We realized that we cannot afford to not take our kids on these trips, and so we needed to find ways to make it affordable.

Dear son, I saw you not see her that day. But one day soon, your eyes will linger.

I see it as I show up and do the rinse and repeat work of motherhood. As we tackle the same tasks and discipline at a dizzying pace, waiting for results we may not glean for years to come. Will we trust that God is at work in the midst of our waiting?

Child, I will pray that the storms won’t come, all while knowing that some will. This world is fractured. No matter how hard I protect you, you will know the brokenness of it.

When we bring our children before the magnificent, mysterious world God has made, when we allow them to answer their own questions with more questions, it sparks something sacred in their heart.

As my ideas dissolved into reality, I took it personally. What was poked holes in all of my assumptions of what should be. I was failing. Until I rephrased my question.