Tag: children

Why Women Still Can’t Have It All, etc.

I read two interesting articles today I thought were worthy of sharing. The first one is called “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” and has become a very popular and widely read article in the last week. It is written by Anne-Marie Slaughter who “describes her own experience of stepping down from a high-level State Department position to teach at Princeton and spend more time with her children. In the process, she came to an uncomfortable realization: No matter what well-meaning feminists might say, women really can’t have it all. ‘Not today,’ she writes, ‘not with the way America’s economy and society are currently structured.'” The article is *super* long, but a good read nevertheless: http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-can-8217-t-have-it-all/9020/1/

The second one is entitled “Why There’s No Such Thing as ‘Having It All’ – and There Never Will Be” and is a (much shorter) response to the first article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/why-theres-no-such-thing-as-having-it-all-and-there-never-will-be/258928/ If you don’t have time to read the first article, you could probably just read this one and get a fairly good gist of what the first article is about.

If you are further interested in the subject of mothers balancing careers and family from a Christian/biblical perspective, my friend Sarah did a blog series entitled “passionate, joyful homemaking,” in which she writes on such topics as “should moms pursue a career?” and “God’s creation of a mother’s role.” I’ve read the whole series and while I don’t necessarily agree with everything she wrote, she does have great insight and I found the posts thought provoking.

This subject is certainly one worth discussing and I’d love to get feedback on any or all of the above material…

I’m Watching You Dad

With Father’s Day coming up, I am so thankful for a wonderful husband and father who knows his son is watching him and lives a life worthy of emulation. I love you, Sean Felker! I wish everyone could have a dad as great as you and that more fathers would take their role seriously and understand the impact they have on their children’s lives.

I am also thankful that those who have less than ideal relationships with our earthly fathers can always count on our Heavenly Father who is perfect and loves us passionately and unconditionally. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1a

Isaiah’s Story: A Beautiful Rescue

This is the first of many, many posts to come on the subject of adoption. Adoption is easily in my top ten favorite topics to think and talk about. It hasn’t always been that way – in fact, adoption wasn’t even on my radar until I was 23 years old. Until that point, adoption was a foreign concept to me. I have never been close with anyone who was adopted and it wasn’t (and isn’t) something I have heard many people talk about. Growing up, the only time that word ever appeared in my vocabulary was to tease my sisters that they had been adopted into the family.

Then I met Donna. Donna has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever known. She cares for people deeply and has a special heart for those who have been marginalized in society. At the time we met, we were both in a master’s program for social work and we quickly bonded over that. In the process of developing a friendship with her, I soon discovered her heart for adoption and thus began an ongoing dialogue between us on the subject.

As I listened to her perspectives and experienced her passion for adoption, my heart quickly caught fire. I began praying about it, meditating on the subject, researching it (both theologically and practically), and discussing it in great depth with Sean. Sean’s heart caught fire just as quickly as mine, and we readily agreed at age 23/24 (one year after we got married) that the Lord was calling us to adopt children at some point. We are not there yet, but we are very excited for when that time comes and plan to adopt as many children as God allows/gives us capacity for.

I’ll go into the details as to the reasons why we want to adopt in future posts; my goal here is to simply introduce the topic and relay how zealous I am about it. In fact, I can’t hear a single person even mention the word ‘adoption’ without starting to tear up – it’s become that evocative. Speaking of emotional impact, I highly encourage you to watch the short video below about a little boy named Isaiah. I’ve seen this video countless times and I still cry (and then get a huge smile) every time I see it. If this video doesn’t make you weep, tear up, or at least make you manly men have a small allergic reaction to your feelings…there is probably something wrong with you. Lol! Just kidding, but I do hope that it will strike a chord in your heart as well, and no matter what stage of life you’re in, I pray that it might even be the first seed that opens your mind to the idea of being a part of God’s work through the ministry of adoption.