About Laura

I am a third culture kid ~ which means I grew up in one country (Belgium) as a part of a family from another country (USA) and therefore created for myself a third identity, an amalgamation of both. Third culture kids tend to have the ability to move between several different worlds, and I am no exception.

I spent 25 years as a stay-at-home mom of 5, and homeschooled for many of those years.

I remember stirring homemade spaghetti sauce all day with my nose in a book, finding out how the story ended, knowing that my husband would not care that I hadn’t gotten anything else done as long as I had a good meal waiting for him.

I remember trying to teach one child, and looking up just in time to see my toddler by the door, pouring a box of Frosted Corn Flakes into my shoes.

I remember sending everyone to their rooms when I got angry, turning on Rich Mullens’ “Where You Are” as loud as it would go, and pouring all my frustration into singing at the top of my lungs until I felt better. (“This is real life, baby. It ain’t no Hollywood dream.”)

I remember conversations with my husband, deciding that we wanted one more.

I remember sitting on the couch until 10 am because I was pregnant and my blood pressure and sugar levels didn’t adjust until then, and marshalling the troops of older children to bring me laundry to fold. Mostly I remember those mounds and mounds of laundry.

I remember realizing that we truly had a big family when it took us 15 minutes to get from the house to the car on Sunday mornings ~ and that was after everyone had coats and shoes on.

Then, in 2004, God opened the door for me to go back to school, and I walked through that door into another world. I got my Bachelor’s in Religious Education in 2007, and my Master’s in Theological Studies in 2009. I’ve done research and written a thesis; I’ve worked in the library and TA’d Greek; I’ve presented papers and competed for awards; I’ve been published in academic journals. I love this new world, too.

What I really want to see, however, is the two worlds talking to each other . . .