The girls huddled in close under the playground slide. I whispered into the circle, “My real father is a king of a tiny European country. You won’t find on most maps though, only because it’s too small. He and my mother had me secretly smuggled away during a war to protect me. That’s the real reason I was adopted. But someday he’s …
Read More“Well, the body keeps the score,” I sighed, as my arthritic fingers struggled to open the bottle of pills in my hand. The phrase is the title of one of the most important and widely recommended books on trauma, but it had also become a mantra of sorts for me—a reminder I could…
Read MoreRemember the rule for school days: only one accessory, so you can choose either the bow tie or the beanie, Aidan.”
We didn’t have your typical four-year-old. When other children were listening to Raffi or the Wiggles, Aidan was a veritable expert on the catalogs of the Rolling Stones, the Who, the …
”Does your child have any special challenges I should be aware of?”
Two tiny blank lines staring at me, enough for maybe three sentences if I wrote very narrowly. Yes, Aidan is on the autism spectrum, and has a variety of specific learning challenges in the classroom, but there was already an IEP file explaining these things at length. There…
I filled my new hand lettered mug with the last of the morning coffee, scooped up my official canvas tote filled with notebooks, pens, and my journaling Bible, threw my favorite cozy blanket scarf over my shoulders, and walked to the hotel conference room to listen to the day’s speakers. The beautiful decorations looked fresh out of the…
Read MoreI’ve had seven miscarriages.
It’s a sentence I’ve grown too comfortably numb repeating, despite the very real pain my heart still carries from the loss. I think when death comes in measures beyond what we can bear our brain tries to cope by focusing on the number itself rather than people behind it. We can’t fully get our head around the…
Far too often grappling with a chronic illness is a fight not only for your health but also for your dignity. Many times the medical community can unintentionally compound the pain of those suffering by minimizing their experience or even invalidating…
Read MoreI’ve been in pain.
At the beginning of 2015, in the midst of our multiple months of unemployment, my husband and I discovered we were very unexpectedly pregnant. It was quite the shock, and I would lying if I said it didn’t take some time to used to the idea. It was literally the worst possible timing, but it…
This piece was originally published in Spring of 2015 in a print magazine called Momazine, alongside a 3 page photo essay exploring beauty in scenes of every day life with my boys.
Read MoreThis piece was originally published on my old blog, back in May of 2015. I had not yet publicly identified as a victim of sexual assault, but still felt a strong urging to speak up on the behalf of other survivors.
