Cathartic journaling of an adoptive mom.

Latest Posts

  • Faith

    Faith

    I recently saw a movie. The first half of the script was played from one of the character’s perspective, and then the same story was told from the other side. Gary’s message today was confirming, encouraging and pushed me over the edge of imagination… So how about the other side of the story? “For you…

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  • Heavy or light

    Heavy or light

    I’m friends with excitement and anticipation. I welcome it as I perceive mostly the positive by default. Recently we started taking ourselves too serious and it got heavy. I just remembered a clever saying: “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” Yes. This is a stressful time of anticipating crazy changes (home ownership across…

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  • Impatience as Self-Preservation

    Impatience as Self-Preservation

    People who know me know that I tend to make decisions relatively quickly. Whether it involves what apartment to rent or whether to propose marriage to the woman I had just met, I’ve been resolute. Some might say rash, but it’s worked out so far. I’ve been thinking about why that is recently, and I…

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  • Time stands still

    Time stands still

    It doesn’t get any better than this. Or in laymen terms: I am happy – Right here – Right now. I am grateful for friends, for the beautiful weather, wine and barbecued veggies, the Ocean and the sound of the waves, the smell of eucalyptus and I am most grateful of little boys’ kisses. The…

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  • Packing 30

    Packing 30

    “Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!” ~ Goethe I love packing. It’s the anticipation of the trip, the planning, the visualizing of what’s to come. We bought new cutting sheets, we packed the crockpot, the kingsize fuzzy burgundy blanket. We bought a…

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  • Thoughts of Packing

    Thoughts of Packing

    As it’s only two-and-a-half weeks until we leave, we’ve begun packing. This is a different type of packing than we’ve done before though. Of course there is the various collection of laptops that we’ve been asked to carry back for friends and family, but that’s normal. We’re not moving permanently (yet!) but we are intending…

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  • Expectations

    Expectations

    We’ve been been talking about living in Cluj almost since we met in January of ’07, and since then, I’ve been dreaming about what might be the best-case scenario for our life there. Of course, over the past seven years, those dream situations have changed and evolved. First, when I decided to change careers from…

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  • Give & Take

    Give & Take

    I love the brave and wise comment and wish a friend made: may we go to Cluj not for what it has to give to us but for what we have to offer, as people and places may disappoint. I completely agree. Selflessness saves us from disappointment, much like parenting, and much like marriage. We…

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  • Encouragement

    Encouragement

    Being private is comfortable and safe, but you might agree that it is also sterile. On the other hand, vulnerability is freeing and inspiring though it leaves a bitter, lonely aftertaste. We are not in need of approval, and occasionally we enjoy stirring up the air and the waters. It doesn’t take much. Conrad expressed…

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  • Cluj & Heritage

    Cluj & Heritage

    We are not the first American/Romanian couple to meet and fall in love, nor are we the first within our church. The third in fact, and not the last. We jokingly call it a tradition and playfully hint to the high school boys that they should go to Cluj after graduation to find a wife,…

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  • That Elephant

    That Elephant

    Vio talks about the sharing she did last Sunday, but doesn’t really convey the gravity of the situation. The church we go to has what they call “Body Life”, where people in the congregation volunteer to stand up and share with the rest of the people what is going on in their lives and what…

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  • Adventure & Dreams

    Adventure & Dreams

    “It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line.” Erma Bombeck How do you put your dreams on the line? — Sharing them out-loud. And sharing I did last Sunday in front of hundreds of people. Thank you all for listening. I spent the whole next week drained and still.…

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