We at Mom to Mom Ministries are super-excited these days. Soon (tomorrow!) our new curriculum, Real Mom Life, will launch. We can’t wait!

One of the lessons (#11) in this series is the most personal and deeply emotional I’ve ever taught. It’s on “Hidden Losses of Mom Life,” and focuses on infertility issues and miscarriage—two profoundly affecting experiences of my own mom-life. But there is also a third topic in this lesson that is very dear to my heart: adoption. Though Woody and I have not had the privilege of adopting, we have been walking through it very closely alongside our son Bjorn and his wife, Abby. When we recorded Lesson #11 for Real Mom Life, I was not free to share the whole story. Now I am, so here it is!

Mom to Mom friends, we have exciting news to share with you! We have recently finished taping sixteen new lessons for our next Mom to Mom curriculum series, Real Mom Life. The series includes a number of new topics (we’ve been hearing from you over the years!) as well as fresh perspectives on the ongoing challenges of mom life—such as ages and stages with children, parenting children with special needs, nurturing your marriage, and spiritual growth. 

“It’s almost time to return to the cold, to the gray labors and long January of our lives.” I read these words (from Walter Wangerin, Preparing for Jesus, p. 177) in Ireland a few days ago, sitting in our daughter Erika’s “sun room” on a gloomy morning dreading the goodbyes ahead.

There’s something about November. So much to love: turkey, family gatherings, pumpkin-flavored everything. I love pumpkin! We have three family birthdays this month—two grandchildren and our daughter. And I do love birthdays. I also love the giving of thanks. Over the years, November has become for me a month—not just a day—of giving thanks. God seems to remind me continually of how many blessings I have to count. And everyone knows how good giving thanks is for the soul. 

I get book titles stuck in my head. Whether I have actually read the books or not. The current example falls in the latter category. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” is the title of a long-ago short story by Alan Sillitoe which was later made into a movie, also long ago. Full disclosure: I have never read the book or seen the movie. So why is this title running through my head repeatedly?

For some reason Madeline L’Engle’s book, The Irrational Season, has been on my mind a lot lately. Not so much the book—which is wonderful, but which I haven’t read for years—but its title. Just the title. I feel as if I am living in an “irrational season.” A tumult of emotions that are not easy to explain rationally. A living paradox, maybe. A seemingly irrational season.  

Who knew? That stretch marks happen in your heart as well as the rest of your body. And the heart-kind are more ongoing, deeper, and longer-lasting than the other kind. In fact, they never go away. At least not if you’re a mom. 

For me, this is a summer of stretch marks. Two of my three kids are moving. Really moving, I mean. Farther away from me, which is how a Nana measures space and time.