What if your holidays don’t feel joyful and celebratory? Ten years ago, I remember a major bout of loneliness that came at Christmas. My husband was working odd hours, and I woke up Christmas morning to a quiet house. It was just me and our three-month-old son. While I was beyond thankful to experience Christmas with our baby, and to […]
Six years ago, I made the difficult choice to go “no contact” with my mom. Those who have wrestled with navigating toxic and abusive family relationships know how hard it can be to step away. It’s easy to fall back into accepting the “known” toxic behavior of someone close to you when it’s familiar. It’s even harder to step into […]
Last year during our family’s spring break vacation, I decided I was finally going to break open a book I had on my “must read” list for far too long. While it wasn’t your typical go-to vacation-read, I was excited to dive into Gina Birkemeier’s book, Generations Deep: Unmasking Inherited Dysfunction and Trauma to Rewrite our Stories Through Faith and […]