Favorite things 2025A few quick updates before our grid:
We’re really missing Sam this Christmas as he serves a mission for our church in Iowa City, Iowa. He’s already made lifelong friends and has picked up the guitar in his free time. Zack is finishing his senior year—very ready to be done with school—and is all about guitar and music (check out his band Almond Extract on spotify, apple music, etc). Ellie is in 8th grade and dancing, dancing, dancing her life away. Clara is in 6th grade and loves soccer, piano, and volleyball—and she can already overhand serve from behind the line!
Matt and I are plugging along. I returned home from a trip to Africa in October and was deeply moved by the incredible difference one woman—the head teacher—has made in her school and community. It reminded me that sometimes a single person really can change everything for someone else.
For anyone who needs it: the world can feel heavy, loud, and broken—but I have seen the good, and it is happening. Quietly. Faithfully. In people who show up, in communities that lift one another, in friends who hold space for heavy hearts, and in perfectly timed calls, messages, and notes that change a day—or a life.
If you’re wondering whether you matter, you do.
Be the one. Someone needs you.
