DEAR ADELAIDE

You know when you thought that you had adequately dealt with some hard emotions, but an event, a trauma, an encounter brings up an unexpected reaction? A reaction that shows that while you thought you were done dealing with your trauma, it actually had some hidden facets you had yet to get to. One that shows that while you have made major progress towards healing, your trauma has been redefined in an unanticipated way. 

Walking back towards marriage has brought em...

I wonder what the disciples were thinking during the Last Supper. Was Jesus somber with the weight of what was coming on His shoulders? Did they worry that their master was quiet or did they not realize His silence meant something extraordinary was coming? Did their eyes meet across the table while they spoke, darting to Jesus as if to say, "is He acting weird this evening?" Or did Jesus give more pieces of wisdom than the book of Matthew lets on. Did we just see...

I didn't think marriage would happen for me again after my divorce, and I'll be honest, I didn't want it to. I wasn't a man-hater that threw the baby out with the bath water, but I felt that I could keep my daughter from the pain I went through as a product of divorce both from my parents and myself if I just didn't get married again. And yet... Yesterday, my best friend in the entire world asked me to spend the rest of our lives hand in hand; side by side. He as...

It’s been quiet around her for the last several months. I took a hiatus to really dig my heels in and work on my book, but then I hit a snag. Something inside of me just wasn’t feeling it. I can’t tell you what, but something just wasn’t right. I hit a fork in the road. I realized that I wasn’t through with my healing.

Now I realize you are never truly done healing from a trauma, but there were some areas that I was still struggling with and still dealing with so...

The first time I felt damaged.
The first time I felt hurt beyond repair.
The first time I felt like I failed my children.
The first time I felt rejected. Unloved.

Unwanted.

Friends, as I continue getting closer and closer to finishing my first manuscript of The Anatomy of Single Motherhood, I’m continually reminded of how many of our brothers and sisters can relate to the feelings I expressed above, striving to find worth in sex, money, possessions, people, or social...

As a product of divorced parents where my mom didn’t exactly go about telling us in the best way, I know how delicately this sort of situation has to be handled. My mom chose to leave my dad, so we weren’t abandoned, but my ex-husband chose to leave my daughter before she was even born. That is a devastating loss, but I’m so beyond grateful that is how it happened. I’ll explain further in a little bit. For now, let’s talk about how I plan to explain this to my d...

Do you know how much more attractive men with high paying jobs and no family life are to young women? Unfortunately, there are so few of these types of men anymore because of the lack of CEO-esque positions in the work place! How dare all of these positions become more and more filled up by men AND WOMEN! I propose that because obviously we as women were created to be childbearing slaves who are meek and silent, we remove all women from the work place so that the...

You may wonder why I'm writing this post. Why me, a single mother in her early 20-somethings that is trying to balance a launching career, writing a BOOK*(consider this an announcement for those who didn't know), raising an 18 month old, and just trying to get 4-5 hours of sleep a night would talk about dating. I guess that now's also a good time to say it's because I've been seeing someone.

For several months.

And I'm in love.

Oops.

Let me start with this was never...

"Broken things can become new things. Broken things can become redeemed things, broken things can become resurrected things, broken things can become breaking free things." Ann Voskamp

What is a name? A name is an identifier. A name ties you to another person; it gives a sense of self. I've chosen after much thought and prayer to begin 2018 with my maiden name and Adelaide and I will begin our future together as Shea and Adelaide Sparks. We’ve chosen to not look b...

We've all been there: your friends invite you out for drinks and a movie, and no matter how you finagle it, the logistics just don't work, and there's no way you can make childcare happen. Or you want to go to Target by yourself. Or once -- JUST ONCE -- you want to go to the bathroom by yourself. It can feel a little bit suffocating being a mom, sometimes. We're expected to be so many places at once, to never be tired, to always have everything ready at the drop...