When I was newly single at the age of 40, my dad was visiting from Michigan. On that trip, he went to Home Depot and bought me a tool bag and an assortment of basic tools to keep in the trunk of my car. There was a hammer, screwdrivers, some electrical tape, zip ties, and…
Blake walked into the office recently holding an envelope and said, “I want to read you something.” We could tell by the smile on his face it was going to be something good. He unfolded a piece of paper and started reading, “Ordered, Adjudged, and Decreed as follows: The parties have agreed that it is…
If you have ever been in the backroom of one of our thrift stores, you were surely amazed at the sheer amount of “stuff” that is donated every single day. Sometimes it makes us wonder, “Where is all this stuff coming from?! Do the people in our community really have this much stuff to give away…
Sometime last year, a resident who was also an employee at The Saving Way ran into an old friend at the thrift store. He had not seen this friend in several years. From a few aisles over, I listened as the resident, Gary, explained that he was close to graduating from the program at His…
Several years ago, I started a Snapchat tradition with my kids that we call “Church Feet”. Since they were older and we weren’t able to attend church together very often, on Sundays I would snap a picture of my feet and label it “Church Feet”, before sending it to them. My hope was that they…
When John Grisham’s The Firm was published in 1991, “everyone” was talking about how great it was, so I jumped on the bandwagon. I took it on a family camping trip and spent the entire weekend sitting by Lake Michigan devouring it. I loved it! Since then, I have read and collected every John Grisham book…
When I was a shy kindergartener, my mom sent me off to school on March 17 without a stitch of green clothing on and no advanced notice about what this would mean. Apparently, my elementary school took this holiday seriously…and I was pinched hard on the arm…without warning…while I was riding on the school bus…
Almost ten years ago when I came to work at The Saving Way, I knew very little about addiction. For most of my life, if I thought about it at all, I (arrogantly) thought an addict was likely a vagrant who wandered around the streets and who lacked the self-control and wisdom to make better…