DaShoan and Sofia Olds have wanted to adopt since they married 13 years ago. They just didn’t know they’d be adopting seven children at once. In November 2016, DaShoan, a high-school math teacher, and Sofia, a social worker, saw a local news story about seven siblings who had been divided among four different foster homes. “Seeing their story was an eye-opener for us,” Sofia told HuffPost. “We have always wanted children, but it never happened for us. Here was our chance to give seven innocent children the love of their parents and stability together with their brothers and sisters. Also, it would fulfill our lifelong dream of being a mother and…

Serial dating may seem like a good idea. Who doesn’t want to be desired? Isn’t it nice to always have someone who wants to have a relationship with you? Doesn’t it feel amazing to never be a part of the “sad single people” club? After all, isn’t being single simply the worst? While I’m all about people feeling good and loving love and whatnot, that isn’t what serial dating is about. All three of my best friends are serial daters. They never stay single for more than a month between boyfriends. For one of them, there is always a new guy on the hook. She has someone lined up before she even breaks…

For BRIDES, by Christina Oehler. Bettmann/Getty Since last week’s reveal that Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, may have crashed on the Marshall Islands, we’ve been as curious as everyone about the famed airwoman and the details of her final years before her disappearance — including her secret wedding. And although we usually only hear about her life as a pilot and of her mysterious vanishing, Earhart’s life prior to her infamous final flight was remarkably modern and feminist— and her prenup is proof. According to the Purdue University Archives of Amelia Earhart papers, Earhart’s husband, a publisher named George Putnam, proposed to her six times before she finally agreed to marry him. Initially, Earhart…

If you know, or suspect, that emotional baggage is weighing you down and keeping you from living fully, but somehow that suitcase full of nasty stuff keeps surfacing in your life, let’s look at some guidelines about how to release it. Now ask yourself, where did this big old bag of junk come from? This is not an easy question to answer. We tend to avoid looking at the source of our pain—experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and fears that keep us hurting. But it is important to do so. Trust me and let’s continue. Confronting the source is where change begins. Altering your beliefs is how change continues. So take some…

Sitting in the emergency room of Tucson Medical Center, the doctors just told us our youngest son, Grant, probably wasn’t going to make it… he was less than 3 months old and I couldn’t believe my ears. I mean, I had barely gotten to know him — how could this be?! Well, the truth is I refused to believe what the doctors told us; and my wife, her parents, and I made sure he was never alone during his week-long stay at the hospital. We prayed every day and we gave him all the love and support that we could give. In the words of the very same doctors who…

PAST In fourth grade, I was the kid that liked doing book reports. I went on to be the boy in high school that edited the school newspaper and wrote short fiction in between classes and past my bedtime. Later, I became a college student that kept spiraling-bound journals. It’s in my blood, writing, and putting pen to paper was the gateway. Once I learned the skill, honoring the language and its rules aligned nicely. If this were going to be my trade, I had better master it. PRESENT Someone once asked my mother, “Why is your son getting a Masters in writing? Don’t they like, to learn that in…

Your legacy has nothing to do with you currently, no, your legacy is WAY after you have gone. Your kids are the ones who write it. Tommy Maloney My friend Jeff and I had a recent conversation about our legacy. We both spoke about leaving more than just money to our kids. The ability to set the example of being a good person in front of your kid and then mirroring that to others is an example of leaving a legacy. Then lately the word legacy kept entering my mind about what am I showing or leaving not just for my son Connor but my two bonus daughters. Let me…

— Up until this very moment, I had only admitted this to a few close friends, but the truth is the last month or so I have been occasionally frustrated with my blog page. I pour so much of my heart and soul into it, exposing my deepest thoughts, fears, and emotions. I get frustrated because I feel like I have such a story to tell, such a journey to share—and yet, my platform isn’t big enough. I want to grab a bullhorn and shout it from the top of a tower. Everything I have learned about love, loss, grief, and that undying hope for a better tomorrow. Something funny…