Red Stick Mom

I am not a fancy photographer. I used a basic point-and-shoot camera for a long time, and even now that I have a DSLR I shoot in auto mode 99.99% of the time. If I'm away from home, I use my iPhone--no way am I gonna be lugging around a bulky camera and worrying about it getting broken the whole time. I snap a few photos and move on with my life. But I do like to think that thanks to my blog my photography skills have improved measurably, and I'm pretty confident these days that I can take a decent picture of my kid or my house. I thought it'd be fun to share some really accessible and...

A few days ago, I was nursing my son, Judah, while browsing online—then all of a sudden, he slowly put his hand to my cheek and moved my face towards him.  I was smack dab staring into my sweet boy’s eyes, and quickly realized that I was missing out on a moment that is fleeting—a moment that I fought so hard for 17 months ago. In my head I know I should cherish every ounce of time with Judah and Joel because I’m not guaranteed any of it.  So why do I dive deep into my phone at the first moment of silence and allow a device notorious for wasting time to hijack a nursing session with my son or...

As a single mom to eleven and thirteen year old daughters, one thing I have found to be true is there are always two sides to every story. With that in mind, I enlisted the help of my thirteen year old daughter, Angel, to help me tell our adoption story. Jess: After watching a single mom in our church take in three little boys and walk through healing and restoration with the family, in January of 2008, my then husband and I started praying about being foster parents. We had been married for four years, just built a house, had no kids of our own and knew the Lord was stirring something in us to do more than create a life...

My husband and I suffered with infertility for over 4 years. It was a time consumed with numerous doctor visits, injections, blood work, and procedures. It was a time full of worry and anxiety. It was a time of hope and then disappointment. It was a time in which every possible emotion came to be. It was a time in which we felt so alone. It was a time in which our faith was challenged, and a time in which we stopped living. Our entire existence became defined by this one thing. Then the time came to let go of our dream of becoming pregnant. We had to accept that this season of infertility would not end. We stopped the...