Since my father's birthday falls on Father's Day this year, I'm doubly remembering my dad, who has been gone now for 37 years. When I was a child, my dad was my hero. We formed an early bond when I was a baby. My dad was ready to be a …( read more )

I was struck by an unusual sight one day as I walked by the kindergarten room. There was Sophia sitting in a little chair right in front of the gerbil cage, in a world of her own. The rest of the children had gone for the day, but for some …( read more )

Having grown up on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, I'm somewhat familiar with ocean tides. Sometimes, we could swim easily, but other times, we had to walk a long way to reach the edge of the water. In 1972, my husband and I …( read more )

For the first two weeks of my life, I was not called Alice, my present name. My parents were trying out the name Helen. They must not have been sure about it, because there was no definite mention of a name in the early letters to my …( read more )

My husband had been having a hard time at the school where we worked together. He was letting the overwhelming needs of the students, both academic and emotional, get to him. Our school was small, and students of all ages were rewarded …( read more )

A stone wall was planned as a retaining wall above our house to keep the sandy bank from eroding. A lovely, mature cedar tree grew there, and we didn't want it to topple onto our house. My husband hired a skilled local mason, and prepared …( read more )

After a couple of days at the YWAM base in Belize, I wondered what I was doing there. The setting, despite its beautiful name, "Destination Paradise", was a challenge. High heat with humidity, mosquitoes, fire ants, sudden tropical …( read more )

Our trip was going well until everything went sideways. The road in front of us was straight and the traffic light. All of a sudden, our small travel trailer began fishtailing back and forth, my husband fighting valiantly to control the …( read more )