Why does God allow suffering?  Twenty five years ago I often asked that question.  I was a new mother but my baby daughter was seriously ill.  Not only did she have Downs syndrome but the doctors had discovered a life-threatening heart defect. Just months…

Last week, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I found myself watching an infomercial on TV.  As I lounged on the couch, a well-groomed woman, middle aged and very blond, pitched the virtues of a wrinkle reducing cream.
“It’ a miracle.  The cream saved me.  My…

When I was growing up, our family life often revolved around the game of hockey.    Every winter, my father would make a skating rink in our back yard.   My sisters and brothers, all nine of us, learned to skate, twirl…

Over two decades ago, on a snowy November night, our first baby was born with Down’s syndrome.   It was a winter filled with the despair of dashed hopes and dreams.  But it was also a season when the warmth of…

The December stars twinkled above the small Minnesota town where I live.   A light snow fell as I walked through the streets of our neighborhood.   Though my breath froze in the chilly evening air, I was warmly bundled in a…

The windows of the coffee shop were decorated with pine garland and strands of cranberries. As the snow fell outside the shop, I stomped the snow from my boots.
It was early December, the first week of Advent.

“I’ll have…

I like the idea that Rachael, my youngest daughter, attends a Christian college just twenty five minutes from our home. At nineteen years of age, she has her independence but still gets home quite often to do her laundry or…