The weekend did not weekend as weekends should. Wyatt took us all down with a flu he bounced back from as soon as the other kids got out of school on Friday. My own empty tank was certainly not sufficient to support Benjamin’s needs, and every moment dragged on like its own emergency. It is a euphemism, at best, to say we had a tough one.

Relevant Magazine recently reported "Christian music is finally having a real mainstream moment." For the first time in over a decade, two Christian songs made Billboard's "Hot 100" list simultaneously. "American Idol" aired a three-hour "Songs of Faith" special on Easter Sunday. Christian singer and songwriter, Brandon Lake performed "Hard-Fought Hallelujah" on Jimmy Kimmel Live and made a surprise appearance at Stagecoach Festival, co-leading 75,000 people from every walk of life in an incredibly relevant psalm.

Sometimes we call him “Frat Boy Wyatt” because he lives full throttle, like a youth freshly released in the wild. Wyatt does everything all the way - from chugging Powerade and sprinting through life to loving his brothers and full contact hugs. He’s intense. He is consolidated electricity, team spirit and goodness in one package. Enjoy a peek at this afternoon… just a regular day of Wyatt living life.

I recently spent an afternoon with moms ahead of me in their special needs parenting journeys. A familiar knot twisted in my gut as they shared about unenrolling their children from school. My personal nightmare, one I push down deep, was tea time conversation. You see, statistics agree with every story I've heard. Children with my son's diagnosis are often unable to stay in school and endure so much just trying to grow up.

Have you ever read stories of the disciples and wondered, "How could you do that? Jesus is LITERALLY right there with you!" Luke 22 recounts Jesus telling Peter he would deny Him three times before the rooster's first morning crow. Despite the "warning", Peter fulfilled the prophesy that very same night.

Me too, Peter.

I didn’t know what I was standing in the middle of when I started playing worship music, trying to make it louder than the pounding pulse of life. I didn’t expect those long nights to minister to me - and then others. God’s voice broke through the noise of life while I listened to those songs. I wanted to tell my friends what I heard, so I started sharing through WhatsApp messages. Over time, I started sending it to a few more people - and then more. I committed to sending it out every Friday at 6am and called it “The Friday Call to Worship”. Nobody needed me to write it down except me. I was making a commitment to God to show up every week and to need to hear Him.

One of the most valuable currencies in the Ladd family is power. The first thing Wyatt says when he wakes up is, “I have power to play!” When the little boys feel they have eaten enough, they flex their muscles to prove they have sufficiently refueled their power supplies.

We had a BEAUTIFUL morning at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens this morning. We were given a tour of a textiles exhibition, went on a short hike and fished for tadpoles with our bare hands. When it was time to head out, Benjamin’s legs buckled under him and emotion overcame him.

When the curtains close on 2025, my oldest son will be 18 and finished with high school. We walked through much together in his earliest years, but the stories are his to share now. I can confess, however, the sleep I've lost pleading with God that my first son wouldn't have to learn things the hard way. I have contended with the same Father who let His Son die for mine (who's actually His!) to spare my boy from wandering in the wilderness. But now I pray that he, along with our other sons, would know who they are in Christ above anything else... whatever it takes. Gulp.

My husband and I have the unique privilege of gathering with missionaries around the world. This week, we were on a call with our friends serving the deaf in Jamaica, internationals and locals in Haiti, the church in Europe, community development in Northern Africa, and the front lines of the war in Israel. We celebrated baptisms, breakthroughs and the ways God keeps showing up for our families. We supported one another over the inglorious strains of living abroad and raising children in foreign countries.

Corrie ten Boom was born on Good Friday in 1892. Her family's home in Haarlem, Holland would become part of the underground movement for Jewish people during World War II.

The story goes that Corrie's father comforted his daughter while she cried over a broken heart before the war began. "Corrie, love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain... We can kill the love so it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or, Corrie, we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel..."

My mom is the greatest celebrator. She flies across the world every April to be with us for Easter and family birthdays. We plan celebrations with great intentionality to accommodate our middle son's nervous system disability. He spends 364 days a year anticipating April 9th, when he gets to be the birthday boy. We want him to be able to enjoy as much of it as he can.

God's people entered the Promised Land through parted waters. (Joshua 3) Upon arrival, their enemies fell at the sound of their worship. (Joshua 6) It only took a few generations for those miracles to become distant stories, dimmed by the shiny veneer of man-made gods. The tribes that traversed the wilderness together turned against one another, slandering, shaming and needlessly engaging in a civil war.

My childhood Sunday School teachers told me Jesus loves me, and I took them at their word. I was baptized at ten-years old, never wondering if the grass was greener anywhere else.

I was barely 22 when I walked into my first graduate-level seminary class: Gospels at 8am. I imagined falling more in love with Jesus, plain and simple. My professor had another objective…

When the people wake up illegally early... Benjamin needs a down day... and Wyatt doesn’t do down.

Jam stayed home with Chris while I took Wyatt mall-walking on a rainy morning. We arrived an hour before the mall opened, and the boy lived his best life. He got his first glimpse of an arcade (my nightmare) and rode every ride. (Let’s never tell him you are supposed to buy tokens and actually make the rides move, ok?)

Chris traveled through South Africa earlier this month, and we’ve had the privilege of hosting many guests lately. Our usual, unwavering routine has been all over the place lately. But there’s nothing that can make the Ladds feel more like family than the kickoff of rugby season!

THIS IS OUR LAST RUGBY SEASON!!!

When my childhood home went up in flames, we spent our first "homeless" nights fed, clothed and sheltered by families from my church youth group...

When I said, "There's a boy who needs a mom in South Africa. He can't come here, so I'm moving there..." my American church said, "We'll help, and we'll come to you if you can't come to us."

We had an EPIC time on Bree St! Thank you Young Urbanists s for the Open Streets Africa Experience. I was so moved by the power of passionate people to bring change to their city. THINK ABOUT WHAT WE COULD DO FOR GOD'S KINGDOM WHEN WE UNITE AND MOBILIZE!

The little Ladds lived their very best lives being able to move freely downtown while four blocks of a major road were shut down for cars.

I did a ridiculous thing. I ordered a walking pad to use for five days and return. I can explain. (A walking pad is a treadmill without handles to slide under a desk and walk while you work.)

My husband went out of town for EIGHT days. Our two youngest sons only attend school a few hours in the morning and struggled with Dad being away….

Benjamin showed up at soccer practice today wearing headphones and Crocs, with no intention of getting out of the van. No, he didn’t have his best practice anyway. He didn’t even make it onto the field. But he showed up, and the showing up is a turning point - a bookmarker we will go back to again and again.

Sometimes you just have to get there.
To your people. To your Father. To His House..

My husband and I like to walk along the oceanside promenade after dinner dates. We were awe-struck one evening by luminescent waves. The ocean was glowing!

We were witnessing bioluminescence, a natural phenomenon of living things producing light through a chemical reaction. The ocean glowed as microscopic organisms called dinoflagellates shone light from within themselves, much like the fireflies of my childhood.