After adopting Brielle, I started to ask God for a boring, complacent life. I didn’t need more adventure. More change, more unknown. I needed stability, a sense of that perceived control that I crave. I wanted a season of complacency. Two years later, I’ve decided to stop asking for that. I’ve decided to embrace unknown and just roll with it because God hasn’t allowed me to be complacent. I’ve had to fight my own personality. Type A people, like myself, aren’t known to crave

"We will never find our purpose in exhaustion.” – Maria Goff, Love Lives Here My friend sent me this quote tonight. It’s perfection. If I’ve learned anything about myself in my mere 32 years, it’s that whatever I do has to have a sense of purpose. And, well, trying to live a purpose-filled life can be exhausting if we aren't careful. Exhaustion strips my sense of purpose and skews my priorities quicker than my three-year-old can meltdown in Toys ‘R Us. When I become exhausted

Four years ago, one small whisper changed the rest of my life. After graduating high school, I fully intended on molding and inspiring young minds, just as my teachers inspired me. I remember specifically playing out the next 10 years of my life over and over in my head: graduate college, find a teaching position, get married, have children. I am a perfectionist and over-planner to my very core. Naturally, as soon as this plan, my plan, was in place I felt at peace knowing ex

If you look at my website, you’ll see that I write about leadership. If you look at my blog, you won’t find a single blog on leadership until now. Why is this, you ask? I haven't known where to begin. Leadership training classes and books that I've read spin through my head every time I approached the subject of leadership. So, I'm starting with me. I've never taken the time to create my own set of leadership principles until now. I've always worked for organizations that wou

Expectant. I am filled with excitement and anticipation as I stare down the final countdown to Christmas and New Years. I look forward to 2018 and the opportunity to serve you through words. I’m also ready to bid a firm “see ya later” to 2017. 2017 was hard. We walked through the hard “after the airport” days of adoption. (OK, I walked through the hard “after the airport” days. Everyone else was just fine, but that’s for another post.) We said goodbye to family and friends th

What happens when your life comes to a halt? All of your plans crumble into a million little bits around your feet like crumbs to the cake you were just about to eat. What do you do when this one thing hinged on this other thing that was bound to work out and then something happened to end it all? Everything was connected and so it all was lost. Dying hopes, dreams, plans, visions, even the deepest desires that you’ve never had the courage to share with anyone else. All of th