When I was little, I wanted blue eyes and straight blonde hair. There was a girl I knew who all the boys "loved". She was the one the boys I liked always talked to and I often felt unnoticed. Some days she'd call me on the phone just to rub it in that my crush spoke ...

Olivia (my nickname for this property) was the first rental property I ever purchased. When I bought it, I was fortunate enough to only need to put flooring in the kitchen and repaint the home to get it ready for a future tenant. Nearly 6 years went by when my incredible tenant told me he ...

Hey reader! I know, it's been a while - almost a year actually since my last post. So much has happened and I don't even know where to begin. For so long, this blog has been an outpouring of my heart. It's been where I shared moments of growth, heartbreak, uncertainty, and God's immense faithfulness ...

Intentionality. How does that word make you feel? Does it make you cringe or does it make you feel ready to do something great? For me, it's the latter. Intentionality is at the very heart of a lot of what I do. From day to day activities, to the words I speak, to the relationships ...

Hey reader! It's been a while since we've connected. After baby A went to her adoptive home, we needed some time to regroup. Then the holidays happened and well, I'm finally slowing down from the craziness of the last few months. I put some inspirational quotes and photos together for you, as we head into this ...

These are the nights when loving deeply hurts the most. Our foster baby who has been with us for nearly 15 months, left today to go live with her adoptive family. We are overjoyed for her future journey, but our hearts hurt deeply at the pain of saying goodbye. This is the side of fostering ...

Earlier this week I ran into someone I haven't seen in years. He and his wife knew me from when I was a teenager. While we weren't particularly close back then, we would always exchange casual hellos and general updates when we'd see each other. But earlier this week, that wasn't the case. He had stopped ...

Stress. It's a word we are all too comfortable living. How often do you feel stressed? If you're like most of the female population, probably 99% of the time. Our minds are continually buzzing with what tasks we should do next, what errands we need to run, who we need to buy a gift for, what time ...

This was the post I didn't want to write. It's too real, too vulnerable. The things I'm about to share are the things I want to secretly stash away in my own mind. These are the thoughts I want to lie to the world about, pretending they don't affect me, too. And I could do that. ...

Goals. Many people have them, but few people attain them. Why? There are a number of reasons people with great goals don't achieve them. Tons of articles talk about how to achieve your goals, but not nearly the same number address the why behind unachieved goals. If we can figure out the pitfalls, we'll all be better equipped ...