As I was sorting through old computer files last week—trying to decide what was worth saving and what could finally be deleted—I stumbled across a blog post I wrote in 2008 on my old blog, Pastor Laura's Musings. The post was called Time and Trust. At the time, I was preparing to leave Jerome, Idaho, for a new appointment. Before kids. Before marriage. I was reflecting on transitions, uncertainty, and the strange ways we humans get stuck between where we have been and where w

In this week’s adventures in moving: approximately 100 emails trying to determine my kid’s placement at their next schools —because nobody seems to be speaking the same language. There are moments in parenting a child with disabilities when the hardest part is not the diagnosis itself, but the language, systems, and institutions surrounding it. Lately, I have found myself deeply frustrated trying to navigate Special Education systems across school districts and states. Every

There’s a strange kind of holiness in the middle of cardboard boxes. This week my Silverton house has looked like a cross between a thrift store, a construction zone, and a storage unit explosion. There are stacks labeled “kitchen,” “books,” and “random cords we apparently decided to keep since 2009.” And then there is the new house – where a few pieces of furniture have now been built, kids rooms painted, and the carpet installed (Shout out to Carpet USA Vancouver – they wer

My current playlists... These days we don’t just have favorite songs—we have playlists. I was thinking about this a month ago when I was curating songs for a Dance one of my churches host. Playlists for long drives. Playlists for workouts. Playlists for rainy days. Playlists for when the world feels overwhelming. Music has a way of meeting us exactly where we are emotionally. Sometimes it doesn’t change our feelings right away—it simply names them. And once we feel seen, the