The Blog
of grace & gumption
He would have been one yesterday. Our son, Benjamin Spross Ryan, was due on 10/10/10 but died in my tummy during the second trimester. We met him, we mourned him, and then we let him go. But we will never forget him. Officially, October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant...
One of my college roommates, Jen, was an animal lover – a trait I’ll admit that I do not share. So although she really wanted a sweet little dog to scurry around our apartment, what we compromised on was a hamster. She searched far and wide for the perfect pet and...
If I had written the Bible, I think I would have included one extra book just after Revelation. It would be kind of like a P.S. to God’s letter to us. An addendum of sorts like the Maps or the Concordance, but more holy that than that, of course. And I’d have named it...
It’s the morning after. You’ve just experienced a weekend of great teaching and biblical inspiration. You were on an awesome spiritual high. You hoped it would last. You prayed it would last. But then, Monday came. There is a “low” that often follows spiritual...
When my son, Gideon, was young, my husband and I were at a restaurant with him when a waitress stopped to dote on him for awhile. "He's so sweet," she said. "What's his name? When we told her it was Gideon, she exclaimed, "Oh! That's a great name. That's from the...
Several years ago, I went with a group of friends to Las Vegas, Nevada, for a wedding. Although we weren’t thrilled about the casinos or “night life” that are typical of the city, there were several other aspects of the town we couldn’t wait to explore – the lights,...
Several years ago, I was asked to speak at a fireside event at a retreat. The retreat coordinators had heard me give my testimony in a smaller setting before and wanted me to share it again for their whole group. Honored to do so, I started preparing my notes weeks in...
My boys were fighting. No surprise there. They crawled, climbed and kicked their way onto the recliner, each determined to claim prime real estate on my lap before the other. And in the midst of the chaos, for some reason that I cannot even remember now, my husband...