Imagine... Political chaos is on the rise. Justice is at an all-time low. You're hungry and crippled by a reckless kind of hurt - for your family, your future, and humanity itself. You don't see a way for things to be different.

You hear there's a man who performs miracles. The neighbors say He's heading to a desolate place. There's nothing there for anyone, but there's nothing to stay for either. Almost 20,000 people are already there when you arrive. You strain to see the man called Jesus from tiptoes in the back.

Join me in a conversation with Deb Weakly from Help Club for Moms. Deb is a long-time friend, and she invited me to share about my journey in special needs parenting to offer encouragement to moms all over the world. I’m very much still in the trenches, learning the hard way, and even shared that I had completely lost my cool on Benjamin an hour before we started recording! But we so often find God together, and in those valley lessons of learning to worship anyway.

Maybe this is a chat you can relate to, or maybe it’s one to share with a friend who can.

We waited, and we waited, and we waited. Winter solstice means a LATE sunrise in Cape Town, and my kids don’t buy into the concept of circadian rhythms. FINALLY, approximately 96 hours into our Saturday morning, we caught a sunrise and construction site. I went for the waves. They were there for the cranes. Everybody won.

I remember what it felt like, years ago, when I first felt life inside of me. Every kick and hiccup of the child within re-proclaimed God's design for us as co-creators. I quickly realized both big and small decisions are weighed on different scales when you understand you are doing it with Christ.

Now, we are stepping into a new season of co-laboring with Christ. We are launching a new church in Cape Town! In some ways, I've felt the familiar weight of a new parent. We dream of a place for people to feel at home with Jesus and their neighbors, no matter where they've come from. We believe His House should be the safest place for a person to become their whole, dearly-loved self.

🌸 Your Purpose Is Not in Your Perfection 🌸

I've got another Bible reading plan on YouVersion Bible app to spur on the other moms out there! This 5-day plan started as a Maundy Thursday teaching I did with Help Club for Moms on Benjamin's 1st Birthday! We were in COVID lockdown, and I had never done an international teaching online.

It's so cool that, five years later, it's accessible for people all over the world in another format! I hope it points you to Jesus' love for YOU just as you are.

I love how Wyatt holds his dad's hand so he can gallop with more velocity. I love how Lifa starts a game of Croc rugby when we go to the only place in Cape Town that doesn't allow balls. I love how Benjamin wheeze-laughs and screams, "I LOVE THIS" when his big brother ankle taps him and knocks him out. I love how Wyatt throws himself on the ground after Benjamin gets tackled to feel like he's part of the game. I love how Lifa can fish for tadpoles and still look like a model. I especially love the handsome man that holds us all together with his incredibly intentional, kind, and discerning love.

My husband and I went on an evening walk a while ago. We rehashed a painful season we'd traversed in the previous months and marked how God had used it for our good. The conversation went deeper as we turned a familiar corner in our neighborhood. Yes, we have successfully navigated external hardships... but what about the ones woven into our family DNA? My husband worried aloud,"Your personality has changed. You were so bubbly... laughing all the time.. and now I can see how heavy life is on you." I conceded that the relentless spiritual warfare, crippling corruption, decade of distance from family, and special needs parenting has dug deep, rugged trenches in my formerly light disposition.

Yesterday was my husband's 42nd birthday. The kids and I threw him a lemonade-themed birthday party at home. I set a beautiful table with a freshly-ironed tablecloth and a vase full of lemons. We had strawberry lemonade with dinner and went back for seconds of lemon cake and ice cream. He even had to hunt for his homemade gifts in a basket of lemons! It was silly and simple. We talked about the meaning behind our celebration during dinner between giggles and our toddler's frighteningly man-like belches.

Share Life. Find God. This is what it’s all about.

Watch this quick video for an encouraging story from this week.

AND MOMS! Search “Called to Worship” on the YouVersionApp’s Bible reading plans for a free 5-day devotional from me and Help Club for Moms!

We celebrated our favorite guy's birthday yesterday with a lemonade-themed birthday party. When 41 throws lemons, you make lemonade in 42!

We had lemon decorations, a homemade gift hunt in a basket of lemons, strawberry lemonade, and lemon cake and ice cream. It was silly, sweet, and the most purposed celebration we have ever had.

We've been asking God for a particular miracle for a long time. Last week, another "not yet" hit hard, so I searched "miracle" on my old website. I borrowed hope from my own stories as I re-visited scenes where God met me. Today's call to worship is a miracle lesson I wrote to myself from the mission field in 2011.-----------

We started feeding orphaned and vulnerable children in a nearby community- a handful became hundreds in eighteen months. Last week, an unspeakable amount of hungry children came for hot food and hope...

“Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.” Ephesians 6:11

An object lesson of sorts.
*No brothers were harmed during the making of this video.
*No comment about dogs.

I’m re-thinking every parenting decision I’ve ever made.

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.