Elizabeth Lyvers's Blog, page 3

Strong and Soft: The Hearts of Foster Parents for Their Kids

Lilly is a 10-day-old baby withdrawing from drug exposure in the womb. Henry is 5 years old and has spent most of his life in foster care. He was separated from a home with his siblings to be reunited with his biological father who severely beat him.  Katie is 19 years old. She has aged …

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The Reason for Coffee

Inside this neighborhood coffee shop, the wood of the tables gleams gold. Ivy grows on the windowsill. Outside, cars slip by on a street divided by a row of live oaks, their boughs fresh with spring green. I sip a flat white that is unsurpassed in its natural sweetness and creaminess, not a hint of …

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Light Returns

I used to love when the lights went out. Growing up in West Virginia, we typically lost power because of a downed tree in a summer thunderstorm. As the house filled with hot, humid air, my sisters and I would rush to light candles and play the piano, rain drumming against the roof like an …

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The Tottering Teacup

Labor started on a Monday afternoon in Chipotle. I was halfway down the assembly line about to ask for pico and cheese when I found myself unable to get out the words. I sagged against the countertop, eyes squeezed shut, and waited for the contraction to pass. “Are you in labor?” the Chipotle worker asked, …

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Wishes for a Life Just Beginning

In the midst of 2020 insanity, a few family and friends celebrated Baby Lyvers with a socially distanced, mask-adorned, come-and-go shower in West Virginia. As part of the festivities, guests could fill out a card prompting them with various “wishes for baby.” In the rush of the weekend, Tommy and I didn’t have time to …

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Babymooning On the Inside of a Novel

A few months ago, Tommy and I fled the Texas heat to babymoon in Traverse City and Leelanau County, Michigan, the setting of my novel The Honest Lies. If you’re unfamiliar with the term “babymoon,” think celebration vacation with a child who can’t scream or blow out diapers yet.  Whenever a reader asks why I set …

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By: Paul Behrens

Yes, your article triggered a lot of emotions. There are times when I’m better able to deal with this sort of thing. In general, what helps me deal with the never ending series of changes and (seeming) losses in my life is reminding myself of my personal and biblical view of this life and the next. I find it a comforting thought that all the things in this life (happy, sad, or whatever) are being orchestrated by my loving heavenly father to prepare me for my REAL life with him forever in heaven. This helps take the edge off of some of the sadness and reorients my gaze to my beloved savior and to my future hope in Christ as a beloved child of my heavenly father.

The River Stone

I’ve always struggled to decide when something was my “favorite,” whether a favorite color or season or day of the week. I think “favorites” of anything are built from memory – words and images and sounds that once evoked strong emotion. Over time, that emotion is captured like river stones in a sifter. Eventually you …

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