Finding fulfillment when the kids are gone. by Sharlene MacLaren For many, the transition from a full nest to an empty one is difficult. After all, you have spent some twenty years in this business of parenting. You have changed diapers, wiped noses, and cooled fevered bodies. You have read children’s books until you…
Read moreYear: 2010
The Pain After Reunion
The dynamics of the Second Rejection. by Marcy Wineman Axness Your phone call takes too long to be returned. Your letter goes unanswered for an unnerving number of weeks. You concoct exaggerated scenes inside your overtime mind, clamoring to make sense of it all, to somehow feel sense of it all. Ah, reunion. For…
Read moreThanks to Ryan
Special needs are not all physical and emotional. by Lynne Hudak as told to Wendy Lynn Decker “Ryan has a rare and incurable kidney disease. He’ll need a kidney transplant by the end of the year.” I felt as though I was going to be sick all over the doctor’s desk. The words dialysis,…
Read moreSpreading the Flame
New lessons in love the second time around. by Marcia Alice Mitchell “You’ll never be able to handle three more kids — especially a strong-willed child.” Mary, a woman at church I greatly admired, said this after taking care of my future kids in the nursery. One of them, Joe, had just shown her…
Read moreSomeone Else’s Child
A street-wise teenager enters hearts and home. by Janice Thompson She wasn’t our daughter, though it might have taken more than a quick glance to establish the fact. She bore the same shiny chestnut hair, the same rosy complexion, and a sense of humor that rivaled each of our own three daughters. But she…
Read moreSilent Release
Letting go is hard to do. by Rita Platt “He’s gone.” On a beautiful fall morning I awoke to words that threw me into a nightmare. My teenage son was gone, missing by choice. That moment turned into hours, then weeks, and even months with no communication. To my surprise, the world kept spinning;…
Read moreRecognizing Heart Defects in Children
by Brooke Keith According to the American Heart Association, for every one thousand babies born, eight will have some form of congenital heart defect. That’s approximately thirty-five thousand babies each year. Sometimes detecting the signs of heart defects in a child can be difficult. Even a doctor may not be able to identify certain…
Read moreReady or Not
The empty nest and an unprepared parent. by Sharlene MacLaren There is something to be said for the realities of the empty nest syndrome and its deep sense of loss. I experienced it and can attest to its validity. My husband and I had successfully raised two wonderful daughters. One had already left “the…
Read morePlace of Sacrifice
Giving up what is dearest in life togain what is most important. by Terry Arries Christianity is a farce, I raged silently as I bent over my little girl’s crib. I watched my exhausted baby sleep — my precious little girl, Kim, whose hair glinted gold in the sunlight and whose eyes rivaled the…
Read moreNicky: A Life and a Legacy
A brief, struggling life has a lasting impact. by Sondra Brunsting From the moment of conception, he entered a combat zone, every cell of his body at war with toxic poisons, imperiled by an inadequate supply of oxygen and faulty nutrition. His was the womb of compromise, more than a warm cocoon in which…
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