No More Labels.
I didn’t want to do this. I wanted this to just go away. Because blog posts like this need to be rendered obsolete. But here it is. And my...
A God-Sized Dream.
I’m on a plane now, returning from a week in Jamaica. Those who don’t know me well have sent well-wishes for a wonderful vacation, but my feet never touched...
Something is Missing
We gathered in a church classroom at the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit – a group of strangers joined at the heart with a passion for orphan care and...
This is Edgar.
His name is Edgar. He is our bus driver, charged with the daunting task of getting 23 people from here to there on a daily basis. Though we’ve only...
Hey Andrey, I’m sorry.
I first met you in 2007. The room at Orphanage #2 was crowded and stuffy, and there were new shoes everywhere. You waited patiently as each child was seated...
Lights and Baskets and Broken Things.
I snuggle under the warm quilt as the day breaks outside, and my mind drifts in a sleepy, still jetlagged fog to another world. The cold outside and Christmas...
Olga, the Transformer
Five years ago, the last Leningrad region orphanage was opened in the town of Kalozhitsy. The selected building was dilapidated, but that didn’t stop the government from asking a...
Anatoly, the Protector
When I first began blogging about my journeys with the discarded, the posts read like diary entries. With rare exception, the words had a similar flow to them –...
Irina, the Promise Keeper
A four-hour journey over snow-packed roads leads to the village of Tikhvin in the Leningrad region of Russia. It’s a lovely place, with a nice shopping district and lots...
The Green Dress. What We Know Now.
The steel grey winter sky is a familiar welcome. I’ve heard the summers in St Petersburg are beautiful – with only four hours of darkness, the city comes alive...
Tootsie Rolls. Because Chocolate is Required.
My kitchen is covered in cocoa and sugar, thanks to a wayward bowl that mysteriously jumped off the counter, doing a lovely swan dive as it fell in slow-motion....
Give Us Vision, Lest We Perish.
In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.” James 1:21MSG The single beautiful blossom greeted me at the Jamaica School...
