2020

This month I completed a writing/editing project I have been working on about how to triumph when you are going through life's inevitable trials. Apparently saying "yes" to this project was akin to praying for patience: I was given plenty of opportunities to "practice". (If you've never prayed for patience before, do so carefully!) During this period of writing about how to triumph over trials, my ex-husband died. My mom got E.Coli ... twice. My husband took a staple-gun to the face. My step-daughter was in a car accident. My niece broke her wrist (on my watch, no less). My brother-in-law had a heart attack, followed by a stroke. My aunt injured her back. Another family member went into temporary foster care. Both our dogs have been sick. I ended up in the clinic after an encounter with a rusty nail. And those are just the trials in my immediate family that I know about! Sheesh! Would someone please pray that my next project is on prosperity?! Chan...

May was a really incredible month for us, filled with other peoples' overwhelming generosity. But before I fill you in on that, let me rewind a bit to last December. In December, Randy and I went to San Felipe. Our primary motivation was to spend Christmas with the kids at the orphanage. But we had a very important secondary motivation: to go to DIF (children's services) to inquire about adoption. While living at Sonshine Hacienda, Randy and I obviously grew very attached to the children. Over 40 kids were part of our lives while we lived in San Felipe. Some for just a few days. Others were there at the children's home when we first visited in 2016, and continue to live there today. They all made a lasting impact on us, but we connected with three boys in particular. So it was those three brothers that we asked about when we went to DIF (pronounced Deef). We were met with a familiar face when we arrived at the offices -- a woman we had worked with on numerous occas...

If you’ve ever looked at a U.S. map, you know that we had to drive through Nevada to get to California from Utah , but we were on a mission for the first time in weeks: to get to our oldest granddaughter’s graduation. (You know Trinitie already. She was on Leg 1 of this journey with us, giving a thumbs-up while Randy changed our flat tire.) So we blazed through Nevada in one day, only stopping for a good night’s rest (perhaps the best of the entire trip so far!) alongside the beautiful Walker Lake, (which appears to be free to campers all along its perimeter... yay!). It was such an honor to see Trinitie walk with her class, receive her handshake and diploma, and toss her mortar-board into the air. It brought back a flood of memories of my own high school graduation day, 20 years ago (20 years!). I remember my dad handing me my diploma (not too many people get to experience that huge honor!), my valedictorian speech (it had something to do with snowflakes--I got the ide...