During the week of Fall Break, my family and I went to the place where dreams come true: Orlando, Florida. We spent five days at Walt...

Today was a big day for our family. Although our Congolese son has been legally ours for years and he’s been home for nearly 6 months,...

Being a parent is really hard, so much harder than I thought it would be when I played “house” with my baby dolls growing up. Dilemmas...

It was 22 years ago this week that my husband held my hand for the first time. We were watching a movie at a friend’s house. I liked him...

I’m suffering from Olympics Withdrawal. For those two precious weeks, my family sat around the TV like it was the 1950’s. We marveled at...

We sit on the front porch—my son and I—as we quietly wait. Our lunches sit atop two T.V. trays. We slap our arms when we feel a bug come...

Ever since our Congolese-born son came home to America almost 5 months ago, we frequently hear the same question from friends and family:...

I watched a bit of the Republican and Democratic conventions a few weeks ago. I couldn’t watch the whole thing—just soundbites from...

When I was a little girl, my family would make the trip from our home in Nashville to our grandparents’ house in Danville, Illinois,...

Two dwarf Rose of Sharon bushes stand guard on either side of our front porch. Over the past seven years, they have grown at a slant,...

In an effort to get away from our daily routine and to make some priceless family memories, we loaded up the minivan a few weeks ago and...

At nearly 2:00 am—just an hour or so after the 4th of July yahoos had finished firing off their last bottle rocket—my daughter came in...

This is the first Independence Day our African-born son will be in the U.S. He doesn’t know anything about George Washington or the...

One of these days—when our kids aren’t pulling us in so many directions—I will have an amazing vegetable garden. When the month of May...

I started painting our kitchen this week. If you wanted to know this little fact, there are a few telltale sign: The speckles of paint on...

Though our African-born son has been in America for only two months, we’re often surprised by the speed he acquires new words and...

Once upon a time, there was a mom with a dirty van. She took that dirty van to a car wash, a narrow room unmanned by human employees but...

A few years ago, my family and my sister’s family went to one of our favorite places to eat: Blue Coast Burrito. All eleven of us stood...

While working on an assignment for school, my daughter found an interesting line of poetry. In her poem “Finding Voice,” Joellen...

In my family of origin, we were Do-It-Yourself-ers before D.I.Y. was cool. Long before HGTV inspired envy and Pinterest boards...

When I tell my son of his homeland, I will describe the busy Kinshasa streets—the women with enormous bags, bowls, and boxes easily...

Nearly 20 years ago, my husband and I participated in a weekend-long premarital retreat. There were sessions with a variety of...

Since we’ve been home from Africa with our adopted son, I’ve been thinking a lot about how it felt to bring home our twin daughters from...

Ezra, our Congolese son, is home. It’s the thing we’ve been praying for and waiting on for nearly four years. Now that he’s home, it’s...