How to Stop Your Child’s Angry Cycle The flash of anger in my tween daughter’s eyes surprised me. We’d been camping, and Maddie’s 6-year-old sister, Aly, had just burned her finger on hot ash. As I treated the wound, Maddie strode up. “I hurt myself, too,” she said, with attitude. “Last night when we were… [Continue Reading]
adoption
How To Wait Patiently
How To Wait Patiently Are you currently waiting on the Lord? Maybe you’re waiting for a job, a spouse or a wayward child to return home. Maybe you’re waiting for wisdom for the next steps or how to handle a hard situation. Waiting is hard because there is so little we have to wait on… [Continue Reading]
Chore Charts Can Curb Complaining
Chore Charts Can Curb Complaining When we adopted our two sweet children, we sort of went into “survival” mode. Both children had emotional issues, and they need weekly behavioral therapy. Bella was enrolled in a therapy school, and Casey had physical, occupational, and speech therapy. I was spending hours and hours each day on the… [Continue Reading]
How Prayer Changes the Future for Adoption
How Prayer Changes the Future for Adoption I’d like to think I’m an expert pray-er. I can clearly see how my prayers changed things. For example, I have three little kids—not birthed from me—running around my house who are examples of that. Yet the way that my prayers changed the future is different than you… [Continue Reading]
A Forever Home ~Hope for Orphans
A Forever Home ~Hope for Orphans I know my writing work is important because I get emails, tweets, and Facebook notes from online readers. But God reminds me often that my ministry isn’t just online … it’s offline, too. There are seasons when the most important heart I can touch is within arm’s reach. My… [Continue Reading]
Calming Angry Kids With A Million Praying Moms
Calming Angry Kids With A Million Praying Moms Today’s episode of the Million Praying Moms podcast is for every mom who has been in the whirlwind of dealing with an angry child. You’ve asked yourself so many questions, but in the end, you just need relief…something to help turn the tide toward a more peaceful home. Friend,… [Continue Reading]
God’s Heart for Adoption
God’s Heart for Adoption I first thought about adoption around 1999 when I was reading an article about orphanages in China filled with baby girls. At the time, John and I had three young kids ages 10, 7, and 5. Around that time I had also just gotten my first book contract. I talked to… [Continue Reading]
Sometimes Love Grows {Adoption Hope}
Sometimes Love Grows In my 25 years as a mom there have been many homecomings as I brought my children home for the first times. When Cory was born, I was a 17-year-old single mom, and we returned to my parents’ house. With Leslie and Nathan, John and I lived in low-income housing while he… [Continue Reading]
Ignite Your Child’s Mind with Hands-On History Kits
Sonlight’s Hands-On History Kits are here and we are so excited! We brought our kids home to homeschool after adoption. Because the older girls had been in public school all their lives they had an idea of what school looked like—lots of lessons and worksheets and counting down the hours until they can play. When… [Continue Reading]
Giving Your Children a Heart for the World {Guestpost}
Our Life I felt like the worst homeschooling mom ever. While other parents were taking their kids on nature walks and art classes, I was dragging my three children along with me to the pregnancy resource center that I just helped to start. Cory, Leslie and Nathan—all in elementary school—helped me to fold baby clothes… [Continue Reading]
Spring is a Celebration!
They say ‘April showers bring May flowers.’ But when you’re an author (and a homeschooling mom!) it also brings a busy conference season! However, when May comes around the first thing I think about is my WWII friends. Because my first novel From Dust To Ashes was inspired by the liberation of Mauthausen Concentration Camp… [Continue Reading]