My thoughts
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How the Babe Stole Grinchness
It’s been a really hard year. The kind of year that sinks it’s cold teeth into you and chills you all the way through. A year filled with moments of darkness, feeling hopeless and asking God difficult questions. Moments of waiting, endless waiting. Silence when I just want a comforting voice. At times I’ve felt tested and Continue reading
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Parenting Through Fear
I used to be fearless. Well, maybe not completely fearless, worries and doubts still plagued me, but overall my philosophy on life was: You can’t let your fear paralyze you. You have to move forward and choose your own adventure. And so I did. Throughout my early to mid-twenties I threw aside normal ideas of Continue reading
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The Three Births of Aurelia Claire
It’s close to four in the morning and I am awakened by the sound of my daughter crying. I slowly emerge out of a sleepy haze, rolling over to get out of bed. I pick my baby up out of her bassinet and try to comfort her. Her cry is loud now, reverberating across a silent Continue reading
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37 Weeks
I am not so sure who I am anymore, caught up in another like this. The right colors, the right softness, a ready nest. That is what I am consumed with. It’s weird and cliché, and all too real at once. I get it now, this deafening urge to make a safe space for my Continue reading
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Another Grateful List
Once in a while I like to shake myself out of my ordinary jump-right-to-the-next-thing mentality and pause for a moment to be thankful. The end of May is as good of a time as the end of November, maybe even better. I’ve been worrying a bunch lately and things seem overwhelming to me, then just Continue reading
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From a Battle Cry to a Peaceful Sigh
I had never felt such a deep sense of purpose as when Ron Luce announced in 2005 that we had 4-5 years to save the world. I was 19, an intern at Teen Mania Ministries just finishing my first year. I was full of fire, wide-eyed and ready for more action. According to his passionate Continue reading
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Beyond Beautiful: A Letter To My Daughter
Dear Baby Girl, I can’t wait to welcome you into the world. You are brave to enter this place. It’s big and wide and complicated and dangerous. But it’s beautiful too. It’s filled with laughter and the smell of fresh-cut grass, and light shining on ocean waves and soon, you. Your arrival will make this Continue reading
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I’ve Decided to Forget About Self-Esteem
This morning in the shower I almost lost balance. My body feels so awkward as it stretches and grows, expanding to make space for the life inside me. It’s hard sometimes. One moment I am filled with joy at the thought of my coming baby, the next I just feel awkward and fat. Yesterday I Continue reading
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A Year Of Beautiful Changes
I can easily say this was the best year of my life so far. It’s kind of funny, because I used to judge how good my year was by how many places I traveled to. Take for instance the insanity that was 2008. I spent the beginning of the year in China, the middle of Continue reading
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A Thrill Of Hope
Joy and wonder. That is what I feel this Christmas. I gave up on this holiday for many years. I was tired of expectations and disappointments, disgusted by consumerism. I felt cynical and unsettled, jaded by “the true meaning of Christmas.” Then I spent one crazy Christmas in the jungle of Panama, and while riding Continue reading
Brooke Gale LouvieR 