Having moved from the UK to The Netherlands age 22 with no job, nowhere to live, and a partner who’d never even visited the place, I figured that moving to Sweden thirteen years later would be easy. Sure, I didn’t speak much of the language, but I could understand some, and yes, I’d miss my […]
Today is Santa Lucia and children everywhere in Sweden are honoring the faithfulness of an Italian woman and martyr, Lucia. Lucia’s Story—The real stuff The year was 283 and Lucia was born to rich noble parents. Lucia’s father died when she was just five years old and in an attempt to look after Lucia, […]
Candice Cabutihan Cipullo describes her experiences raising her kids in Japan, Canada, and the Philippines. Her chapter dives into the challenges of experiencing life while always feeling foreign and how she explains the answer to her kids when they ask her, “Where is home?” Listen to Candice narrate her chapter here. Candice Cabutihan Cipullo has […]
“The moon is a loyal companion.It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.Uncertain. Alone. […]
Your doctor’s office is really a beehive of data. Your patient data requires effective communication between you (the patient) and the doctor. Then communication happens between the doctors, nurses, and the administrative staff in the clinic. Then, your data is often transmitted to other doctors in other clinics and out to laboratories and back again. […]
It seems like all too soon, mothers of newborns are concerned about losing the baby weight. “What a cruel scheme to keep a woman from knowing her power. To put the focus on what pregnancy did to her body rather than focus on what her perfect body just did. Here we sit, creating and nourishing […]
Five years ago, I discovered that my wedding dress, photo albums, and a few fragile items with sentimental value ended up in a dumpster somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia. It wasn’t my choice to throw away my beloved sentimental items but that of our property management company. I discovered it long after it had happened, so […]
“Midwives? What is this, the 1400s? Do I have a feudal master to whom I pay monthly tithes in grain?” To say the least, my husband was unenlightened when it came to childbirth practices. He has since come a long way in a short time, but we were young(er) and stupid(er) back then, and […]
By Kelsi Folsom “The practice of gratitude and fortitude will never be an unfruitful one, and is, I think, one of the greatest gifts of living abroad.” Ask anyone if they have ever heard of Saba, and most likely you will hear, “No, where is that?” To which I reply, “Well, it’s a […]
By Carrie Elizabeth Akarslan You wouldn’t normally meet your boyfriend’s parents by going on a twelve-day tour of Japan together. Of course, our relationship doesn’t follow the “normal context, ” and so this is a story about how I met my Turkish boyfriend’s parents for the first time. I grew up on a small ranch […]