Karena Kreger
Flowing Resilience
Flowing with seasons is a demonstration of personal resilience. Stiff necked resistance can kill you. Our live oak tree is massive and overshadows both our house and our shop. When the latest hurricane threatened, we worried those weighty branches would crash down on us. But wiser, older friends reminded us that this tree has withstood … Read more
Dissidence: How to live in a world with no good answers
Dissidence is Not Comfortable Being in a place of conflict with competing sides is not a comfortable place to be. We’ve been taught to problem solve, resolve conflict and mediate compromise. In other words we’re taught to return to a place of equilibrium as soon as possible. In our need for the strain to lift, … Read more
Drops of Time in the Bucket
I’m trying to teach them budgeting, these two teenagers of mine. When they were younger we started with the very basic Give, Spend, Save system with three envelopes from Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace, Jr. set. But through the chaos of the last two years we’ve moved away from carefully dividing their “commission” up properly in … Read more
What I Heard in The Great Pause
One of my own life’s chronic themes is living at a pace that dances on the line between impressive effectiveness and self-sabotaging burnout. So The Great Pause of 2020 was both terrifying and enchanting for me. Beside the initial fear and awe, and the weight of the unknown, there were eventually waves of emotions and … Read more
Wishin’ and Hopin’
Seeing my own life through the eyes of my adopted children has made many moments of surprise over the years. Nowhere is this more true than in the area of language. Coming to us at 8 & 10 years old, these last four years have been full of working out the nuances of English in … Read more
Becoming Enough
She told me that the psychological panic a 2 year old has over having to use the “wrong” sippy cup is equal to the panic I would feel if I couldn’t pay the mortgage. The scope of the problem within the capacity of our individual worlds is proportionately the same, though a clear-headed intellectual comparison … Read more
Plowing that Field, Cleansing that Spring
8 Months? Wow. Today marks 8 months since we walked out of the Children’s Shelter of Cebu with two weeping little girls, full of a thousand emotions, and the two of us, wide eyed in wonder at the journey we were embarking on. And for more than 8 months, I have been silent on this … Read more
Leaving as Two but Returning as Four!
It’s go time! The adoption visas for our girls have come through and we are so pleased to be heading to the Philippines VERY soon to bring them home. With great joy and a bit of nervousness we are finalizing plans, travel arrangements, budgets, gifts, donations and packing up clothes. Thank you for being a … Read more
Getting There and Back Again: Adoption Lists
I’ve only recently become a video chat kinda girl. There is something about attempting to act naturally while talking to my computer and seeing myself at the same time in the smaller window that triggers my latent Junior High self conscious insecurities. And where are you supposed to look anyway? If I look at the camera … Read more
Love makes a family – An Adoption Update
It was the day before Valentine’s Day Text from my man, “Call the Adoption Agency. They left a voicemail and said they have a Valentine’s Day gift for us.” My heart skips a beat and I quickly dial our fabulous social worker, the one with a heart of gold and an ease about her that’s … Read more