Oh God, Do You Hear Their Prayers?

It’s the middle of the sweltering Bangkok workday, and I’m wrestling with God in the back of a taxi on my way home from prison. I’m slipping around on hot vinyl as my theology gets pressed and squeezed like the limes at the juice stand outside my window. I’ve just visited my friend Nina.* She…

We Live at the Circus

A friend and I lamented over coffee the other day about how we are cheating our kids a healthy, “normal” childhood by living in Bangkok. The lack of green space, fresh air, digging dirt, and the great outdoors–are we damaging them? After some thought and consideration, I’ve decided that we are actually living at the…

Euro Trip Part III: Grasse + Monaco

This leg of the race was really part 2 1/2 out of 4 but worthy of its own little corner of the blogosphere. After so much researching of where to go in Europe and narrowing it down to 4 stops, we added this side trip in at the last minute, knowing it would be a…

Euro Trip Part 2: Bonnieux

People travel for different reasons. For rest, relaxation, education and exploration. For me, the best trips are the ones when we feel like a character in another world. We surprise ourselves when we live in a different environment, and it stretches who we are as a person. It’s the same reason why I love theatre so…

Euro Trip Part I: PARIS

I do realize I haven’t yet written about our current home: Bangkok. I will. Eventually. 🙂 It took the better part of a year, but we do love our life in Bangkok. Still, we needed an escape. I hate to complain at all- we do have a good quality of life here. But the never-ending heat,…

Love Anyway

Last night I dreamt that an adolescent boy broke into my apartment through my back door. At first I was afraid. What does he want? He ran to my bedroom and grabbed my guitar. Then sat on my floor, face aglow at this magical thing. My fears relaxed and his face morphed into that of…

She Came in Like a Wrecking Ball: The Birth Story of Magnolia Patton

How’s that for a title? I can’t believe my baby girl is over 6 months old and I’m just now writing this.  As I mentioned before with Henry’s birth story, there’s something biologically altering in a woman’s memory that happens after she has a baby.  Over time, the negative things are mostly forgotten and what’s…

Henry is TWO!

Henry is TWO today!! Where has the time gone?  It seems like yesterday I was nervously awaiting his arrival at the base hospital in Japan.  And now he’s a wild little fire-loving caveman; a walking, talking, soon-to-be big brother!  I absolutely love this age (challenging as it is)- in my opinion, it doesn’t get much cuter…

TOP 10 THINGS I MISS ABOUT JAPAN

Holy Moses it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged!  Things got a little crazy after I got pregnant.  Twenty weeks of severe morning sickness (and a husband that was gone through most of it), followed by a big move back to the states has knocked me out of the blogosphere and everything else. I’m…

A Very Unorthodox Easter

This Easter you won’t see any cutesy family photos from the Patton family.  You know the sort- everybody dressed in their Sunday best Springtime attire, beautifully posed near a patch of flowers or under a tree.  I love these kinds of pictures, and of course it was the plan.  Had it all laid out- Henry was supposed…