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A Tender Heart

For the past several months, I’ve gathered, cracked, and shelled walnuts. Our trees are now big enough to bear a crop, but the trees aren’t large enough to harvest by machine so we hand gathered this year. Walking the orchard with buckets and bags picking up the nuts. Gleaning… as the poor gleaned in Biblical times. I love candied walnuts and made a ton for Christmas, which worked out well since buying presents this year felt like parting the Red Sea. It took an act of God to tuck gifts for our eight kids (in case this number throws you, […]

By Paula January 11, 2014

A BRAVE NEW YEAR

Again this year, we walked down to the ravine to write on our rocks. Out with the old and in with the new. Casting our cares away and ushering in fresh faith. Asking God to meet us where we are weak. Where we are hurting. Where we are tired. Praying for God to do what only God can do: help the helpless. This past year I learned how helpless I really am. How helpless people actually are in the face of so many things. Nobody wants to talk about helplessness, but it’s the human condition. Last year I faced the […]

By Paula January 3, 2014

Merry Christmas From Our Family To Yours…

How fast a year flies by, and happy to see a new year on the horizon. 2013 brought health issues, insurance issues, and driving issues, but God is faithful. We survived! In January, I had surgery to remove a melanoma from my leg, spent a few months recovering, then returned to the hospital in March with an exhaustion breakdown. Guess five boys can do that to a mother. Our insurance broke down too, which wasn’t nearly as funny as my breakdown, and we spent the rest of the year fighting to get our insurance to help us settle a mountain […]

By Paula December 1, 2013

Missing My Uncle and Making Peace With God

It’s always around Thanksgiving when I miss him. My uncle was something. He had his partner, Ray, and their pet monkey “Monkey” and birds in his bathroom. Real birds. The kind that flew around and pooped on things. Beyond the tub was a sliding glass door and beyond that, the bird sanctuary where feathers flew all over the place when you entered the bathroom. The birds actually couldn’t fly past the sliding glass door, but they watched you through the glass. As I got older, I wondered how my uncle cleaned up after his bathroom birds. Monkey lived in my uncle’s […]

By Paula November 21, 2013

Parts of the Body

His name is Robbie Khela. He kicked the game-winning goal for Faith Christian’s High School’s varsity soccer play-off game yesterday afternoon. But Khela’s day didn’t start out in glory. In fact, he’d left his soccer uniform at home, and the coach’s wife had to drive Khela home to get it before the big game. Khela is a sophomore on a varsity team who didn’t see himself as an important part of the roster. He didn’t expect to step onto the field in this playoff game. He expected to ride the bench. And he did. Until the shoot-out after an amazing […]

By Paula November 14, 2013

My Take On ‘Marriage Isn’t For You’

A blog titled, “Marriage Isn’t For You” is burning across the web. The guy who wrote it laments his selfishness and says advice from his father changed his view of marriage. “I’m going to make this really simple: marriage isn’t for you,” says the father. “You don’t marry to make yourself happy, you marry to make someone else happy. More than that, your marriage isn’t for yourself, you’re marrying for a family. Not just for the in-laws and all that nonsense, but for your future children.” The article goes on to say, “a true marriage (and true love) is never […]

By Paula November 7, 2013

Christmas Music On Halloween

Eleven years ago on Halloween, I was pregnant and scared. Our son wasn’t due till Christmas, but I’d been besieged by premature labor since my 19th week of pregnancy. On bed rest with months to go, I prayed, “Please, God, grant Luke’s wish for a baby brother for Christmas.” It all started on a walk to the park. Luke was four years old, and desperate for a brother. I’d recently become a believer, but Scott wasn’t a Christian yet. Luke had been pestering both of us for a brother, but Scott insisted we were done having kids. “Our family is perfect, Luke. Don’t you […]

By Paula October 31, 2013