I've been working on a sequel to "Unexpected Grace: When Your Child Is Born With Half a Heart" since 2018ish. I've been shocked how long it's taken for this book to "ripen" (if you'll allow the gardening analogy). Going through the experience of Gracie's three surgeries really raised a lot of questions about God's work of healing today, and those questions just wouldn't leave me alone. Here's an excerpt from my new book "If You Will:Does Jesus Still Heal Read More

At this exact moment, Colby is making fun of me because I'm 1.tardy 2. kneeling by the bed trying to finish this darn thing before the stroke of midnight so it doesn't feel *AS* tardy. I enjoy reflecting and documenting our year, so in the event you're interested, here are 10 things to recap our year: 1. FOSTER CARE: Colby and I went through the process to get certified as foster parents in Prince William County. This has surprised many of you, but no one could be more surprised than me. This Read More

Dear 17-year- old-AMC worker, Thank you for waiting patiently for me to leave theatre 15 tonight. I know it took me a bit longer than everyone else to exit, and I know you were waiting very patiently to sweep up the stray popcorn and M&Ms. You see, for the past 4 months my daughter, Gracie, has been asking to see the movie “Breakthrough.” She saw the trailer and has not been able to get it out of her head. We don’t usually go to the theatre but one time a year ($85.00…seriously?!), so Read More

For those of you who have followed our story for the past decade, you know that Iceland has been a big part of our lives. When we moved there as missionaries in 2008, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. From the beginning, it was our prayer to find an Icelander to help us carry on the work of planting a church there. We left Iceland in 2010 because of Gracie’s medical situation, and we wondered if our time there had been in vain. Our prayers for a national to carry on the work hadn’t yet Read More

I wasn't going to write a Year in Review 2018, but it's a snow day and the New Year is still just starting, right? There's still time to reflect. I'm looking back at our pictures so I can remember what we actually did in 2018. Ah yes...Let's start with Mt. Vernon. Gracie had been asking for years to go visit Mt. Vernon, so we took the whole family on President's Day (and she loved every minute of it). The very next morning, we noticed some swelling on Gracie's left side. Because of her Read More