The two of us with all 23 kids

I am Kathy. Wife to Scott, mother to twenty-three children (most with special needs), grandmother of twelve (five adopted and with special needs). Read more about us on our family blog, “Where Love Learns Its Lessons.”  And if you want the full story, you can order our book, “Swaying In the Treetops: A True Story of Faith and the Fatherless.” 

My passions are my husband and my kids and grandkids; adoption and orphan care; homeschooling; learning to trust God more and know Him more deeply; and becoming real – a Velveteen Rabbit-y kind of real.

“It doesn’t happen all at once . . . You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

And sometimes it hurts. A lot. But I’m learning that, even before I can really be real, I have to become empty – embrace my nothingness. Then God, Who created me and made me a daughter of the King, can fill me with His everything-ness and finally make me into the real person I was intended to be. I’m also learning that this is a life-long process full of ups and downs and backs and forths and very slow progress – and that every single day brings lessons that help me along the way if I will just keep my eyes open and watch for them. I’ve created this blog as a place to share some of these lessons. Maybe there are others out there on this same journey who can possibly gain a little benefit from some of these learning experiences, too. And someday we will be really and truly real and just bask in His glory and loving gaze forever.