The Mothers Between Us
This website is a space for my writing—both the novel I am currently developing and the larger questions that sit behind it.
I write about life as it is lived, not as it is simplified. My work explores trauma, memory, and the lasting influence of the people who shape us—especially family. Some of those influences are loving. Some are harmful. Most are complicated, existing somewhere in between, leaving marks that are not always easy to name.
At the center of my novel is a woman telling her own story, beginning in a childhood shaped by uncertainty, loss, and emotional instability. Her life is not defined by one moment, but by a series of experiences that quietly reshape how she understands safety, love, and identity.
A central thread of the story is a private, one-sided journaling relationship directed toward a teacher from her past—someone who once offered stability and care before suddenly leaving her life. Through writing, she begins to process memory, question meaning, and give language to experiences she has carried for years.
As her life unfolds, the story follows the lasting effects of her choices and the complicated impact of trust, attachment, and emotional connection. At its core is the question of what it means to be truly seen by another person—and how those moments of recognition can shape a life long after they end.
This novel is not only about one life, but about the way all lives are formed through connection—through what is given, what is withheld, and what is never fully understood until much later.
It is about how people shape us, whether they intend to or not.
And it is about what remains when we begin to see those influences clearly for the first time.
All the Mothers
At nineteen, I gave birth to my son. I often laugh and tell people that Ben and I grew up together, but, even in the laughter, I’m serious. I was a child raising a child. The Lord blessed me with this baby to nurture, protect, comfort, teach, and love, and I embraced motherhood wholeheartedly. In the years that followed we welcomed two daughters, Katy and Caroline. These three people who call me Mama have taught me about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I made mistakes, of course. But I never failed to love them and stand by them through everything. If I could choose to be known for only one thing in this life outside my faith, it would be that I loved my children fiercely.
Yes, yes, so many mothers can relate! There’s nothing like a mother’s love! I’d do anything for my children. My children are my world! But how many read these words and think, not my mother. She wasn’t there to nurture, protect, comfort, teach, and love me.
In the United States, more about 600,000 children will enter foster care each year. That’s roughly 1 in every 200 children at any given time. The most common reasons children are placed in foster care are neglect, parental substance abuse, abuse, and parental incapacity.
Approximately 75% of substantiated cases reported are for neglect. However, experts widely agree that confirmed cases represent only a fraction of actual neglect. Many neglected children are never reported, and many reports are never substantiated despite real concerns. While most neglected children do not appear obviously mistreated from the outside, they may go to school every day, have a home, and still live with profound emotional abandonment or inconsistent care. That's one reason neglect can be so invisible and why stories about it often resonate with readers who recognize pieces of their own childhoods.
For these unidentified children, many mothers stand in the gap: grandmothers, sisters, neighbors, teachers, aunts, foster mothers, adoptive mothers. As a teacher, I know there were many times God called me to stand in the gap. It was a privilege that brought heartbreak.
I must speak to the teachers out there standing in the gap. Thank you. You see more than the statistics of neglect. You see the child who falls asleep in class because of a night with no rest. You hear the longing of a child who just wants someone to notice her or listen to him. You pay for the lunches of a child who never has lunch money and give snacks to the child who never brings one. You buy jackets and underwear and socks and school supplies. You work with children who just can’t catch up academically because there’s no support at home. You sit with children who make one bad choice after another and encourage them and give them hope that success is possible. You see the great potential each child holds within and give them opportunity to shine. You see the child that is too often failed by a system that is overwhelmed. For many of these children, you are the first person who truly sees them. You are making a difference that you might never understand. Continue to stand in the gap.