My Writing Journey – I C Summer Blog Tour
As a blogger, I have the privilege of meeting other women who blog about domestic violence. Some of them become good friends. My newest friend is Katelin Maloney. Katelin is passionate about raising awareness to domestic violence issues. Her working novel, Drowning,...
Handling Grief
Recently something very painful happened in our family. One of our family members made some life choices that went against everything we believe in as a family. The implications of this are going to affect everyone in the family for years to come. I have had a very...
Not Wallowing, Moving Forward
I ran into an old friend the other day. She told me she was proud of me for writing my book, A Journey through Emotional Abuse: from Bondage to Freedom. Then she said something that really startled me. She said, "Maybe now you can put it all behind you and move on...
Hope for the Family Court System
In my last blog I talked about the crisis occurring in our family court system. Abusers are given unsupervised and often full custody with their children, while their protective parents are often required to have supervised visitation with the children they are...
A Crisis in the Family Courts
A crisis is occurring for abused women* and their children in many of the family law courts in every state of the United States. I have heard similar stories from women in Australia and the United Kingdom as well. What is this crisis? Abusive fathers use the court...
The Lord Gives and the Lord Takes Away
This morning I received an email from FamilyLife about the tornado that ripped through Arkansas yesterday. Dennis Rainey shared that Rob Tittle, a FamilyLife staff member died in the tornado that crushed parts of central Arkansas. Rob was helping his wife and their...
Children of Domestic Violence Champion
I feel very honored to be named a Champion by the Childhood Domestic Violence Association. CDV.org is a great organization working hard to prevent childhood domestic violence, and also to empower current and former victims. I don’t often talk about the fact that in...
How Churches Can Get it Right
In my last blog, I told the story of how I asked two different pastors at my church for help when I was being abused by my first husband. In both cases, my pastors were unable to give me the help I needed. Because of their lack of knowledge about domestic violence, I...
When Churches Get it Wrong
Lately I’ve been posting comments and questions to my twitter and Facebook accounts about churches and how they help or hinder the abused. If you ask your church for help with domestic violence, and they tell you to submit, pray harder or be a better wife, they can't...
Returning (Reluctantly) to the Days of Emotional Abuse
Today I would like to get more personal than I usually do . . . here goes. I am a step-mom. I am also a survivor of domestic violence. Some days these two don’t collide, but often they do. Let me explain. I love my stepchildren, but make no mistake, being a step...