True responsibility is balancing the things I have to do with the things I need to do.

When he said “my time” he did mean that he’d rescue us.

I just didn’t know what he meant.

But now I do.

I’ve learned that dreams are just dreams until they turn into skills and those skills are just skills until they’re put into practice and that practice is just practice until it turns into a positive impact, and then you have a gift. I’ve learned that I don’t want dreams that stay in my head, I want dreams that turn into gifts out of my hands. I’ve realized the world doesn’t need dreamers, it needs the gifted.

To be pregnant and talented is to be pregnant and discounted, even if all the work up until that point adds up to a literal billion. To be a mom and have a career is to make tiny decisions every day about what’s best for almost every single person you encounter because of how you feel you’re perceived—less than a good mom, less than a good coworker, less than a caregiver, less than a success. I have no doubt Rihanna thought tirelessly about putting on the best show for y’all and taking the best care of her baby, for y’all to turn around and drag her hard work. Nah, we’re not going to have that.

Dear Tre, you have helped me to understand more deeply what it’s like to be His. To be loved even when all you can do is eat and sleep, to be seen because you’re alive, not because you’re impressive, to be cared for with specificity, to know there’s great value in each breath and more hope because of it. 

a miracle is a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency

If you haven’t heard, the housing market (for buyers) is pretty terrible. Particularly, for first-time middle-class buyers like ourselves, it seems impossible to find a house that meets our criteria. The story of the day is that you see a house you like on Zillow, you send it to your realtor, you go see it, by the time you get there it has 15 offers on it and when you go check to see how much it sold for it was $40,000 above asking. I keep telling people off in my head and asking them to PLEASE go look where you can afford and leave the houses I can afford for ME. T H A N K Y O U!

There are people who talk, and there are people who do. Aunt Phyllis DID! For the people she loved, she gave, worked, helped, created, cared, researched, went and fought - without second thought and without question. I’m blessed to be one of the people she loved. I’m blessed to have been reassured of that love through her dedicated action for me and my family. She did. ❤️

I’ve been forced to feel like Mary thrice in his season. First, through the anticipation of carrying a new child who’s unknown to you and the world with the potential for so much light and goodness, and feeling unworthy or unequipped to follow through on forming them. Second, the anxiety and fright of a lost (unhealthy, runaway, scared, disappointed) child, there’s no more paralyzing feeling than not knowing what’s going on with your kid. Third, when he came back to life and I remembered the promise of a child who God undoubtedly is with.