RESTORING THE JOY

“Listen to his breathing! He’s wheezing! I just know he’s punctured a lung or something! He never sounds like that!”

“If Mom would just calm down, I believe her son would also stop crying and start breathing normally.”

Oh. I guess I was being a bit hysterical.

But who cou...

“Look, Mom! Look what I got in my Happy Meal from McDonald’s! Seeds! Radish seeds! Do I like radishes? Can I grow them? Please?”

I wasn’t sure what quality those seeds were or how long they’d been sitting around in that packet. But I wasn’t about to disappoint my younge...

I’d been numb all day. Since six o’clock that morning I’d had to hold in my emotions. The parents had searched my face, wondering if I would be that stronghold their children needed while they went to work. My fourth graders were quiet and well behaved, holding themsel...

“He says we need to stop at a tire store because the spare he put on is the wrong size.”

Our daughter and a fellow from her village had just picked us up in his truck at the airport in Santo Domingo. She had been in the Dominican Republic for over a year, and we were ea...

“So on a scale of one to ten, how would you describe the pain in your knee?”

“Two”

The nurse and I exchanged wide-eyed wonderment.

“Mom, if it’s only a two, then why are we here to get a cortisone shot? I saw your face the last time your knee pained you. That wasn’t a ‘tw...