Category: The Valley
-
The Long Game of Lament
It was the morning of September 26. I was curled up in the fetal position on my in-laws’ living room couch. They conveniently lived ten minutes from the hospital where my mom was transported, so we — my siblings, Joe, and Riley — shacked up there for the night. Mom…
-
The Psalm 121 Checklist
As those September days drug on, we began to see signs of hope. During a neurological evaluation of her brain activity, a doctor asked mom her name. After several seconds of silence, she peeled back her lips and gently murmured, “Carrie Saunders.” We weren’t in the room to witness this,…
-
Radiant
Everyone always says you don’t remember your wedding day, and many parts of that are true. It is an emotional blur of beautiful moments, anxious awaiting, standing behind wooden doors in preparation for the aisle walk that changes everything. Much of the day I don’t remember, except for what I’ve…
-
Monday, September 25
I will never forget that morning of September 25, and the way a heaviness seemed to settle over our world like a dark cloud. I couldn’t explain the feeling, but once again, I couldn’t shake a sense of doom. Mom had made it through ten rounds of radiation. She had…
-
Deepest Waters and Hottest Fires
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever! Psalm 31:11-12 I’ve always thought that this Psalm about God turning mourning…
-
You Have to Trust
We were on month five of trying to conceive. Trapped in a vicious cycle of one negative pregnancy test after another. What seemed to be symptoms of pregnancy were again interrupted by the punch of my period starting. Every month of no baby seemed to bring a heavier weight, the…
-
The Proof is in the Numbers
I know that Scripture is laden with comfort for sufferers — take the entire book of Job, over half the Psalms, Philippians, James, and Lamentations, to name a few. Such chapters of the Bible have been my go-to guides for mourning, hope, joy in trials, and peace in storms, and they don’t…
-
Das’ not how I planned it!
When my little sister, Christen, was four or five, she would often perform elaborate acrobatic gymnastics from the ottoman to the floor to the rocking chair and back. If, for any reason, she would mess up her routine, she would exclaim in the cutest little pipsqueaky baby voice, “Das’ not…
-
Morning Glory
Early this past summer, I was pretty gung-ho about gardening. We live on the second story of our apartment complex, so that eliminated the prospect of a super fruitful harvest, but I thought I could most certainly try to keep some potted plants alive on our balcony. I evenly dispersed…
-
Saturday, August 12
We decided to stick together that night. It felt right to drive to Crawfordsville, to our parents’ house, the 10-acre lot with oak trees and a trampoline that was marked by a multitude of beautiful childhood memories. We were an incredibly close family who, frankly, had lived a relatively easy…
House on the Rock 