It is the small things really. The sudden realization that I am alone in a house that is usually filled to the brim with comings and goings, with long teenage bodies sprawled over couches and floors, with shoes tossed in corners and jackets hung on the back of chairs and dishes always in the sink…
The Houston cottage understands and promotes individual worth, especially the worth of girls and women. This past year the cottage, led by Nikki Brown, has served in very sweet and personal ways. Families transitioning out of homelessness have many challenges. Working with a local non-profit organization, the Houston cottage members prepared and delivered meals for…
Few would argue that the traditional family–birth or adoptive–is without parallel in providing nurture, guidance, and support to the rising generation. As a child of divorced parents, I salute my mom who provided these essentials to me despite running our family business and rearing six children. Not every child is part of such a family,…
Family, Such a simple word, yet it carries a magnitude of meaning. What is family? Why is this role important? If you’re reading this, take a moment and set a 30-second timer. I want you to close your eyes, take a slow deep breath in for at least 3 counts, then exhale for 5 counts…
Posted December 11 Perspective changes in an instant. I have been busy with all the things I normally do and then I heard that my brother, Dwight, was struggling with COVID-19 and was in the hospital. From that moment on my life has been changed. The other prayers in my heart have had to move…
What are the things that we hope most to see in our children? Of all of the lessons we try to teach, with all of the time and effort put in to raising the next generation, what really matters the most? Rebekah Pierce, one of our newest members of the Communications Committee, would propose that…
In February, Sandra Ahlquist planned a May 1 celebration marking her retirement after 40 years as the owner, teacher, and driving force of Aunt Sands’ Preschool. Instead, like nearly everything else this spring, COVID-19 rewrote the script. The school closed its doors forever in March, but its legacy will live on through the truths she…
When Marisa Hoover first learned about Big Ocean, she did what she always does: conducted some research and then jumped in with both feet. At the time she was a freshman at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She and a friend were drawn to an Instagram post inviting young women to apply to be…
You really need to hand it to Becky and Tom Rogers. As parents of ten children, they already had their hands full. After she felt a “call of the heart” to do humanitarian work in Ghana, they moved there with six of their children and started getting their hands dirty. They tried their hand at…
Last year at CSW an Indian woman, Ms. Sai, from an organization called Swayam Shikshan Prayog reported on a project in which rural women were making and selling solar-powered lamps. A Moroccan woman listened in complete awe. During the Q&A she said that she is from a similarly patriarchal country and asked, “How do you…