When we first moved to Dallas, we made some colorful friends who were actors at Scarborough Renaissance Festival- King Henry and a Contessa, to be exact. During October, the Scarborough Fair grounds become a spooky maze of haunted houses, Scary-oke, expensive food vendors, and a throng of tweens looking to snuggle up to their crush …
Tuesday, 7/11/2023, Nashville Airport 2:08 pm I wasn’t anxious about this until we popped open the back of my sister’s van. It’s not the actual flying that concerns me. The Baby is almost chronically un-anxious, as in, he is not anxious even when he probably should be, like when he tries to drown himself by …
January 23, 2023 Dear Mr. Sedaris, My son, {The Baby}, came screeching into the world via an emergency c-section at 26 weeks- a two-pound potato whose vital organs needed lots of assistance to keep him alive. I met him for the first time four months later, when his birthmother invited me to visit the Neonatal …
I remember talking about atheism and agnosticism in my world religions class in high school. In my little conservative corner of West Texas, we didn’t spend much time talking about the godless heathens, but I remember the description of Clockmaker god, who designed the world, perfectly calibrated all of it’s gears and dials, and then …
Let me preface the beginning of this series with a few things: I’m gonna take weekends off for my “writing every day” goal in November. I can do this because I’m a grown ass woman and I want to. I want to explicitly acknowledge that I have AMAZING parents who did the best with what …
Last August, my little family met my parents in Estes Park. We have done this trip every couple of years since I was a kid. We stay in cabins and hike and explore and breathe in the fresh mountain air. COVID made things a little different, but we were just happy to escape Dallas for …
Well, today the Wise family said hello to a new bed and goodbye to two of The Baby’s teeth. A few months ago, we started the laborious process of getting a SleepSafe bed approved through The Baby’s insurance because his crib had become unsafe. He was able to stand up in it and when he …
The Baby turned five this week. It’s crazy. All of those five years tend to blur together. After all, time flies when you’re drowning in medical chaos (just kidding…kind of). On the night of his birthday, our dinner conversation centered around remembering all of his firsts- the first time he sat up, the first solid …
(You can listen to an audio version of this post here.) I went to David’s Bridal today to purchase a bridesmaid’s dress for a friend’s wedding next summer. She had a dress already picked out in the system so they pulled her profile up and I followed the very nice saleslady to the racks laden …
(I realize this is very lengthy so I have strategically placed pictures of smiling animals throughout the piece so that you can mark your place if you need to take a break and come back to it. At my sister’s suggestion, I’ve also made an audio version of this blog. You can download/stream it by …
I grew up in West Texas- land of wide-open spaces, sky high teen pregnancy rates, and a colorblind racial ideology that masks racism instead of confronting it. In colorblind ideology, it is impolite to talk about someone’s race. I remember hearing a story about a friend who was trying to tell her son which store …
I just got back from San Francisco. I went to (hides face) a Christian conference. I found myself hesitant to tell people that it was a Christian conference because of the connotations of that. My sense is that many Christian conferences are lame attempts at pep rallies for God, the adult version of church camp, …
“What was I thinking?” I thought as I stared forlornly into the mirror. I should have known better than to impulsively stop at the hair salon directly adjacent to the Tom Thumb, still clutching my bag of avocados. I was hoping for a cute haircut before I left on my 10th anniversary weekend trip. Instead, …
I was a mere 21 years old when I got married. My uncle officiated our wedding. Before the wedding, my then-fiancee, now-husband, Alex, and I drove down to Corpus to do some premarital counseling sessions and stay with my aunt and uncle. After one of these sessions, Alex and I got ready to leave and …
I went to a vigil in Balch Springs for Jordan Edwards last week. It was everything you would want a vigil to be- beautiful and sad and moving and comforting. Like most, I was horrified by Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice’s deaths. I have been deeply affected before by deaths caused by police brutality, but …
I’m a part of several transracial adoption groups on facebook. They’ve been talking about this documentary called “Closure” for a while. I bought it about a week ago, but hadn’t watched it because I knew it would be emotional. Last night, as we hunkered down for the sleet and ice that was about to slam … Continue reading
If you’re a friend on facebook, then you know how ecstatic I am when I find American made goods in unlikely places. I have a visceral reaction. For instance, when we planted our garden, I knew that I wanted to make my own pest control products so that I could control what was going on … Continue reading
I was joking with another pre-adoptive parent the other day about how, at the beginning of this adoption process, I was like a unicorn fairy spreading the joy of my adoption to all that I came into contact. Cut to today, where if you tell me how wonderful adoption is, I’ve become like a grumpy … Continue reading
I went to Nashville two weeks ago to visit my sister and she basically got the flu the second I landed and felt better the second my plane took off to return to Dallas. Miraculously, I did not catch her bug, although I doted on her like a mother hen and bought the second season … Continue reading
I was talking to my friend Joe the other day about racial privilege. Joe is extremely thoughtful about social issues and often alerts me to things that I wasn’t aware of. While we were talking about all the “isms”, Joseph mentioned that, as a white male, he never thinks about his safety. Never. Thinks. About. … Continue reading
Dear single friends- I know. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I got married when I was basically a toddler and what on earth could I possibly know about being single and I should just shut up already. Well, joke’s on you, because I have 21 years experience of being relationship-obsessed and a … Continue reading
At one particular sleepover in middle school, the girls around me decided to get all dressed up, put on make-up, and do their hair. I probably didn’t participate in this activity because 1) I had already combed my hair once that week, 2) it’s highly probable that there wasn’t a dress that I could fit … Continue reading
You know, when I was younger, I had some strange ideas about birthday parties. When I was 18, a small group of friends and I donned eighties prom dresses climbed into Methuselah, an ancient RV that my parents had co-bought with some family friends, and we drove to eat dinner at El Chico in the … Continue reading
My local library has a clearly delineated teen room, with black walls and disco balls and neon posters on the wall. The room also hosts several LOUD signs indicating that only humans of the teenage variety can sit down in that room. If you are over the age of 18 and you had a heart … Continue reading
Okay. Sit down and shut up. I’m going to tell you a little story. Once upon a time, there was a man called King Nebuchadnezzar but everyone called him King Neby because saying his really long name sounds like you sneezed while making up a word…and you have a cold. (Actually, if you called him King … Continue reading
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