About the Writer

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Thanks for tuning in to this odd series. As I said in the beginning, I sometimes stop and look at my life and it just feels so over the top, like a crazy on-going TV show. I didn’t write this to make little of my story, or to pick on my previous churches or anyone in particular. It’s been a crazy, heart-breaking, tragic, funny, crazy (have I already said that) story. And if it weren’t my story, I wouldn’t even believe it.

It’s been a test of my faith, and it still is at times, but for the most part, I’ve come to a place where I know, or at least usually I know, that God is good. He is the Writer of this story. And even though He keeps bringing tragedy after tragedy, I know He has a great ending in store.

A good writer wouldn’t write such an up and down story such as this, filled with tragedy and comedy and horror, and not end it with a something beautiful, amazing, and life-changing. It’s finale, whatever season that ends up being, is sure to rock this world.

And so, regardless of what happens in this next episode, in the next season and seasons, I will give myself into the hands of the Writer of my story and I will play my part in it. He knows the end of my story and I know He is a good Writer. He loves each and every one of us the stories He writes for us. So whatever happens, it will be a victorious ending, good for me and good for the world.

And while I say these things, I will also admit that I am not perfect in this faith. Not even a little. I believe this with all my heart, and then a week later I don’t and I curse God, again. And then I’m strong again in my faith. It’s a process…a journey of ups and downs and believing and doubting. I’m not as strong as I want to be. But through continuous support from my friends and family, by the grace of God through the Spirit, I keep holding on, keeping the faith, and trusting that God is good, even when it doesn’t look like it.

A quote I have held onto for years, that was really profound for me at the time, came from an old tv show, Dark Angel, when a character named Herbal Thought is talking with another character, Zack:

HERBAL: ’Tis the will of the Almighty. That’s it.

ZACK: People get killed, there are homeless everywhere…it is not all good.

HERBAL: His plan is all good, all the time.

His plan is all good. All the time.

So friends, pray for my family. On March 17th, Isaac and Noah will be the first of the kids to be seen by one of the best specialists in the states on this disease. He will hopefully be able to diagnose for us and let us know if this disease is the type that leads to blindness.

I would love to announce that in the next episode, that the Writer wrote up a miracle, a unexplained healing. The doctors were baffled. Wouldn’t that be a grand addition to the story?

And if not, I would like us all to still be able to say, “Tis the will of the Almighty. His plan is all good. All the time.”

Thanks for being a part of my story.

Current Season

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Current Season Synopsis:

In this season, the heroine and her husband find much healing in their marriage through difficult conversations and therapy, and learn a new term, “egalitarianism.” The heroine likes it and insists it’s her new favorite word. They work on living out their marriage in light of this new theology.

But healing marriages and good churches make for good endings, not good stories. So the writer changes course.

There is a discovery that the oldest child has a rare inherited eye disease, Stargardt’s Disease, that likely leads to blindness. It’s an inherited disease, though neither of the parents have symptoms. There’s a chance the other kids will have it, so they are all tested.

The audience discovers with the heroine and her husband that five of their six children have this rare disease. It’s earth shattering for them. The heroine and her husband are both overcome with grief and pray continuously for miraculous healing. It’s hard to focus on anything else.

They schedule an appointment with a specialist who can tell them if this rare disease is the kind that remains mostly inactive or if it’s the kind that will lead to blindness at an early age. They fear for their children. What will life look like with five blind children?

They find themselves asking why is God doing all these things to them? Is God really good in light of everything? Does He even care?

Tune in March 17th for the next episode in this series, when the children take a trip to Chicago to find out if they will go blind or not.

Season Ten

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Season Ten Synopsis:

Their new church is completely different than anything they’ve experienced before. If their previous church was extremely conservative, you’d probably call this one extremely liberal. It’s refreshing and healing. The heroine begins to have space to breathe and reexamine life and God and religion.

The previous church drama comes to a conclusion after much back and forth of formal, certified letters. In the end, they cannot find legal grounds to excommunicate the family and so they are released with an informal censure. It stings, nonetheless. But they are free. At last.

There’s a lot of inner-emotional healing as therapy begins and the audience is happy for the heroine, but that’s boring so the writer adds new and interesting twists. The seasons must go on.

Not long after the church drama resolution, a large storm comes and drops a huge maple tree into their yard, destroying their just newly built deck, garden structures, and the whole yard. It’s rough on the family, but some of their old friends and new found church comes around them and they rebuild. It’s heart-warming.

Therapy is helping, but our heroine is still struggling with PTSD and unexplained health issues throughout the season.

There are a series of comedic episodes of broken refrigerators, stoves, cars, washers, hot water tanks and anything else we can think of to break, because basement flooding and broken down cars make for interesting stories.

In one episode, we learn that the house they are living in is growing toxic mold. This could be at the heart of many of the health issues and so we hope for the heroine’s sake that it can all be resolved by some remodeling and a mold detox.

In the meantime, we continue to have the familial drama of piecing lives back together after patriarchy. How does it change lifestyles and parenting? How do you raise daughters in a non-patriarchal family? How does a woman live with her husband after she’s lived believing that a woman is a servant to her husband to be totally obedient to him in everything, to bear him covenant children and in that she will find worth? Where is her worth now? What does marriage look like after that? Will the marriage even survive? Can it be salvaged? End season.

Season Nine

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Season Nine Synopsis:

After much drama, both within the church and in their marriage, the husband finally agrees with our heroine and decides it’s time to leave the church. They attempt a peaceful goodbye, but that wouldn’t make for a good story.

It’s a mixed decision to leave, based partly on leaving patriarchy and partly to pursue more urban mission work. They say their goodbyes and most of the people are happy for them and wish them well on their new journey. By some, they will be missed.

They begin visiting churches where urban mission work is a core value. All of the visits were good and beautiful, and shocking to their children who have never experienced any other type of Christianity. The children, coming from the “frozen chosen” denomination, experience at one church, a beautiful place, doing amazing work for the Kingdom, a woman leading worship, someone speaking in tongues, and a woman yelling at the top of her lungs while dancing because she feels “Jeeeeeeesssusssss!” It’s beautiful…but very, very different for the kids. And while they love the experience, it’s not the place that God is calling them.

They are both in prayer and asking for guidance and God speaks. He shows them His will and they find a church and it’s everything they’ve prayed for. It’s different than what they’re used to and it’s beautiful. They know this where God has called them and they know this is their new home.

But it’s not as simple as just leaving their old church and attending a new church. They have to seek the approval and permission of the previous church to transfer their membership (remember those vows?) to this new church. It should be a simple paperwork process and done, but that wouldn’t make a good story. That wouldn’t be worth watching or writing about.

The church leadership makes a formal decision that they do not accept this new church as a Christian church. They must choose a “better” church that they approve of or return. And if they don’t obey, they will be excommunicated.

At this point, our heroine has a total breakdown and becomes suicidal. The audience gets to see and hear through the eyes of the heroine. It’s dark and unsettling.

We end the season watching the heroine begin having an evening drink or two or three every night to numb it all. The last scene of the season, she wipes the tears from her face and splashes back the rest of the bottle of rum. Fade to black.

Season Eight

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Season Eight Synopsis:

The family spends a month in the hotel after the house fire. It wasn’t all bad. Two suites, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, free breakfast, coffee, housekeeping, cable, an indoor pool and hot tub.

It’s chaotic and stressful and fun all at the same time. The quirky family keeps their frog in a jar on the kitchenette counter by the jar with the rescued fish. The massive amounts of laundry pile up in the corners of the rooms with the occasional trip to a friend’s house to borrow a washer. The dishes from two rooms are collected and tables are shoved together filling the room with chairs to seat a family of nine all together to enjoy dinner in a tiny cramped space. But they’re together and they give thanks.

They decorate for Christmas and put up a little tree and use the fireplace. They make the best of the crazy situation, because this isn’t going to stop them from eating as a family and enjoying the holidays. God is still good…even in this.

But it wasn’t home. So as soon as the fire marshall gives his approval, they are happy to move home and celebrate the New Year in their home, still smelling of fire, still in need of various repairs, fans and ozone generators running at full blast make it hard to hear, so everyone is shouting, but at least they are home. So they throw a New Year’s Eve party. Because God is good, and maybe this next year will be better than the last.

Another episode, a raccoon has moved into the attic, while they were gone. The family is trying to remove a raccoon with strobe lights and loud music. Anywhere you go in the house, you can hear the raccoon party going on in the attic. Eventually they trap him and release him into the country and all ends happily for the raccoon and for the family.

But as the season progresses, the episodes get more serious as they discover the ramifications of patriarchy in their family and tensions increase with the conservative church they are a part of. There are lots of drama episodes throughout the season, as they are debating various points of theology with each other and their church leadership.

Our heroine is beginning to deny patriarchal theology, but fears excommunication if she doesn’t fully submit to both her husband and the leaders of her church. She struggles with deep questions about her value as a woman in Christ, in society, in the church, and in marriage, while in a church that generally denies any real value to women apart from their ability to have lots of children and be in complete submission to their husbands in everything.

The heroine is beginning to emotionally fall apart and most episodes end with her crying and pleading to her husband and to God to let them free of this place. Her health is continuing to decline and anxiety and panic attacks are an every day issue. It’s turning into a really dark drama.

 

Season Seven

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Season Seven Synopsis:

Last season was good, but if the writer is going to grow the audience, it’s got to get better, so Season Seven, we find the heroine, her husband, the sister-in-law that lives with them, and their five children standing in the front of a church while the husband takes vows on behalf of the family that they will join this church and vow to submit to the leadership of that church. The music is foreboding.

This new church is just as weird as the previous one (cause why should they find a normal church, that would be boring).

The heroine is pregnant again.

An episode or two after this announcement we have the tragic episode where our heroine’s mother dies suddenly from a heart attack. No one could have foreseen it. This begins a faith crisis and the heroine curses God and leaves the faith.

They have their sixth child. During the birth, the heroine’s uterus collapses and she hemorrhages, and it makes for a great medical episode.

Shortly after, they have a house fire and as the family runs through the house to recover all the children and pets, they discover their belongings are worthless. All that matters is family. It’s devastating and heart-breaking, but somehow sweet as the family of nine, all unharmed, check into a hotel.

They spend several weeks at the hotel and some of the episodes are funny as they try to juggle a family of nine in two rooms at a hotel. The large group stick out as they all wander in their pjs and socks to hurry to the hotel breakfast, among traveling professionals. It’s a humorous series for the audience, but wearing heavily on the family as time passes.

They spend Christmas in the hotel while they fight their insurance company to care enough to let them return to their lives. At the same time they deal with identity theft, because why not add more drama? Makes for some good episodes over the winter season.

Increasing throughout the season, our heroine’s health begins failing and she starts having panic attacks and an emotional breakdown. Her faith is returning slowly. In the meantime, will they move back into their house any time soon???

Season Six

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Season Six Synopsis:

Our heroine and her husband and their now four children find themselves in a cult-like church were the pastor thinks he’s walking divinity, calling himself “God’s Anointed” and they begin to realize they’re in a really weird church.

Add a sister-in-law to the cast who comes to live with them to help with their four kids. The full house makes for some funny episodes.

Another episode throws in the sudden death of sixteen year old boy to amp the drama and remind the audience that the show can be serious too.

Continuing episodes reveal the adoption of some patriarchal theology and lifestyle changes including headcoverings and denim jumpers, and restrictive views on women. The heroine’s family is looking pretty odd and the audience isn’t quite sure what to think. This is obviously going no where good.

They have another baby. It’s a home birth. It’s odd and filled with comedy and drama as the midwife doesn’t make it to the birth and the live-in sister-in-law catches the baby, nearly drops him, but all is well. He’s born happy and healthy. The audience feels good.

Then the next batch of episodes show how they all get whooping cough including their six-week old baby, and he might not survive. That makes a few good, intense episodes.

But to increase the drama even more, the writer gives the baby who survived the whooping cough a couple hernias on top of it. He survives the surgeries and the audience is happy. The boy is well, but not before one last episode where he nearly loses a toe from a tightly wound hair around his little toe. Who even knew that kind of thing could happen?

Then toward the end of the season, the weird church plot line begins to take precedence and in the season finale the family is part of a heart-wrenching church-split ending with being shunned by everyone.

Season Five

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Season Five Synopsis:

It begins with the family packing a U-haul to move across the country since the job wasn’t enough to keep the lights on and the babies fed. They move to a place where they know no one, but there are high hopes for a better life.

The audience watches them adjust and get used to a new place. It’s definitely a comedy at times. The job’s not bad, but it’s definitely not living well by any stretch. We still see them struggle in that regard.

They have a bit with a dog, because dogs are funny.

Another episode we find out they’re pregnant. The following episode they have a miscarriage. It’s tragic and beautiful. The community rallies around the new family and takes care of them.

Later in the season, they become pregnant again. This time it seems the baby will survive.

The next episode and the season finale, we have the heroine’s in-laws come to visit. It’s a sweet family drama episode, deepening the depth of the relationship between the families. A few days pass and the camera zooms in on the phone ringing. It’s bad news. The mother-in-law has been stung by a bee and collapsed. They jump into the car to race back. Meanwhile, the audience sees the mother-in-law at the hospital. The doctors are trying, but her heart monitor goes flat. It flashes back to the couple on the side of the road. They obviously heard. The camera pans out revealing the two of them holding each other, sobbing under a red blood moon. Fade to black.

Season Three and Four

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Season Three and Four Synopsis:

Our heroine and her husband struggle with life and jobs and family drama. There would be ups and downs. They would learn how to be married, they would have two more children, for a total of three. They would struggle, but hang on, the audience would appreciate the comedic attempts to juggle work, school, and babies on a limited income, looking similar to the tv show “Raising Hope” and it’s focus on family and keeping it all together in spite of the hard places in a broken world, keeping their faith in God and in each other.

As season four comes to a close, it would emphasize the increasing financial struggles as they tried to provide for their family, unable to find a job in a dying town, and we would watch as as the season finale reveals that they have accepted a job 650 miles away from family and everyone they knew.

Season Two

I am writing the story of my life as a TV series synopsis. For more information and to begin at the beginning, click here.

Season Two Synopsis:

Season Two would begin with a recap of season one, also showing us that our heroine had met a decent guy and started dating him. We remember that he proposed and she said yes.

Episode one begins with a bittersweet wedding with almost no one for the bride’s side. A few friends, three family members. Her mother had spread lies that the guy was beating her, so no one would come to the wedding. It worked. On her wedding day, the audience watches her filled with joy and filled with tears, all at the same time, as she desperately watched the door, hoping her father would change his mind and walk her down the aisle. But it didn’t happen.

Episode two comes with an announcement that she is pregnant. It’s a honeymoon baby. So of course the gossip commences.

And what kind of story would it be if either of the mother or father had a job to support their new child on the way, so for the remainder of the season, the writer makes them keep losing their jobs. Layoffs are common place in their dying town.

Throw in the familial issues and you got a good drama going on. Poverty, pregnancy, new marriage, lots of fighting, family issues, in-laws. It’s a typical sitcom.