Tag: neighbors
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Los Queremos Aquí :: We Want Them Here
The first asylee I ever met was a man from Eritrea. We’ll call him Ben. Ben had flown to Central America and come into the US across the Mexican border. He claimed asylum when he got here. I met him when he’d already been here about two years waiting on a judge to hear his…
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She Can’t Speak For Us: An Open Letter to Good White People
Hey there good white people- We need to chat. But first, a story. You might know that I volunteer with an organization called Faith in Texas, which is a “multi-racial, multi-faith movement developing civic leadership in faith communities for economic and racial justice.” They had a press conference today at Robert E. Lee park in Dallas.…
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Conversations Overheard from Our Backyard
SATURDAY EVENING Alex: I haven’t seen Pamela today at all. I haven’t seen her all day. Beth: Did you check the bushes? A: Yeah. The bushes, the nesting box. Unless she’s hiding behind the shed, I think a cat must have gotten her or something. B: Okay, just wait. Let me check. Sometimes they’re hiding….Hmmm.…
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On Why My Feelings Need to Share the Stage
Do you know what I realized last night? During elementary, middle, and high school, I only had ONE teacher of color. Yep, Señora Batts, middle school Spanish teacher, was a Latina woman. Other than her, I cannot think of a single instructor, band director, principal, coach looked like me. Even at Texas A&M, I can only…
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Fight the Pharisee: Woe #1
I washed my hair with moldy apple cider last Sunday. It was unintentional, I assure you. Last year, I found out that rinsing your hair with alcohol (i.e. beer) was really good for it and so I’ve been doing it every so often since November (read: During our home study, there were cans of beer that…
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Guest Post: Lindsey Wallace
This is a welderbeth first. We have a guest blogger today. I’ve known Lindsey since, hmmm, at least 2006. We were a part of a tight knit house church together and we’ve kept in touch over the years, even though we live a few hours apart. She even ran in our half-marathon team last year.…
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Syrious
I still remember the phone call that I made to my parents in the Spring of 2006. “Mom? Dad? I think I want to go to Syria over Spring Break.” My church was taking a “fact finding” trip and they needed people to go meet with the missionaries there and then come back and get…
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The Danger of Comfort
I’ve been perusing my old xanga site, where I blogged all through college and the beginning of my marriage. How fun it is to have a record of my thoughts going all the way back to high school (where all my friends blogged at diaryland). I was reading some stories that I had written about…
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Dear Daughter: Sonic Love
Hey sweet girl- Did you know it’s been almost a year since we’ve started this adoption process? A YEAR! That is so long and we have so far to go, but this has been the most important, emotional year of my life- a year filled with inexplicable joy and heartaches. If we’re to believe the…