An Orphan's Battleground

This is a blog post I started in 2025. I have returned to it many times. I feel like I’m trying to clean up after an F-5 tornado.  Recently, I felt encouraged to share this after reading some advice from a Compel Pro writing group I am in.  Bloggers were encouraged to take a blog post that we would normally over edit and just surrender it to the Lord and see what He would do with it.  This is my…

For months now, every night I have laid my head on my pillow with one nagging confession.   “God, I feel like I’m late.” Life has felt overwhelming, and I’ve felt behind in every area of my life.  Yesterday, I read something on the Compel Pro Writer’s Training platform where I take writing classes. It reminded me of one simple truth.  When my writing life feels overwhelming, I can take it a few…

Fourteen years ago the Lord sent me back to the Illinois Masonic Children’s Home on my 39th birthday! He gave me a vision for my life. He asked me to give my testimony and to pray for my family and the people I lived with at the Home. I stand as a witness to you. You’re perhaps feeling broken. Maybe your dreams haven’t come true. Perhaps you’ve been stolen from, lied to, or cheated on. Maybe you…

When I got married at Christ Church of Oak Brook a woman who came to the wedding handed me a card with Proverbs 3:5-6 on it.  It is always good to trust the Lord, but for me, I am needing to lean in real close right now. From a very early age I felt the sting of a family betrayal.  On my thirty ninth birthday I went back to the Illinois Masonic Children’s Home to visit.  When we got home my…

Many years ago I was in Honolulu for a marathon. While I was there, I heard Wayne Cordeiro preach, and he told us that Jesus is our garbage man.  He talked about how God still works miracles and suggested that we could be in the middle of one because sometimes miracles take time. I was feeling discouraged about my marriage.  I thought about how a baby is a miracle of God that takes nine months,…

Happy 5th Explantversary to Me! It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since I got those toxic breast implants taken out. Honestly speaking, this is the hardest season I have ever walked through.  Some parts of my life I hold private. Currently,  I almost have no words. I’ve been sitting in some deep grief and doing my best to process the pain with God. I try to set aside one day a week as a…

At 5am I heard the short quick beeps of my watch alarm, signaling that it was time to get up and start my day. Half awake, I slowly rolled over, not wanting to get out of bed and face the day. A hope hovered over me for a moment that maybe the previous four days had just been a nightmare.  But my throbbing elbow told me otherwise. I squinted and strained my tired eyes, focusing to see how bad it…

I have been thinking about how easy it is to give thanks when things are going great in your life. But it’s not so easy to thank God when life isn’t going well.  The first Bible verse I ever memorized was, Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  1 Thessalonians 5:18 In 2017 my kids and I stood in the “Path of Totality” for the Carbondale Eclipse. It was…

When I was a young girl, I don’t remember celebrating Mother’s Day.  I suspect we went out for a meal with my Mom and Grandparents as we often did on Sundays.  After my Mom died a profound sadness settle in my heart.  The grief was a heaviness  I carried in my chest. It made life difficult, especially around holidays like Mother’s Day. Each year as the holiday approached I noticed all of the…

The words below were originally written May 19, 2019.   It’s been a week since Mother’s Day. Seven days to marinate in my thoughts on Mother’s Day and try to reconcile the ache in my heart.  I loved my mother.  I have fond memories of snuggling with her, receiving lots of hugs and kisses, and affirmations galore.  For a woman fighting cancer, the disease never stopped her from loving the people…

I saw this picture on the wall at one of my accountants office. It’s tax time again and that familiar anxious feeling has been rising to the surface. I know that fear does not come from God. God is love and perfect love casts out fear. God says that he did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. It seems that Satan is extra busy trying to wreak havoc in my life.…

My daughter just had a birthday and what she wanted more than anything was a cat.  Her and her boyfriend went to The Cat House: Cat Lounge & Botique for his birthday.  Apparently he wants a cat so she gave him a cat basket for his birthday filled with everything he would need for his new cat.  When she came home she mentioned that I might enjoy visiting there as a homeschool outing.  Thus the…

Anyone who is among the living has hope -even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! Ecclesiastes 9:4 Several years ago I wrote a blog post called “Let Go of Christmas.”  It was this blog post right here.  The thing about being a story keeper is that sometimes you have to hold information for a very long time and quite frankly it can be very painful.  At the time of the first draft I knew it…

Setting a time stamp! 

God’s word says in Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: During the pandemic we pulled our dining room table into our living room and started having weekly family meals.  It was during one of those meals that I asked my father-in-law what kind of clock was wound with a key, chimed every fifteen minutes and was small and shaped like a…

This is the dining room where I lived with family when I was very young.  My Grandma and Grandpa Sessions lived here at 29 Dover in LaGrange Illinois. The photo above is what used to be my grandparents dining room.  It’s been updated but nevertheless this is the dining room where I ate many meals as a young girl.  In July of 2023 I was struggling to write a Christmas story I’ve had on my heart…

I came upon the purpleologist store when I was in Myrtle Beach and it spoke to my heart! After our youngest son was born I distinctly remember looking in my closet and realizing I did not have a single outfit that worked for me. In my younger days I had the kind of body that I now realize most women covet. I’ve always been inclined towards sports and any efforts spent on athletics have only…