It's the last day of the year, so it's time for the yearly Giovagnoni family wrap up. (Doing it three years in a row makes it a "thing" right?)
Wearing In the Shoes (Or a 2015 Wrap-up)
And So I Cry…
The things I saw today will be seared in my memory for the rest of my life. It happened in a home in San Martin, El Salvador. To get there, we drove through a narrow dirt alley, parking at the end of two long, tin walls. The entrance to the home was a door-sized opening in the tin a few yards down. We stepped over the threshold into a dark room.
And So I Pray On…
After my dad died, following three straight months of desperate prayers pleading for his healing, I had a crisis of faith. I felt like I had run full speed into a brick wall. Prayer seemed like a joke.
Letting Go
My daughter starts kindergarten next week. I never thought I'd be the one to cry when my kids went to school. (I didn't even cry at our wedding.) But the other night, I couldn't stop crying about it. She's young. She won't even turn five until three weeks after school starts. Several well-meaning people have... Continue Reading →
Say Yes to the Mess
You know what nobody tells you about marriage? How painful it is. I think one of the big reasons there are so many broken marriages - especially among Christians - is that they go into it under an illusion of what "hard" will look like. I was 31 when I got married. I wasn't a young bride, naive... Continue Reading →
7 Goals for the New Year
I love January 1st. There's something so hopeful and encouraging about a new year. A fresh start. A clean slate. Every year I think Maybe this year will be the year I can actually make the changes I've been trying to make. I had that thought this morning. Stasi Eldredge has been very influential to... Continue Reading →
2014: The Year I Quit Faking It
So about this time one year ago I wrote a post summing up my year. It was a look at the Giovagnoni family, raw and unfiltered. That unconventional approach to a Christmas letter seemed to resonate with some people, so here we go again. First things first. Big things in 2014 ... Cara started ballet. We... Continue Reading →
On Prayer and Helplessness
Some of our best friends found out this week that their four month old baby girl has a brain tumor. Did you get that? Four months old. Brain tumor. Those things shouldn’t even be together in a sentence. I'm sharing my struggle with prayer and helplessness on the Ladies First blog.
The Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Done
I was supposed to have foot surgery today. And it's not my first rodeo, so you'd think I'd know the routine... Make plans for help taking care of the kids for the first few days my recovery. Check. Make a lot of big meals so the fridge is stuffed with leftovers. Check. Get super nervous... Continue Reading →
On Writing (…or Not)
I miss writing. I know that's kind of weird to say because I'm not "a writer." I'm an off-and-on blogger who recently has been more off than on. I used to have a decent amount of readers when I was posting consistently. But that was back in my single days. When I had a lot... Continue Reading →
These Words of Mine 