Category: The Valley
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Wisdom Observed: Things I’ve Learned from Carrie Saunders
It was a Wednesday in May — two days late on my period once again, but ravaged by fear and overwhelming what ifs. I committed to not taking a test until later. Much later, careful that I might not even get my hopes up about being pregnant until I physically…
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Wish You Were Here
For the longest time, our family has had a group chat titled, “Wish You Were Here!” It was set up by Mom, of course, so that she could share pictures of various family vacations with our grandparents. It became a rite of passage for the add-ons — if you made…
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What they don’t tell you about a miscarriage (Part 2)
I recently reflected on the unexpected elements of miscarriage. Sure, we had lots to learn about the pain, the pills, the procedures. And our eyes were opened in ways I wouldn’t have necessarily asked for to the grief, the questions, the lament. But there’s one more thing they don’t tell…
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Farewell to CL
A Cheesy Rhyming Reflection about our First Married Home The boxes are packed and stacked ceiling-high. The truck and the trailer are waiting outside. Our valiant team of movers is in the parking lot below, waiting to be told what to lift and where to go. We’re bidding farewell to…
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What they don’t tell you about a miscarriage
When Joe and I began trying for children, the farthest thought from my mind was that we would lose the baby. I should’ve considered it — it’s a brutally common reality of our fallen world — but I thought it would never happen to me. That Christmas-morning bloodstain was one…
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Joe Stepped In: a tribute to my husband
The anniversary post I typed last year was marked by left-to-right leaning back and forth, a desperate attempt to stay positioned in front of a rotating fan while sweat splashed on the keyboard. 90 degree temperatures scorched the Indiana earth beneath our feet, and for the fifth day in a…
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School Year Reflections
It was the night before the first day of school when my mom was rushed to the hospital with difficulty breathing. I remember tossing and turning all night, knowing this restlessness would not set me up for a successful start to school but not being able to do anything else.…
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Do the Next Thing
We live in an apartment complex built in 1994. The layout features external cement-slab staircases that lead up to the second-story suites. Joe and I just so happen to inhabit an apartment on the second floor. About a year into our stay, we noticed that the first cement stair was…
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Surviving Mother’s Day After Losing your Mother
Or child. Or, perhaps both. I can’t really think of a day I have dreaded more than Mother’s Day this year. The traumatic, tragic, all-too-fast death of my mom-turned-best friend, bookended by the loss of our unborn baby, made me not particularly eager for May 12th to roll around. Not…
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A Mother’s Day Memory
I think back to Mother’s Day a year ago. We ate ham and angel food cake on a Sunday afternoon, everyone clad in pink and green, taking selfies and playing CodeNames while fighting to keep the mothers out of the kitchen. The premise of the game is quite simple: hopeful…
House on the Rock 