August 1, 2025

Facts About Founder and Family

There’s a chorus of different sounds in our home from the dog’s incessant barking when anyone is close to our home outside to teen slang and teens making fun of teen slang (“skibbity toilet!” “Bruh, that’s cap”) to us hollering for the kids to do things and my parents hollering at one another in frustration when they do not hear one another or in jubilation when their favorite teams score.

We are blessed with plenty of room but tend to be cursed by the need to constantly shout for someone instead of dealing with another staircase. Cell phones on the teens sometimes help, but if they suspect chores and expectations they don’t always answer. All four kids argue as do all of us at times. The littles argue most frequently and for our daughter the loss of a toy or the remote at the hands of a brother leads to the most tears.

Any one of us can be caught whining or complaining at a given moment, but also jokes, love, and encouragement live here too.

Next week the chatter will be about school schedules, teachers, classes, and bus info and about soaking up every last bit of summer. And for the next month the sounds of birthdays being celebrated will be a frequent blessing.

And then Mom will face surgery again and we will talk about fears, plans, preparations, questions we have, and ways to prioritize providing support and advocacy one day at a time.

As it comes up we’ll talk about it. And the kids are still coming to us to talk about a lot so we keep the conversations going and we ask them to come to us with anything and hope that they will and we know that they don’t always. And we hope that those who enter our doors are listening ears and voices that fill and uplift where we are not necessarily invited to do so or are not the ones meant to be there for that purpose or lesson.

I ache for silence at times when I cannot get a second, but I know I will ache for each one of these voices when I don’t get to hear it close by anymore.