I’ve been writing (and not writing) this blog for more than eight years, and many of you have been around since the beginning. Those of you who have know how meaningful this moment really is. It’s miraculous.

Many of you also know Amanda Williams and I have been running She Reads Truth for several years now, and that we signed a publishing deal with LifeWay & B&H Publishing nearly two years ago. Even then, signing those contracts and saying ‘yes’ to the unknown was an obedience we knew would be hard, but we also trusted the Lord would use in our lives and in the lives of women around the world.

Amanda and I have been praying about this book-writing project for over two years and quietly working on it for nearly a year. When the time came to sit down and write, we were sure we had nothing to say.

But God reminded us of our own stories, so we wrote them down. As we wrote, He showed us how different we were from each other—Amanda and me. Then, holding our stories side by side, we realized how ‘The Same’ the Truth was in both of them—how ‘The Same’ the Truth is in all of our stories. And so we continued to write.

And now—now we have a book! (I honestly can’t believe it!) It’s called—appropriately— She Reads Truth: Holding Tight to Permanent In a World That’s Passing Away. 

Through tears we fought against writing, then through tears we fought for the right words. We shared some of the most tender pieces of our stories that felt like true sacrifices to share with the world—things we’ve never talked about publicly before—and we did it because it was obedience.

Two years of praying and planning and writing and today we get to show you the finished product—a beautiful, inside and out, BOOK!

Our prayer is that God will take our imperfect words to make much of His perfect Word. We really hope you love it!

Find out more at SheReadsTruthBook.com. It’s a good day, friends. A big day! A day to remember that God never stops being faithful.

xo – Raechel

PS – the book is currently $5 off on Amazon right now!

My amazing friends across town at fashionABLE sent me a list of adorable fall questions a few weeks ago. It ended up being a super fun little task to take a break from my day and think about the things that make me happy–I kinda think you’d enjoy doing the same!

Here are the questions:

• Favorite fall treat?
• Favorite fall activity?
• Favorite fall trend?
• Favorite nail color?
• Favorite fall soundtrack?

Share your answers in the comments! (Then go ask a friend the same questions!)

Here are a few of my faves:

Another favorite? When a company I love (who creates meaningful work for women in Africa and in Nashville) invites me to join them in fun projects like this! I only share things I genuinely love, and you can ask anyone who knows me how many days each week I’m carrying my Abera Crossbody Tote (err day), wearing one of their new necklaces (also err day) and rocking a fashionABLE scarf in some creative way (err day Nashville weather gets cool enough to let me)!

Favorites all around, y’all!

Now tell me what YOU are loving!

(a photo from my morning walk. because #fall)

//please enjoy 20% off any orders over $40 10/29-11/1 with code RAECHELFAVES

//also – take advantage of free shipping through 11/1 with code FASHIONABLE5th

Did it hurt? When she came out of your tummy?

Could she move her fingers?

How big was she?

What did she smell like?

By now she is snuggled deep into her heaven-sister’s blankie, and I can tell Hazel’s mind is doing the work of feeling happy to know more, sad to miss Evie Grace, and all sorts of mixed thoughts that made her little self too engaged in the moment to let a tear fall.

Sometimes we experience sad things first hand.
Sometimes we’re born into grief.

Hazel was born almost two years after Evie was stillborn. After we had all-but given up hope of having another child.

She was born into a family that spends Christmas Eve singing Christmas carols in a cemetery, because we cannot imagine a better place to celebrate the HOPE that Christmas brings than in a place that doesn’t have the power it thinks it does.

She was born into a family that is incomplete this side of Heaven. Someone has always been missing. We’ve never not talked about her big sister—Evie Grace is absolutely a household name!—but Hazel’s sense of loss only became real just recently.

About a week ago, we started finding little notes like this around the house.

She’d mention Evie at nighttime – a little sadder than usual to know she’s not with us.

Her teacher told us yesterday she’s been crying once or twice a day at school this week about “a sister she’s never seen.” We knew it was time to sit down with our girl—to give her all the time she needed to ask all the questions she had.

And she didn’t ask everything. She didn’t need to know every single detail. We let her lead the conversation as we sorted through our little pink box of keepsakes as a family. I showed her photographs, told her the things she and Evie had in common, and then we talked about some of the things about Evie that made her special from the rest of us.

When I tucked Hazel into bed last night, she finally let the tears fall. I held her (while she held Evie’s blanket) until she fell asleep.

Sometimes, sad things happen to us. And sometimes, we are born into sad things.

It’s an entirely different process—one we didn’t know to anticipate. All we know is to answer questions, tell stories, and remind ourselves and our kids that it’s okay to be sad, because death is sad. 

Evie Grace’s little life is and always will be one of the Father’s most lavish gifts to our family. Even though she’s not here. Even when we ache-like-crazy wishing that death wasn’t true. As our children grow up, they join us in our longing for Christ in Heaven. And we all grow in faith that the Lord is the One who gives us life, and He-only is the one that calls us home.

I don’t remember the exact moment I met Audrey, but I remember the note I received from her 14-year-old self seven years ago, telling me that she and the girls at her 8th grade lunch table were praying for me every day.

You remember. Eight years ago I was 26 and expecting to lose our daughter Evie. These girls knew because their families attended our church, and so they agreed among themselves to commit to praying for our family every day.

We were newish to the area, in a newish church plant, and newish to the idea of opening our home and lives to young people who would most certainly require more teaching and investing than they would ever be able to repay. But there was an urging from the Lord to let these girls in—these girls who were boldly taking my name to the Father, spring chickens though they were.

I should have known then that the tables were turned from the beginning—that I would spend the next eight years watching Audrey and her friend Lizzie pray for those in need, give their teenage lives to caring for orphans and widows at home and abroad, learning languages that would equip them to love, and serving when the world was prepared to serve them.

These girls. Do you know we literally never paid for a babysitter our first five years of parenting? They were always willing to love our babies, always insisting that it was their privilege to be in our home, and yes, always praying for us.

Audrey and Lizzie joined our family on a couple of vacations, and each of them took their turn taking up residence in our “spare room”—Audrey for her freshman year of college, Lizzie a summer later.

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen together. I taught the girls how to roast chickens and bake pies and the quickest way to bring butter to room temperature. While we cooked, we talked. We talked a lot about Africa, and Iraq and broken systems and the issues that weighed heavily on their teenage (yet somehow, so adult!) hearts.

I told them stories about dating Ryan, and how the entire time I dated him, I kept a journal full of notes to my future husband, never assuming it was Ryan. I told them about how writing to my future husband kept me accountable in my relationship with Ryan. I was determined to remain faithful to that future guy, even through our engagement. I got to tell them about the moment, on my wedding day, I handed that book to my Ryan, ready to vow to be his forever.

That Christmas I wrapped up blank journals for the girls—“husband journals”, we called them.

About a month ago, I got a text from Audrey. It was a picture of her husband journal, with a note:

“Do you remember that you gave me a husband journal for Christmas in 2008?! Here it is now, almost full and stuffed with letters and things and ready to be given to him in a few weeks! So grateful for that gift.” 

These girls have made more of a difference in my life than I could ever make in theirs. But knowing that the Lord put us together—that He chose to use me in their lives as a mentor—is one of the greatest privileges I’ll ever know. And tomorrow afternoon, our Hazel—the baby we all hoped and prayed for together—will be the flower girl in the wedding of a bride I’ve been praying for for years.

Today, I’m making a flower crown for Hazel to wear in Audrey’s wedding. Audrey hoped and prayed with me for Hazel, and Hazel has grown up loving Audrey. God is good.

And tomorrow, as our Audrey-girl walks down the aisle to the love of her life, we will be giving thanks for the front row seat we’ve had these past seven years to watch this young girl grow into a lovely women—a wife!

All the congratulations and best wishes in the world, Jamie and Audrey! Praising the Lord for the work He has begun and is just now beginning in your lives together!

Would you look at how big and wonderful my people are becoming?

I mean, just like that, they’re practically adults! Do you see why I’ve been so hunkered down enjoying them lately?

Oliver is loving soccer and hockey right now. Our new house has a full unfinished basement, so Ryan and Oliver converted one room into a roller hockey rink. Ry and his dad taught the kids to skate, and just this week I snuck downstairs to watch the boys shoot around and it blew my mind—those rollerblades have become extensions of Oliver’s feet. He was skating forward and backward without even thinking. Unbelievable how naturally this has come for him!

Hazel turned 5 last week and she is taking a new interest in computers, photography, reading and horses. Also, she will take two baths a day if you let her. She has such a great imagination, so the tub is a really fun place for her to play. Our new place is out in the country a bit, and we are surrounded by horse farms. She’s so excited to try riding lessons now that the weather is warming up!

The socks and the smile. I can’t even, you guys!

What have y’all be up to lately?

Even though I could swear he was just born yesterday, my baby boy is turning 8 years old this week.

His head comes to my shoulder now when he stands up straight. His hair is as curly and white as ever. He’s witty and smart and has really given us some cool glimpses of a mature young man over the past months.

At dinner last night, we decided to hold a family meeting. Since his birthday is next Wednesday, we asked if he wanted to have a party or have some friends over. He said no – that he’d rather just go on a fishing trip, just him and Dad. (For the record, they do this almost weekly right now, so we were delightfully surprised when he really did just want more quality time with his dad for his birthday. Also: high fives all around for no party planning!)

So, a “fishing party” it was! After dinner we ran to Dick’s and let him pick out a new rod and reel, a tackle box and a bit of gear. (We were planning to do this for his birthday gift next week, but we can be flexible! It was clear that a family trip to pick it out and use the next day was going to trump unwrapping gifts in the living room next week after school, then settling in to homework and bedtime.)

The boys organized all the new gear and set it out last night, and were up bright and early this morning to load my brother-in-law’s canoe on top of our SUV and head out for their “tour of 3 lakes”. They fished all morning with a little bit of success. Mostly they drifted around the lakes (note to selves: invest in an anchor!), got rained on, and tried out a bunch of different baits.

In the meantime, sissy and I decided to get up and out of the house this morning, too. We ran to starbucks for hot bevvys and breakfast food, then walked across the street to catch the 10am showing of “Planes Fire and Rescue” at the Franklin Theatre.

Boy am I loving this mother-daughter gig!

Hazel tired of the movie about an hour in once her snacks were gone, and it didn’t take much convincing for me to move on with our day, so we snuck out while something exciting/dangerous was happening with plane engines and forest fires and headed to the mall for a few errands and a long-overdue haircut.

She chatted all the way through the haircut about My Little Pony names, Care Bear colors and Big, Big Friends, and at the end of our time, Shaun her hairdresser offered a pink Little Pony streak for the front.

She felt AMAZING. Notice the hand on the hip as she rode down the escalator? That was seriously planted on purpose. Girl felt good.

And y’all, on that note, I’m sitting at home in my comfy chair while Ryan rests on the sofa from hoisting a boat on and off my car all morning in the rain, and the kids run around our backyard eating Michigan apples and catching crawdads with their cousin Beatrice.

I haven’t blogged in way too long. I’m a little rusty – I can hear it too. But these memories are just too precious to go undocumented in my favorite way, so awkward or not, they’re here now!

I have so many more stories to tell. And even if I tell them imperfectly, and even if no one is still reading, I’m just so happy to sit down on a blustery fall saturday afternoon to tell the story of today.

xo-Raechel

Tereze, Mary Sunshine (I know. Best name.) and Seraphina greeted me with a traditional triple-cheek-touch and a whisper of “I love you” on a warm African day with a light breeze and a whole lot of excitement.

From our first meeting, we were just sisters. Excited together. Nervous together. Brought together over a common passion—sewing.

I have loved sewing since day one of Clothing Construction 101 in college. In another life, I created dozens of tutorials on my blog, even a 30-day sewing 101 course. In recent years, I even taught sewing to adorably awkward high school girls at our local high school.

As I confided excitedly to our travel team earlier this week, “Y’all, sewing is my jam!”

Sewing, as it turns out, is also Tereza, Mary Sunshine, and Seraphina’s “jam”.

You see how we were just instant sisters?

My history is so different from theirs. I live in America. I have a two-story home and a car and a laptop for pete’s sake. My church has cushioned pews and I brush my teeth with tap water. I toil over half a dozen fantastic schooling options for my kids.

These new friends of mine live in Rwanda. They have 1-room homes, and their own two feet. Their church has a dirt floor and I guess I don’t even know what their dental hygiene situation is. They toil over whether or not it is possible to send their children to school.

But we had sewing in common. We also had motherhood and loss in common. We shared our desires for purposeful work and the protection of our families.

You guys, I share a common Savior with these women. (I seriously sat back at one point, looked at them, and imagined Christ thinking of them, and thinking of me, and dying for us each on the cross—all of us in the same need of his redeeming blood. All of us sharing a hope in his resurrection.)

Peers, indeed.

Which is what made made our day so special.

Tereze, Mary Sunshine and Seraphina are seamstresses. They went to sewing school on scholarship a few years ago, and now work and run their own sewing co-op with 14 women in Kigali, Rwanda. Mary Sunshine is adorably pregnant with her second baby, Seraphina is the most experienced seamstress, and Teresa is a little older—a client of IJM (International Justice Mission). When her husband died 8 years ago, her mother-in-law stole her home and land (something very common in sub-saharan Africa because it is such an agrarian society) and left Teresa and her children homeless and unable to attend school. Just last Friday (yes, 8 years later), IJM was able to win her case for her. She finally has her land back. This woman is a fighter—a quiet fighter. Man, do I love her.

Our job was to divide into assigned teams, and for each team to design an item for the upcoming Noonday #StyleForJustice line. I was partnered with this lovely trio, as well as my new and already dear friend, Jan Haugen, who traveled with us from Washington D.C. to share this experience with us. (Jan is the incredible-in-her-own-right wife of Gary Haugen, founder of IJM and author of Good News About Injustice and The Locust Effect). I think we got the best team, and the project assignment of all: design and construct a large tote from this big pile of gorgeous African fabrics.

With pleasure!

We got to work right away. We had an interpreter for our group, but our pointing and nodding at the style sheets and samples was just as good for us. “You like this big bow?” nod! “How about an outside pocket?” shake head “could we make the handle this way?” nod! nod!

You guys, we came alive! We celebrated each other’s “cleverness” (this compliment made them smile so wide!). I taught them little tricks for pattern making while they weighed in on sewing techniques that work well in their co-op. I told them one way to do something, and they showed me an even better way. We laughed, high-fived, learned new skills and came up with something pretty killer that we are all so stinking proud of!

When we got back the van to leave at the end of the day, my American friends told me how fun it was to watch our team at work. Jennie said I just came alive with those girls—that it was really something special to watch.

I left our pattern and fabric choices in the most capable hands yesterday afternoon. And I will return today to puzzle through the construction and trouble-shooting. We’ll even hit the market together to make sure our fabric picks are available for a great big order.

Because a great big order is what gives this co-op projects! It’s what gives these women purposeful work, dignity, and a living wage that ensures their children will go to school and their families are no longer surviving, but thriving. 

I wish x1000 I could show you our amazing finished bag! But we are all under strict mum until they are revealed August 7th at the Noonday Nationwide Trunk Show. We had an incredible videographer follow us through this process and he’s putting together a super fun video of everyone’s projects and process to be shown that day. Everyone who attends a trunk show will have the opportunity to vote for the top two completed projects to be produced in the January @StyleForJustice line with Noonday Collection.

BUT, I can show you this happy video from day 1 that Kelle put together!

If you’d like to learn more about what Noonday Collection and IJM are doing to create opportunity, protect and empower people around the globe and to be more involved in this mission—or if you want to know more about hosting one of these big-reveal truck shows in your own home on August 7—please click below.

But seriously, Mary Sunshine, Tereza, Seraphina, Jan and I are counting on you to vote our project into production!! ;) 

Well, I guess technically, it will be bound for New Jersey. But then on to Brussels, and then Africa. It’s a long trip, y’all.

It’s not a missions trip. It feels really important to me to make that clear up front. Or at least it isn’t one in a traditional sense. We won’t be building churches or laboring in orphanages or handing out Bibles. It’s a different kind of a trip—an important kind. It’s a storytelling trip!

Our Story Team will spend a good part of one day at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It’s been twenty years since nearly a million men, women and children were brutally massacred over the course of just 100 days, and this will be a day worth seeing and feeling and learning. Twenty years of healing like most of us will never know. Twenty years of reconciliation that many of us could only wish to know.

We’ll spend another day hearing from 2 former International Justice Mission clients—one who was a victim of land theft, and a mother of a girl who was sexually abused. Both are women who IJM has helped and both are now part of the Noonday collective in Rwanda. Sharing their stories with us takes a lot of brave. I’m already praying for the women we will meet.

There are going to be some remarkable days in Rwanda next week.

I believe The Lord has given me a mouthpiece in She Reads Truth. You guys, most days, I don’t even know why. But next week, I won’t wonder. I’ll have the opportunity to step up to the mic, tap it a few times, shake off my nerves and speak into each of your living rooms/coffee shops/bedrooms/offices. I’ll tell you stories that I really believe God wants you to hear.

I know for sure he wants me to hear them.

Next week will have some heaviness to it. And I’ll share that with you all faithfully and in the name of God and justice.

Next week will also have a real beauty and excitement to it! I’m thrilled to share this with you as well!

There’s a lot of hurt in the world. A lot of heartache. But there is also a lot of amazing reconciliation. There is triumph to be told!

Noonday Collection has a number of artisans in Rwanda who have story after story to tell about how their families became land owners— how they overcame more than many of us will ever know, and became productive and creative and proud!

One of the really fun things I get to do while I’m sitting with these women is not only exchange stories, but actually exchange ideas! Noonday Collection will be partnering each of the women on the trip with a local artisan—we get to go to market, pick out fabrics, design jewelry and bags and collaborate on really beautiful pieces that they will be able to potentially produce and sell through Noonday. 

(The second half of this trip is taking a very “Project Runway” turn and I think it’s sort of awesome and redemptive and exciting!)

In the end, each of the women on the story team (Emily, Wynne, Jen, Jennie, Paige, Meredith, Jessica, Kelle and myself) will have designed a piece in partnership with her Rwandan artisan (and friend!), and on August 7th Noonday will have its first Nationwide Trunk Show, revealing the #StyleForJustice collection (including the piece I get to design next week!!!). Trunk show attendees will vote to decide which pieces make it to production.

A few things you can do to participate:

• Follow all the details of our trip by signing up for the email list or by following the #StyleForJustice hashtag on Insta and Twitter. (There’s also a pretty killer giveaway going on over there right now, INCLUDING a She Reads Truth Justice Study Pack!)
• Host a trunk show on August 7! (Seriously, do this! I’ve done it twice and it’s been super fun and worth it!)  Trunk show attendees will be able to vote on what pieces will go into production for the #StyleForJustice Collection ONLY at the trunkshow.
• Keep reading here! I’ll be posting my personal trip updates here and on the She Reads Truth site.
• And finally, join me here on July 22nd as we begin a study of Biblical Justice, with guest writers from IJM, Noonday, and other girls on the trip!

Next stop – New Jersey! Er… Rwanda!!!

xo,
Raechel

We just love parties.

And when our baby girl (I swear she was just born!) turns four years old, it definitely merits a party!

And when I say party, I mean mommy-made crowns, cupcakes with waaay too much frosting, lots of friends and games and hopscotch mats leading out the back door.

Parties mean polka dots on the walls, and birthday banners hanging from the windows. And sprinkles.
Lots and lots of sprinkles.

It means the big people get to pick iced mochas or grapefruit Perrier out of pretty-colored ice buckets and drink them from blue striped straws! And it means the little people get plenty of cold milk to wash down all that strawberry frosting.


Fourth birthday parties mean she makes “that face” with every present she opens, and that she really does feel that way. She feels birthday-magical.

And at the end of the day, it means we don’t mind a bit leaving those birds she loves on the plate rack for a few extra weeks, because this sweet face has us feeling pretty grateful for four spectacular years with one remarkable little person.

Happy fourth birthday, Hazel Wren! You make every day a cupcake day!

cupcake toppers / bird garland /  hopscotch rug /  pinwheels

 “happy birthday” banner / favor bags /  pink and blue doily buckets  / birdies canvas

white chairs / yellow and grey suitcases / stuffed cat and dog / blue striped straws

metal “happy birthday” topper

I had tucked him in the night before, allowed 30 minutes of reading time, and called “lights out” up the stairs by 9pm. Since Ryan and I didn’t hear anything else from him that night, we had no reason to believe that is wasn’t a typical bedtime for our first grader.

But when I went in to greet him the following morning, I honestly didn’t know whether to scold or applaud. There in the corner of his room hung the most impressive installation of white plastic children’s hangers I’d ever seen.

I don’t know what inspired it or how he’d pulled it off. I wasn’t even sure where all of the hangers had come from (until I located a heap of dress shirts tucked into a corner on his closet floor). A white web – a perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, like I’d learned in art school – spanned the air space of nearly a quarter of his bedroom. It attached at his desk, his stools, the dresser and the bunk beds. It was… spectacular.

I knew he must have done it after lights out time, while he absolutely should have been sleeping. And for that, I knew there would have to be a consequence. But I also absolutely got where he was coming from – most of my best ideas come to me at night time right before I fall asleep. I imagine that he was laying in bed, winding down, and was struck with a big idea that he absolutely had to try right then.

As parents, of course we addressed the bedtime disobedience, but we were also excited for the opportunity to learn more about our child and how he works, and to learn how to make room for in-bounds creativity in the evening. If you suspect you might be raising a creative, here are a few things you might consider.

5 ways to foster creativity in your child:

1. Pay attention to when your child is most creative and  make it okay to create during that time. If mid-afternoon is their biggest idea time, aim to do errands and make appointments in the morning so you can be home (or at a fun location!) to play during creative time. If bedtime is their jam, begin the nighttime routine a bit earlier so they can have thirty minutes to roam in their space before reading time.
2. Loosen up on some of the “neatness” rules. When I was a little girl, my Mom used to let us drag blankets toys into the yard on pretty days and there was always ongoing story lines taking place in the play room. Creativity is messy – if you’re a tidy person, be intentional about assigning locations or times for your child to let loose.
3. Acknowledge and value their creations. If they makes an awesome-yet-crazy hanger installation in their room, tell them they’re creative and praise their work as art! Photograph what they’ve created and if it’s possible to navigate around it for a couple of days, don’t make them take it down right away.
4. Let your child pick out their own clothes. It’s an everyday exercise in creativity – I’ve been picking my own clothes since Kindergarten. This can be a challenge for parents (like me) who don’t want to lose too much control, but one easy solution is to shop with this in mind and make available options that will generally work well together. (Last summer, we kept all of Oliver’s shorts in stripes or patterns, and all of his shirts were solids. He got to pick, but it wasn’t going to go terribly wrong.)
5. Give them a say in how “their space” looks. You have the whole house to make lovely, so once your kids are old enough to have an opinion, let them weigh in on how their bedrooms are laid out and what is hung on the walls. I rearranged my bedroom at least quarterly as a kid, even in elementary school. And as soon as I was old enough to be tidy about it and use a ladder, I painted my bedroom a new color at least twice a year. I’m sure we probably lost square footage in that bedroom for all the coats of paint on the walls, but it was all worth it when I walked across the stage at graduation to receive my degree in Interior Design!