Author: Stephanie Henderson

  • We marveled at the sunset as we headed to our Missouri home one last time tonight. As another…

    We marveled at the sunset as we headed to our Missouri home one last time tonight. As another chapter ends, my heart is both full and heavy. These kids have worked so hard this year, and there were so many amazing indications of just how much they have taken to heart what we’ve been working on. I hold so much hope for them as they grow up leaning into doing hard things.

    I have learned so much by spending time with them, hearing their stories, battling shame and sitting with heavy feelings together. This is a group to watch, I think. Their fierce love for each other and the world around them will change it… and it certainly has changed mine.
    Tomorrow, we hit the road to Wichita. I’m sure we’ll be back to Kansas City from there more than we’ve been back to Texas from here. Still… it is a bittersweet leaving.
    We grieve.
    We grow.
    We love.
    Sunset to sunrise, I love you all.
    1f49c We marveled at the sunset as we headed to our Missouri home one last time tonight. As another...1f49c We marveled at the sunset as we headed to our Missouri home one last time tonight. As another...1f49c We marveled at the sunset as we headed to our Missouri home one last time tonight. As another...


    placeholder-image We marveled at the sunset as we headed to our Missouri home one last time tonight. As another...

    placeholder-image We marveled at the sunset as we headed to our Missouri home one last time tonight. As another...
    placeholder-image We marveled at the sunset as we headed to our Missouri home one last time tonight. As another...


  • 17 years ago, on this exact day… I met this guy in person for the first time. That is one of the…

    17 years ago, on this exact day… I met this guy in person for the first time. That is one of the craziest facts of my life.

    For him to stick with me after that night… to choose to make a commitment to the person I was then… and to still be choosing me after all these years takes my breath away.
    16 years ago tonight, we got married in Olathe. In a small chapel there, surrounded by a tiny group of people whose bets as to how long we would stay together were all over the place… we made vows to each other. Though the words we say have shifted over time and the expressions of love look different now, the heart of who we were back then has grown into a beautiful example of what is possible when two people stick it out.
    Sure… we have had our days, weeks, sometimes months that we struggled. Thankfully, they are fewer and farther between these days. We’ve hit our stride in the last couple of years and it is glorious.
    We aren’t leaving KC quite as quickly this year as we did after the wedding, but the looming transition makes me more thankful than ever to have this man by my side as we move on.
    Here’s to seeing what the next year brings, who we’ll become, and where we’ll land… together.
    Happy anniversary.
    I love you, Sean.

  • Sigh. This is a difficult reality to sit with.Be sure to show up for yourself… sometimes you’re the

    Sigh. This is a difficult reality to sit with.

    Be sure to show up for yourself… sometimes you’re the only person who will.
    I’m exhausted this week. I need the 21st to get here soon so that I can go home and settle into real life. Until it does, I’ll keep working on holding to the tenuous balance that I have attained and believing that people who aren’t committed to making me the villain are real and will stick around.
    People will write you into their stories however it suits them. Show up for yourself. Be authentically present and unapologetically real.
    Happy Wednesday.
    I love you!
    💜💜💜

    placeholder-image Sigh. This is a difficult reality to sit with.Be sure to show up for yourself… sometimes you’re the


  • This… Still… Again… Always. I hate that it is a much needed reminder in my life. And yet, I…

    This… Still… Again… Always.

    I hate that it is a much needed reminder in my life. And yet, I am thankful to know it to be true that the status quo is not worth protecting and that the God I serve is big enough to move outside of the systems and structures that have done harm to try and maintain it.
    April is ending. Two years have flown by. In May, we move on. What lies ahead is unknown. But there will be both time for grieving what was not to be, and space for growing into what is. Thanks be to God.
    Be kind to yourselves today.
    Drop your shoulders.
    Relax your eyebrows.
    Lower your tongue from the roof of your mouth.
    Breathe deeply.
    Change is often both sad and good. And that’s okay.
    I love you, friends.
    1f49c This... Still... Again... Always. I hate that it is a much needed reminder in my life. And yet, I...1f49c This... Still... Again... Always. I hate that it is a much needed reminder in my life. And yet, I...1f49c This... Still... Again... Always. I hate that it is a much needed reminder in my life. And yet, I...

    placeholder-image This... Still... Again... Always. I hate that it is a much needed reminder in my life. And yet, I...


  • Happy Easter from the ”temple” by our Missouri home. We have driven by this place so many times…

    Happy Easter from the ”temple” by our Missouri home. We have driven by this place so many times during our time living in Missouri. Ean, in particular, has been intrigued by it and insisted that we take Easter pictures there before we move away.

    It’s been an interesting few years in Missouri. And as I was reminded this morning, the good news was nonsensical. It was nonsense first to the disciples, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the church still struggles to hear new things that seem unbelievable.
    As our time in Kansas City draws to an end, I am thankful to have these two boys who serve as daily reminders of God’s faithfulness and the transformative work of the resurrection in my own life.
    I am so thankful for another sunrise. And even when I go trembling, I will continue to walk into them proclaiming love.

    placeholder-image Happy Easter from the ”temple” by our Missouri home. We have driven by this place so many times...


  • I am so glad that the pain of Friday and the silence of Saturday didn’t linger any longer than they

    I am so glad that the pain of Friday and the silence of Saturday didn’t linger any longer than they did. And this year, more than ever before, I’m holding out hope for the coming sunrise. Not because of anything that this particular Sunday morning will hold… It’s really more a claiming of and clinging to the hope that not even the worst pain ends.

    This world is hurting, people are just trying to survive… myself included some days.
    But the sun rises. Every single day, the sun appears again. No matter how dark the night before. No matter how broken the heart. No matter how long the day felt. No matter what.
    The sun will rise in the morning.
    And there’s hope in that.
    This season has been strange. Change is constant. Loss abounds. The people and places that were safe and stable are different now. Darkness seems to hang on. Through it all, I hold onto the hope of all that is celebrated in the sunrise of the coming Sunday.
    Keep breathing, dear ones. When the structures you thought would support and protect you instead try to crush you, keep breathing. When those who should be consistently honest and true instead lie about you, cheat on you, and steal from you, keep breathing. When everything is dark and you can’t see any change coming, keep breathing.
    Remember the beautiful sunrises you’ve seen. And know that it is coming again.
    I love you, friends. And I desperately pray hope finds your hearts today. And that you see the brightening of a sunrise on the horizon.
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  • Sean, his dad, and the boys loaded a truck yesterday, and I headed west. This morning, after a…

    Sean, his dad, and the boys loaded a truck yesterday, and I headed west. This morning, after a marathon signing session, we unloaded and begin the adventure in Wichita. The babbling brook in our front yard houses a fish the boys have named Cheeto. Flowers are blooming. There’s comfy places to sit inside and out. Life hasn’t fully transitioned yet, but today was a good start. Now we are exhausted. Finishing a project and enjoying the amenities of the home we will come to know and love in the months and years ahead. Then it’s off to bed… for tomorrow, real life beckons again.

    Thanks so much to Annette and Everett for housing me last night and showing up to help today. Without your faithful friendship my life would be very different.

    placeholder-image Sean, his dad, and the boys loaded a truck yesterday, and I headed west. This morning, after a...

    placeholder-image Sean, his dad, and the boys loaded a truck yesterday, and I headed west. This morning, after a...


  • Two years ago we crossed from winter to spring in a frenzy. Preparing to move from Texas to…

    Two years ago we crossed from winter to spring in a frenzy. Preparing to move from Texas to Missouri, we were scattered and it felt like we were hurrying from one moment to the next. Sean and the boys were finishing school, I was completing my undergrad. Life was pretty full.

    I couldn’t have dreamed up all that would happen between then and now. From Sean successfully transitioning to a full time job as the primary domestic engineer (and completely rocking it), Aksel jumping into high school, Ean fully blossoming in elementary school, to me finishing my masters and moving into a line of meaningful employment with the potential for significant movement into what I am called to do… we have grown together. Through ups and downs, ins and outs, happy and sad, two years has flown by.
    In the last few weeks, we have launched a new journey. I drove across Kansas today to be present for the inspections on our new home. We went under contract last week and are over the moon to be looking forward to our return to Wichita at the end of May.
    It is the journey of a lifetime, continuing to grow and transition, standing firm through the hard times and learning to laugh through the good ones… Loving all the way.
    As we leave Kansas City, it is with incredibly mixed emotions. There are many here who we would pack up and take with us if it were possible. As it seems not to be possible, we go believing that these relationships have planted in us seeds of love to take with us.
    Thank you all for your support and prayers. Near or far, we are thankful for you, and so glad you are part of our story.
    I love you, friends!
    1f49c Two years ago we crossed from winter to spring in a frenzy. Preparing to move from Texas to...1f49c Two years ago we crossed from winter to spring in a frenzy. Preparing to move from Texas to...1f49c Two years ago we crossed from winter to spring in a frenzy. Preparing to move from Texas to...

    placeholder-image Two years ago we crossed from winter to spring in a frenzy. Preparing to move from Texas to...


  • COVID hit our house this week. Sean is on the mend, for which I am so thankful. Ean has tested nega

     COVID hit our house this week. Sean is on the mend, for which I am so thankful. Ean has tested negative, but hasn’t felt the best. He and I will both be testing before the weekend is out to find out where it has spread since I’m now symptomatic, as well.

    I don’t miss the days spent hiding from this. I don’t like remembering what the pneumonia felt like and being afraid it will come again this time. I hate COVID as much as I ever have.
    But I’m so thankful for all of the things that were learned throughout the pandemic. Crossing barriers, borders, miles, I got to sit in and listen to my amazing Momma present to a group of health and ministry professionals about trauma and trauma informed care in both settings tonight.
    I am beyond blessed to have been raised by Beverly Smith Bateman. It’s the primary way I have become who I am. (Like me or not, you have her to thank for a lot of it.) We dive into discomfort together, and I am so thankful to see a long history of growth behind and to be looking forward to much more as we kept learning and leaning in.

  • I got to meet up with a new old friend recently. We sat and chatted for over an hour. We laughed…

    I got to meet up with a new old friend recently. We sat and chatted for over an hour. We laughed and dreamed and hoped against hope. It was a desperately needed connection.

    These conversations, the little serendipities that speak to big love and abiding joy in the midst of struggle, feed my soul. Sitting in a thin space in the middle of a busy market, a piece of my heart that was broken in shameful community found healing in a loving one. And I am grateful.
    It’s freezing cold outside where we live. The next several days are bringing sub-zero temperature with wind chills low enough to cause frostbite in minutes. I’m staying inside as much as possible. And after a fall on the ice that jarred my aging bones earlier, I’m happy to do so.
    Tonight, I’m thankful for a warm house, a loving family, good jobs, health, healing, and balance.
    Stay warm, stay safe, love out loud! And if you, like I, need a safe space to connect and dream sometimes… don’t hesitate to reach out.
    I love you, friends.
    1f49c I got to meet up with a new old friend recently. We sat and chatted for over an hour. We laughed...1f49c I got to meet up with a new old friend recently. We sat and chatted for over an hour. We laughed...1f49c I got to meet up with a new old friend recently. We sat and chatted for over an hour. We laughed...