Our group brought a TON of candy from the U.S. to give out to the kids at the Ministry, because lollipops overcome all language barriers. Of course this somehow also meant that our kids managed to end up with hands and pockets full of candy every time we turned around. Both my girls have the Read more

After our first week in Peru most of our group left to return to Florida. One other family stayed behind for a few more days and we spent the weekend enjoying as many touristy things with them as we could stuff into one weekend! On Saturday we hired a van and a local driver to Read more

For the two or three people I somehow forgot to excitedly tell all about this – we are spending a month in Lima, Peru working with a children’s ministry called Heart of Christ Ministries. Our trip to Lima started with a full day of driving 600 miles from Panama City, FL to Ft. Lauderdale, FL Read more

We shelter our children. Of course we shelter our children, that’s our job. We protect them from things that could hurt them, from things that could steal their innocence and from things they aren’t ready for, until they are. We were staying in the Florida Panhandle when hurricane Irma came barreling towards the state. We Read more

Through a complete lack of planning on our part our itinerary was going to put us in South Dakota during the Sturgis Bike Rally. Luckily we realized it before we got anywhere near Sturgis, so we figured our best bet was to just inch our way slowly across the state and get to the Black Hills Read more

My girls have never met a stranger. They love to talk to people, and they will talk to anyone, it’s fantastic. The other night we met this woman in the laundry room at a campground in rural Vermont. She was really sweet, and listened to the girls go on and on. Then she told us Read more

Our first stop on our way up the East Coast was the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It’s been on my list for a long time ever since I heard about the wild Spanish horses that live on Corolla Island. The Outer Banks wasn’t what I expected. I can’t exactly even say how I feel about the area Read more

This is the very first quiet book I made. I designed and stitched this for Ada when she was 3, over 4 years ago. Even though it’s no longer in perfect condition, I just love how well it’s held up after 4 years of toddler play. This is one reason why I recommend using only Read more

I originally wrote this story almost 22 year ago for one of my first college English classes. I like to think I’m at least a little better writer now, and I even considered re-writing this to make it better but decided to share it mostly as it was written then.  It sounds closer to the Read more