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We’re In This Together
Last night I played a softball game with nine other people. We were down 13 points by the last inning, playing the #1 team. It seemed pretty bleak. We were up to bat last. In order to win this game, we would need to rotate through the batting box at least fourteen times before we had three strikeouts. As each of us got up to bat, rather than focusing on a home run hit, we each just aimed to get on the base. The score started to change. First, they were 13 points ahead. Then 9. Then, we had just…
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Wings of Faith
I wanted to make my son’s Christmas wish come true and see in his face the joy I desperately wanted for myself. My three-year-old squeaks with excitement. His response is an innocent reply to my offhanded question, “What do you want for Christmas?” I mutter a hesitant “We’ll see” before putting him to bed, relishing the rare moments I get to spend with him. I’ve been too out of sorts to be present most of the time. The unceasing screams of his sister, suffering from colic, keep pulling me into the black hole of postpartum depression. I feel like a…
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A Miracle Through My Struggles
On January 7, 2023, I woke up to complete blindness in my right eye and only about 10 percent vision in my left eye. The world had suddenly faded to gray—literally. Color and light were gone. I was left in darkness, fear, and doubt. As an artist, all I ever wanted to do was add to the beauty of the world through art—a passion I have had nearly my entire life. What would I do if I could no longer see, participate in, or appreciate beauty in the world? A few days earlier, my eyes became sensitive to light, and sharp…
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That Darn Cold
Two weeks ago, my husband got sick with a nasty cold. It was not just sniffles. It was full blown fever, chills, heaviness in his chest. He thought he could die. It was that bad. Hey. It happens. We all get sick sometimes. The problem was timing. We had a daughter getting married and it was important that he could show up and support her. As this cold dragged on, the realization that being there was becoming bleak. With the wedding in two days, we were still waiting for the fever to break, a sign that he was getting better.…
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Miracles Through Death
One of the hardest things to go through in this life is losing someone. Especially a child. Our oldest got invited to a sleepover birthday celebration for one of his friends. That night, as most boys do, they stayed up playing games and eating junk food. Early in the morning they decided to go swimming in a reservoir close to his friend’s home. Having been up all night, they made it out about 100 feet and then realized they were exhausted and decided to swim back. All of the boys made it back except one. My son. As they looked…
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God’s Orchestration
For several years, I have longed to reconnect with my grandparents’ family. I felt that I could feel their longing for their family to care for each other. Beaver, Utah was their family home site. Even though my grandparents’ home was demolished, the town still holds lots of sweet summer memories that make it a special place on the map. Recently however, it had become more meaningful to me. I had reconnected with a first cousin there whom I had never known well. When her parents died many years earlier, she had fallen out of the family focus. It had…
