HILARY HAMBLIN

I’ve been beating myself up for months over something I hard I needed to do. I called myself weak and let the anger and resentment simmer just under the surface. A few people close to me knew, but most people saw the smiling, have-it-all-together Hilary. This week things came to a head and I had to do the hard thing. Afterward I replayed the scenario in my mind a couple dozen times. What could I have said better? How could I have handled it more professionally? Why did I wait

Coffee fresh from the Keurig wafts through the house. I study the box of chocolates my sister in law brought me earlier this week. One empty space already lies between the Sucre Dark and Chicory Caramel. In the other room my children chatter with the neighbor’s child about which ornament goes where on the tree. Outside decorations twinkle in the twilight. Thanksgiving wraps itself around me like a warm blanket fresh from the dryer. Seventeen years ago my parents loaded all my

I met Lynette in Belize on a mission trip. At the time I didn’t even know Belize had beaches and was a tourist destination. I went as part of a group serving at a boys home and teaching vacation Bible school in a nearby village. Lynette and her husband Mark lived on the campus and helped care for the boys who went to school there. Lynette and Mark were from our area and when they finished their time as missionaries they returned and started a small business. By that time I wa