Featured – Page 20 – JANELLE DELAGRANGE

The Birds

I like to think of her as a bird. Not like The Notebook portrays it. (“If you’re a bird, I’m a bird!”) A bird that floats with the wind, wings spread, strong in her wingspan, but graceful as the wind lashes across her face. She flies with intention, flaps when the time is right, glidesContinue reading “The Birds”

Girl, Listen

The past couple of months have been real. Not that my life is make-believe, but my days have felt meaningful. Sometimes I get sidetracked by my kids or whatever spot on my carpet I need to clean, but recently, I feel the sparks of purpose and value. It’s been wholesome. Enlightening. I think back onContinue reading “Girl, Listen”

Open Hands

Two summers ago, I sat at my dining room table with three other women. We met every Sunday night for about a year, discussing life, the Bible, our struggles, whatever had happened that week. I remember my sister-in-law, Stephanie, sharing the call her and her husband felt led to: Bible translation with Wycliffe Bible Translators.Continue reading “Open Hands”

When Your Son Poops and Other Stories

A few years ago, when I was potty-training my oldest, I left him naked from the waist down so that he could go to the potty on his own. He had his own little potty in the bathroom, and with a 4 month old baby in my arms frequently, it was the best I couldContinue reading “When Your Son Poops and Other Stories”

To Those Who Don’t Feel Ready

I get asked every so often, “So, would you ever get a degree?” To which I promptly say, “No. Probably not.” When I was 18, I went to college for two weeks, and bailed with tears streaming down my face. I packed up and ran in only a few hours. I was not ready. NotContinue reading “To Those Who Don’t Feel Ready”

Pep Talk: A Message to Myself

You know what’s really trying, as a parent? Trying to get anything done. Ever. We’ve been trying to renovate/update our home for the past handful of years, and we’re still inching along, slowly making progress. It drives me absolutely crazy. Half-finished projects make me feel so unproductive and unmotivated, that I find myself only wantingContinue reading “Pep Talk: A Message to Myself”

Little Old Me

I wrote an essay my junior year of high school that changed my life. I wouldn’t say it’s the most profound thing I’ve ever written, but the review I got from a college essay critic changed everything about me. They wrote something like, “I have been a teacher for so-and-so years, and I have neverContinue reading “Little Old Me”