Author: Mia

  • Noonday Fundraiser

    Noonday Fundraiser

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    So I have this friend… perhaps you know the type? Not only is she a home-schooling, Jesus-loving Super-Mama, but she’s a competitive runner/bicyclist who met her husband while modeling for a Harley Davidson photo shoot. She is also creative/crafty, keeps chickens, and can stack bales of hay LIKE A BOSS. I KNOW. If she weren’t…

  • Family Planning

    Family Planning

    Photo cred: Valerie Hibler Photography. Though we live 14 hours apart, she’ll always be our family photographer.  Consider yourself lucky if you live in Oregon.  I have a sibling-set of cousins, exactly my age, whom I have always looked forward to connecting with at family reunions. Their mother gave birth to the first, and less…

  • Watchful & Thankful

    Watchful & Thankful

    I vividly recall the fist time I read my favorite passage of scripture… In the back seat of Husband’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, squeezed next to our four month old firstborn, and yakking it up with my sister on a lose-your-mind-road-trip from Salem, Oregon to the tippity-top of Vancouver Island, British Colombia. It was an annual…

  • Bible Study Dropout

    Bible Study Dropout

    That’s right, I’m dropping out of Bible study. More accurately, I’m not “re-enlisting” this year. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bible Study Fellowship. Last year, our study of Genesis was greatly enriching, and fostered several deep friendships during a time when I was new to town and had no social life to speak of.…

  • What’s in a Name?

    What’s in a Name?

    I have a cousin who (like the infamous Duggar family) has several children, each with a name beginning with the letter J: Jeffrey, Josiah, Jessica, Jasmine, & Jordan. My dear friend Sister in Oregon has three children, all fondly named after {upstanding, Republican} Presidents: Reagan, Lincoln, and McKinley. (Which explains the moniker of her hilariously honest…

  • Support

    Support

    <—–This is a modest sampling of my cherished Adoptive Moms Support Group. An offshoot of Encompass Orphan Care, we meet year round on Thursday mornings. In total, our numbers are closer to 25 Moms, but summer is hard and the group looks different every week. I love these women. Each of them is as crazy-…

  • Invisible Thread

    Invisible Thread

    An ancient Chinese proverb tells, “An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.” I don’t know, sounds a lot like the sovereign hand of God to me… All knowing. All seeing. All powerful. Intimately and intricately orchestrating…

  • Adoptive Family Camp

    Adoptive Family Camp

    Hula skirts, horses, ziplines, and square dancing. Old friends, new friends, and packs of wild children running like wolves over the mountainside. Our family of four- soon to be five- just returned from a blessed escape to an enriching retreat, tailored to families that have adopted- or are currently in process. Far from cell phone…

  • God’s Timing

    God’s Timing

    Yesterday, as I leisurely watched my kiddos splash & play in the local swimming hole- my phone rang. It was our agency. My heart stopped and I held my breath. It had been exactly a week since they had confirmed receipt of our dossier. A friend, who is several steps ahead of us with her…