One issue that faces many families with chronic illnesses is lengthy hospitalizations. The entire household is affected by the disruption in schedule and routine. Life changes drastically for everyone involved. The child in the hospital must spend precious time away from regular activities and friends. Social interaction moves from…

In June, my firstborn son, affectionally nicknamed MacDonald the Older, will turn 26 years old. Conversations include career plans after his major milestone. He hopes to sing on Broadway and continues to get better with age. A vocalist myself, I hear his progress and believe he has an excellent…

So I get into the shower, and as I wash my hair, a memory comes flooding back to me. In a moment, I am standing face to face with it. My oldest son was 6 and struggling with a prophylactic infusion of recombinant factor VIII. The needle terrified him…

I’ve been sick for most of this week with digestive issues. This is a chronic condition for me, but it always bothers me when it happens. I’m weak and unable to do much. I must gauge my energy levels and try to squeeze important tasks into the moments I…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCZunn4ML5o If you’re living with a chronic illness, it’s easy to slip into a malaise and feel sorry for yourself. This isn’t a helpful state of mind and it potentially means you’re missing out on life. In this video from NewLifeOutlook, Anna Scanlon shares her five…

My wife and I were trying to find the perfect gift for one of our favorite people. We needed to find a bow tie, but not just an ordinary, humdrum kind. It must have a road map from one place to another. Our friend, who happened to be one of…

We all live according to life lessons. Not every way by which we govern our lives proves useful or affirming, but the lessons still unknowingly exist. My goal is to identify the negative patterns that I relate to the world and change them so that my actions match my desired…

When my youngest son, Caeleb, was 5 years old, he participated in our church’s yearly Easter egg hunt. We divided the children into younger and older categories to help even the playing field. The smaller church members started first, gathering as many eggs as they could find. After the little…

We all enter history at a different point; our entry into the timeline of the world marks where the future of us begins as individuals and families. Sometimes, we accelerate into the on-ramp that launches us, and sometimes we bumpily move toward our mark. On our first date, my now-husband…

We are in the middle of January and some of the resolutions we promised to keep just a couple of weeks ago already seem to be fading away. Our intentions were wonderful and our commitment admirable. So what happened to our fortitude? Did something act as a roadblock…