“There’s no way I can go to Africa,” I told my husband, Francis, over a bad Skype connection. He was halfway through a year-long deployment to Djibouti, East Africa, and wanted me to meet him during his R&R for a Tanzanian safari. “C’mon, Honey, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” Francis pleaded between internet blips. I sighed…
Military Life
College Tours and Trojan Wars: Survival Tips
“Odysseus, eat your heart out,” I thought, while driving our daughter, Lilly, to college visits recently. Although I wouldn’t encounter any cyclopses or sea monsters, I knew I was embarking on a grueling ordeal. Over the course of our four-day trip, I would put 1800 miles on our minivan, log over 40,000 Fitbit steps on…
Coloring ourselves American in the face of tragedy
We’ve all seen them. Those unbelievable images of New York City on September 11, 2001, when terrorists crashed jumbo jets into the World Trade Centers and our lives changed forever. There’s the photos of the gaping, flaming holes left by the hijacked planes. Images of desperate victims jumping from the burning buildings, of first responders…
The Spin Cycle of Life
With our three kids finishing up summer jobs or out with friends, the house was unusually silent last week, except for the whirr of the ceiling fan and the soft tap of Moby’s dog nails on the tile kitchen floor. One afternoon, I was going over the planner I’d been neglecting all summer. I threw…
What I believe about Hell and hand baskets