child loss / Christmas / Devotional / faith / Grief Support / Holidays / New Year / poetry / Widowhood

You Should’ve Been Here

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This is a poem I wrote to Jeremy over the past two weeks. I wanted to share it here, in hopes that it makes you feel:1) seen2) not alone in […]

child loss / Christmas / Grief Support / Widowhood

How Christmas Feels to the Grieving

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I suppose most would rather not think about death and loss at this time of year, but for the valley-walker, there is no escaping reality. Mistletoe mocks. Once-tinseled trees lay […]

Child Loss / devotional / faith / Grief / Grief Support / Trauma / Widowhood

Healing from the Inside Out

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Years ago, following our baby girl’s open heart surgery, doctors were unable to close her sternum, so they sewed a patch over her incision, and sent her to the PICU. […]

Child Loss / devotional / faith / Grief / Grief Support / Resurrection / seasons / Trauma / Widowhood

Death Gives Way to Life

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It was a sunny October afternoon when death came to visit. Once my favorite season—filled with family birthdays at apple orchards, hot pumpkin spice lattes on crisp, frosty mornings and […]

child loss / Grief / Grief Support / Trauma / Widowhood

Go Ahead and Scream

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The year our daughter died, I had to stop watching the news. I remember every time there was a big news story about a tragedy, I could hardly keep the […]

Grief Support / Widowhood

Early Retirement: Why Does God Allow Good Men to Die Young?

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Just a few weeks after my husband’s funeral, a young friend stopped by the church to see me. She wondered why God would allow a godly man’s life to be […]

Grief Support / Post-Traumatic Growth / Trauma / Widowhood

Butterfly Theology

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There are few creatures more fragile than the butterfly. So God lovingly created each one with the instinct to protect and preserve herself during storms, knowing that rain and wind […]

faith / Grief Support / Parenting / Widowhood

Step Out of the Boat: Overcoming Fear in Grief

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About nine months after Jeremy left for his eternal Home, a friend took us out to do some sunset tubing on the lake. My 12-yr-old had been looking forward to […]

Devotional / faith / Grief / Grief Support / poetry / Trauma / Waiting / Widowhood

Parable of an Ice Cream Cone

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I pass by a small child, with a deliciously drippy ice cream cone in her hand on a sweltering hot day. What joy she must be feeling in that moment! […]

child loss / Grief Support / Resurrection / Widowhood

That Which Appears to be Dead

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Self Portrait “I took this picture today. Looking at it later it dawned on me, this is a picture of widowhood. See that tree, unnoticeable at first, in the middle?? […]

Child Loss / faith / Father’s Day / Grief / Grief Support / Poetry / Solo Parenting / Widowhood

Choreography of Compassion

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Dear friends, Another Mother’s Day has passed and Father’s Day is upon us. It is right and fitting to honor those we love. But what of the orphan, the childless, […]

Grief Support / Widowhood

A Widowed Mother’s Day

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Today, I will most ardently miss the one who made me a mother. I will miss being celebrated by him. I will miss watching him teach our children to honor […]