to hit the road early and go to the dunes before it got too […]

Our Andy and April Trip

Words can never describe her influence on me or the immense privilege it is to be her daughter. She is beautiful and kind, she feels deeply, thinks intelligently, loves fully, and serves endlessly. It seems prescribed to write these things on a day like today… and I wish that weren’t the case because my mom […]

Mother’s Day

I broke out my notebook this morning and opened up to my 2018 goals and mantras page. How have I already forgotten so many of them? Why have I been so ungrateful when one of my few goals was to take time to be thankful? Why do I keep trying to do things in my […]

Two Goals for Today

So much of my life looks like me trying to do something that I think will be good or helpful  and proceeding to make things more difficult. (Like last week when I hit the garage door opener right after Mark had hit it. I thought I had opened it… when really I had closed it. […]

Nanny Diary