Lindsay L. O'Connor

I’m excited to introduce you to Shawn Blagowsky, dentist and adoptive mom of two children! She is married to her husband, Brett, and their children are Brianna, who is 22, and Josh, who is 17. Shawn works part time as a dentist and adopted her children when they were very young. Though she says that…

It usually starts with a twinge in my stomach. Whatever I have been thinking about or doing races immediately to the background, off into hiding. “No time for you, Menial Tasks! Go away, Logic! Off with you, Rational Thinking! We’ve no place for you now!” Panic Mode yells as through a megaphone— the kind that…

I’m excited to introduce my the second interviewee from the #momand series, Sara Jo Waldron! Sara Jo is a #momand pastor and adoptive parent of a child with a rare medical condition. She has three children: 8-year-old Penelope, 5-year-old Lydia, and 2-year-old Hezekiah. Her family lives in an apartment below the boys’ dorms at Tabor…

Welcome to the second interview in my #momand series! I’m so happy to introduce you to Leila Tualla, author, poet, maternal mental health advocate, and mother of two miracle babies. Both babies were premature and spent time in the NICU, so her transition to motherhood was filled with challenges from the very beginning. Currently, she…

Top Row: Dylan holding Clay, Wendy holding Clint (Jojo) Bottom row: Claire and Carly Welcome to the very first post in my #momand series! I am so excited to introduce you to Wendy Thompson, homeschooling mother of 4 children aged 9, 8, 6, and 3. Wendy has been a pediatric nurse and foster parent and is…

Image created by Tim Hindes This evening, we came from churches, synagogues, and mosques to gather together. We parked on the grass lawn of a local synagogue that, despite its massive size, did not have enough parking spaces for all of the people who came to grieve. In the wake of the tragic shooting yesterday…

As a person who struggles with anxiety, I pay attention to ideas about where it originates and ways to cope with it. I’m always on the lookout for helpful strategies. I’ve heard the claim that gratitude can be an antidote to anxiety because we can’t be anxious and grateful simultaneously. This led to some introspection. Am…

Content Warning: Pregnancy Loss “Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month was first declared by President Ronald Reagan on October 25, 1988. On that day he said: ‘When a child loses his parent, they are called an orphan. When a spouse loses her or his partner, they are called a widow or widower. When parents lose…

On the heels of the “me too” movement, the media coverage of the senate hearing for Brett Kavanaugh has brought forth an outpouring of women and men sharing stories of horrific abuse and mistreatment. As much as I wanted to support those who mustered up the courage to share, I found myself wanting desperately to…

One of the most comforting pieces of encouragement I ever received was from a friend who came to visit me in the hospital. I was wrestling with grief after a miscarriage, recovering from an emergency surgery, and still waiting anxiously for the doctor to figure out what was wrong in my body, which stubbornly refused…