TJ and Ashley Humphrey

Friends, It has been so very long since my last post.  Honestly, and not surprisingly, this past year has been quite awful, and I haven't felt like writing.  But as Christmas and the new year draw closer, I'm getting reflective and not at all in the mood to sugar-coat anything.  So here we go. This is our Advent wreath this year.  Isn't it lame?  None of the candles are straight, and I have twice found the pink "joy" candle completely broken off and sadly laying on the table.  What a metaphor for 2020.  No matter how many times I fix the candles and rig them to stand upright, they manage to do this.  I quit trying to fix them. I don't want to tell you about how things were so different for our family this year, because things have been different for literally everyone.  We all know that story.  I do want to tell you a bit about this last year of our life and my reflection on this Advent season. Nora entered our world in  September 2...

As I'm writing this, there is about 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground and the wind (with a wind chill of -20) is literally howling around the corner of the living room, where I'm buried under a quilt with my laptop and zero chances of going outside.  A perfect day to write! First of all, if you read my last post (A Spouse's Seminary Reflection) and reached out to either me or TJ with your encouragement and kind words -- thank you.  That was a hard thing to write, and I was overwhelmed by the response.  It motivated me to continue speaking true things out into the world, and knowing that there are people out there who value honesty as well is pretty awesome.  So... thanks! Since my last post, there have been some major changes to our family... Nora Ruth Humphrey was born on September 26, 2019 at approximately 5pm after an eventful third trimester of pregnancy.  Only three weeks after moving to Beloit and only 28 weeks into the pregnancy, I awoke o...