If you've been on any form of social media this week, you have probably noticed that it's emotionally charged with polarizing debates about how to handle the heartbreaking epidemic of violence that is quite literally killing our nation.  While these conversations are imperative to our healing, they are not the issue that weighs most heavily on my heart. Today I want to talk about mental health because if you haven't already noticed, the only conversations that we have around the issue occur within the context of analyzing a mass murder, and nothing could be further from the true story behind an illness that's simply not talked about. It's the story of the child who lives in an emotionally and physically unsafe home, yet is brave enough to wake up and make it to school each morning because they know that's where they are seen and loved. It's the story of the teenager who suffers from anxiety because of the exhaustion of living up to everyone's d

Ten years ago today, Eric asked me to be his wife.  In a way, I am tempted to say something cliche like, "time flies."  After all, wasn't it just last week that I was twenty-one and super enthusiastic about life, planning a wedding and living "happily ever ever?" Ya'll, I blinked and...BAM...I'm in the "thirty something" club with two kids, a mortgage, and weekends that revolve around my children's social calendar. I mean, really?  When and how did this happen? On the other hand, if I'm being completely honest, time hasn't always flown.  There have been seasons that it's dragged and even moments that it's stood completely still.  That's the funny thing about time...there's no good way to measure its passing. The year we got married there was a Nationwide Insurance commercial that came out with the tagline, "Life comes at you fast."  I think that's a more fitting depiction of our romance. From