Red Stick Mom

Childbirth and change. The two words go hand in hand, do they not? The moment you get pregnant, people start reminding you that "everything's about to change". Some are kind enough to add "for the better" on the end of the popular phrase. And you know it's true, it has to be - you're literally about to add an entire new person into your life and home and routine. There are the obvious things {your nights, your time}, but when we brought our little bundle of joy home, the age old adage that so many had repeated to me while I was growing her was abundantly true. Everything had changed. My usually very clean and neat house can become a...

For the purposes of keeping the post on a specific track, I will be focusing on sexual awareness in children as young as 2 years old and under the age of 7. If your children are older, that doesn't mean this post doesn't apply to you and that you can't still apply certain techniques. Raising Safe Kids: Sexual Awareness   75% of the moms reading this just totally freaked out with that title. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to alarm you or insult you or make you blush, but I believe with this topic you just have to be straightforward. Are you aware that our city is one of the major human trafficking hubs in the country? Did you realize that 44%...

For my husband and me, adoption and foster care has always been a consideration. The reasons are too many to list here, but I will say this: In my own life, I have experienced sickness that left my body tired, my mind weary, and my spirit broken. I have also known a depth of healing that replaced my restlessness with contentment, reconciled fractured images of myself with the truth that my value is not dictated by my circumstances, and breathed wild hope into otherwise deflated, stale dreams. Also, over the course of our marriage, Isaac and I have watched some of our dearest friends navigate foster care and adoption. We observed victories in the lives of their families that,...

I met my husband what seems like ages ago, way back in 2005.  I was seventeen, fresh out of high school and working at his grandfather's construction company.  He, five years older, was also working for his grandfather, not so fresh out of high school, and had a few more life experiences than I.  I was just seventeen with my whole life ahead of me and he...he was the boyfriend with a child from a previous relationship that was just going to hold me back.  What started out as a friendship at work and grew to something much stronger.  Naturally, our relationship was judged....looked down upon... taboo to most.  We both had our fair share of unsolicited advice from others. We were...

My almost 10 month old has crazy hair. Crazy adorable hair. Crazy long, gets-stuck-in-the-bib-velcro hair. It curls just a bit in the back, and sometimes sticks out on either side of his head. And most strangers think he is a girl. They swing by with their grocery carts, stop, and say, “What a happy baby! How old is she?” Sometimes I don’t even bother correcting them. When I do correct them, they apologize profusely and say, “He is a pretty boy! He’s going to break some hearts one day!” Honestly, it doesn't bother me that people think he’s a girl. You can’t really tell at this age. Babies look like babies. But, it has started to annoy my husband. (I...