I like to say that the job that best prepared me for caretaking my small children was bartending in a busy club: Someone was always waving for my attention, I...
Parenting
As a new parent, I received all kinds of advice. While I have no doubt that the admonitions, ranging from “enjoy every minute” to “take time for yourself,”...
This was not our first rodeo. After several tense moments of anticipation, the test finally flashed “PREGNANT,” and it became official: our third pregnancy in...
The story of Jesus’ resurrection is the gospel account most central to the faith of Christians, yet, in a paradox, it’s arguably the most difficult gospel...
On the Friday after Good Friday, when we should have been celebrating the Easter season, I received an email from one of my graduate students asking for my...
For the first seven months of pregnancy, I made the same comment during every doctor’s visit: “I just want a boring pregnancy.” The youngest of four children...
An old friend of mine likes to joke that if you go to Mass and the opening song is “Be Not Afraid,” you probably have every right to be fearful. Either the...
When our foster daughter was 2, we had to give her up for Lent. She had lived with us just over a year at the time, and over the course of that year her...
In a recent meeting with all the players in our foster daughter’s case—social workers, attorneys, birth parents, adoption experts, and my husband and me—I was...
Gary Chapman’s bestselling book The 5 Love Languages (Northfield Publishing) is a frequent reference point in our family. Chapman’s premise is that when we...
