Her Passion ministries

11/09/2023

Happy Birthday to my first baby girl! 21 trips around the sun 💫 You light up a room and are as beautiful inside as out. ☀️ I love you, sweet girl and affirm all of the goodness you bring to this world. Happy Happiest of birthdays. May this year being you all the peace and happiness you deserve. ❤️

(We do hold each other tight around here!) ❤️💖💖💙

08/25/2023

You can not remove moms from the processes which affect our children.

After becoming a widow at 34 with 3 small children, one with special needs, I’ve learned in ways which I did not desire, that advocating for them would not be for the faint of heart. I know what it takes and takes out of you. I know how is to walk with weak knees and to step up on legs that have buckled in pain and loss and grief. I know the shaking voice when speaking up. I know the despair and anger when told to shut up, and the disillusionment when the doors are closed with nothing to show for the showing up.

It is a brutal ascent to advocacy. The circumstances and events which precipitate that rise is nothing that I wish on anyone. I think most advocates with personal proximity to their cause would agree.

When our children need protecting, we stand. Where our children need a voice, we speak. When the powers that be disregard, diminish, dilute and try to destroy our attempts to come to the table, reconnaissance is our strength, and we regroup and reset. We do not go away easily. In fact, we do not go away at all. We may pause, we may realign priorities, we may reassess. Wisdom says we always reassess to keep the goal in clear sight…well, sight is not always clear exercising advocacy but the goal, yes.

For all of the moms advocating (in all arenas) conversing, meeting, collaborating, asking questions, sending email, making phone calls, pleading, waiting, begging—keep fighting the good fight, and—we shouldn’t have to beg. Be done with begging and take your rightful place at the tables in the spaces where advocacy needs to be had and voices need to be heard.

You can not remove moms from the processes which affect our children.

Onward.

05/15/2023

I love these people who made me a mama.

🩷🩷🩵

Happy Mother’s Day!

03/17/2023

Pain is too heavy to carry. Do the work. Get free. Live better. 🌿

02/25/2023

Insightful words from Mike…

Since the news of the Asbury revival broke, people have been wanting to know what I thought about it. The typical questions are: “Is this a real revival?” “How did…View Post

01/30/2023

If you’ve already been tilted off center this Monday morning, it’s ok to take a moment and reset.
It’s never too early for a reset.
Gratitude helps me do that.
(That’s why I played and prayed this song.)

I frequently remind myself that no one can steal my peace. But—sometimes people or circumstances find a way. Maybe the more accurate description is that if I lose my peace or if someone or something takes it, I do get to decide how long I will alllow
something or someone else to hold it and control it.
I also remind myself that I have the power to take it back.

Take your peace back. 🌿

Peace is currency.
Don’t waste it. Save it. Store it up. And for gosh sake, don’t give it where it is not valued.

Take it back.

And peace out ✌🏼

01/15/2023

This came up in my feed today as a memory.

I’ve been asking for over 2 years for David, my son with Down Syndrome, to have a place on his high school football team (Brentwood High School). They haven’t made a way. But I will keep asking for others to make a place for not only my child with special needs, but all students with special needs.

If you know anything about David it is that he loves football. He has since he was a little tyke. You’ll find him in a football jersey on almost any day of the week. My camera roll is full of pics over the years of David in his football jerseys. He knows more pro players and their positions than most. And he’s actually got a great spiral. But we haven’t asked for rules to be altered for him, nor that he play a certain position, or to even play at all for that matter, but to simply be a part of a team. (It may be football for one student, theater for another, track and field for another, band for another.) Students with intellectual disabilities have interests and dreams just like every other student and should be afforded the access to participate in a way that is meaningful and dignified. The fight isn’t over yet. And make no mistake for parents of and individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities, equitable access is a fight. (Thank you to those who are committed to making access possible.)

09/26/2022

Don’t wait for perfection. It’s an occasional occurrence, but most of the time perfection keeps us procrastinating and postponing the things we long for and that are waiting for us, messes and all. Perfection can be an illusion sometimes that keeps us from reality and leaves us stuck. (There’s a lot to unpack for those of us recovering from perfection and procrastination. 😉)

I turn 50 next week, which has had me contemplating the things I’ve experienced and accomplished in half a century (😱) along with the things I’ve healed from (and still healing from) and…the things I still want in this second half of life.

Whatever you’re thinking about trying or doing or wherever you’re struggling to show up, get on with it. Or…it’s okay to move on to the next thing calling your name and drawing you in. Just don’t waste time pausing too long. The Lord knows I’m all about contemplating and praying, but sometimes He says, “It’s time to move [on, out or in a new direction].” (Exodus 14:15). That very Hebrew translation means

To go forward
Journey
Depart (ed)
Set out
Remove
Go away
March
To pull up (tent pins)

So, in other words, onward my friends. Let’s go. Saddle up. And just show up.

Be well. ❤️

09/25/2022

Maybe someone else needs to hear this, too—I don’t know how God will make a way, but I know He will.

(I was listening to this song this morning and reminded.)

I have no answers otherwise. I’ve been through enough change and disappointment to tell you as soon as you think you may know [the outcome, the next move, the plan], you don’t. Not always. And honestly, seldom for some of us. But I do believe God knows. Always. Even after asking on more than one occasion (like the Israelites), “Did you bring me all this way to die [in the desert]?” I still believe He will deliver us to our Purposes.

For me, it’s one of those seasons where my answer before you even finish asking is—“I have no idea.”

I have no idea what God is doing.
I have no idea how He’s working.
I have no idea how He’s going to show up, do it, or work it out.
And honestly, I’m tired of thinking about it, praying about it, trying to fix it.

And that’s where He has brought me. Yep, to not even pray about it right now. To rest in Trust. Because He’s reminding me that He knows. And that He heard my first prayer, and He will—Someway. Someday. Show up and make it clear.

Waiting is hard. So don’t let the “Woah,” turn into woe. Sometimes there’s slowdowns on a journey to get somewhere. Never have I ever been on a trip anywhere traveling at the same speed the entire time with no stops. I’m reminding myself that progress can happen with pauses.

So, I’m trusting in my own journey that the unanticipated interruptions and slowdowns will serve me well and not to despair. Please, don’t despair. Pivot. Pivot. And pivot toward options. Options give us agency which gives us back that which has been taken away. God will make a way. I know it. Be well. ❤️

06/30/2022

6•29•71
You would be 51 today.

Worked hard. Played hard. Laughed a lot. A lot.
You are missed. Every day.

Happy Birthday, David.
We will celebrate the life you lived and the legacy you left.

06/22/2022

Her Passion is the glory of God. Her Passion is knowing Jesus. Her Passion is making Jesus known. Her Passion is taking what God has given her and using it to bring Glory to His name. Broken I have been. Abandoned I am not. Divorce. Death. Disability. I am familiar with them all. Through it all, who...

06/20/2022

Father’s Day is a mixed bag for me.There’s grief, & there’s comfort.One of the ways I’ve learned to experience the comfort is to acknowledge the grief—& to ease the grief is to recall the memories which offer comfort.It seems a double edged sword, but cut free is the longing, so perhaps it’s ok.

It is difficult to separate the tribute on this day having lost both my own father & the father of my children (within several years of one another). Honestly, the pain is searing, especially that which I experience for Maddie, Annabelle & David, so I want to affirm what is a living part of them.

First, I’m sorry this day is so hard. I’m sorry for your loss & that those who could have stepped up & into your lives, instead stepped away. You deserve all of the empathy, love & compassion.

More importantly, your father would be so proud.There’s a part of him, his personality, his passions, in each of you that raise my cheeks with a smile in preparation to catch the tears as if to say, not a drop is unnoticed.

He loved life—to a fault. Ask anyone who knew him.He loved to laugh.And loudly. IYKYK.He was serious about the serious things (cardiac surgery, academic research & fishing, of course 😂, as was Papa).He was also serious about mowing the lawn & the Daylilies he loved to plant.He was serious about never losing his southern drawl & saying “yes, mam” & “no, mam.” And he was serious about being a dad.He loved the cheer of your little voices when he came through the door at the end of the (long) day & big hugs.

I think he would be ticked pink, as would Papa to know you’re still fishing, Maddie, & on the UofA club team (& the first female officer to boot).And, Annabelle, that you’re interested in pursuing medical school would be the impetus to conversations about trying again when at first you don’t succeed.And I’m sure he would feel the competition as family comedian with the humor “little David” delivers.

I see the likenesses every day.I think he would want you, us, to pursue the things we find ourselves passionate about, take time to play & rest, & laugh a lot.And find the people with whom you can do those things.And, oh, always say “yes, mam” & “no, mam.”😊