This week, my daughter Chantel was awarded the community’s Dr. Martin Luther King Citizenship Award. You already know I was extremely excited — and one proud mama — not only for my daughter, but for the other 150 recipients as well.

As soon as I entered the auditorium I spotted my dear friend Yvonne. We were into about… Read more…

I can’t believe it either…and I’ve said it several times myself already:

Where did 2011 go?

It seems like it came and went so fast.  And while I could reflect on all the things that didn’t happen this year — the relationship and business deals that went terribly wrong –  in spite of the bad stuff, this has been one… Read more…

Like fog in the morning, the spirit of Christmas was gone that year. Still, I shuffled in the garage. One by one, I pulled the bins off the shelves I’d stored the previous Christmas.

While the aroma of sugar cookies wafted through the air and “Silent Night” played in the background, I began the decorating.

By then the task was… Read more…

Letting go of things can be difficult. Well — at least it has been for me over the years.

I’m certain that being a victim of sexual abuse played a great role in my learning to “hold things in”…leading me to “hold on” to them. (Which you and I already know is SO unhealthy!) I had learned to hide my… Read more…

Lots of people wonder how the idea of Hope Magazine originally came to be. When I started it in its print form in 2005, I originally planned to design a newsletter for a group of 300 women. That was what felt comfortable for me – but I soon realized that wasn’t what God was telling me to do. He was… Read more…

The statistics about marriage are enough to put anyone off from walking down the aisle: According to some sources, nearly one-third of all marriages fail in the first five years and more than one-half end in divorce. Marriages often collapse because couples are not prepared to go the distance and withstand the inevitable conflict that comes as the years go… Read more…