Why I started this blog

 I am an anomaly. I don’t fit into any of the nice neat stereotypes that people are so fond of using to categorize other people. 


  1. I was born in the United States, but spent close to half of my childhood in Jamaica.

  2. I am a missionary kid, but we weren’t connected to any mission board.

  3. My parents are pastors and former missionaries, but they have never had a salary - instead they are supported by freewill offerings and love gifts.

  4. I speak Jamaican Patois well enough to sound Jamaican to Americans, but not well enough to pass as a Jamaican to Jamaicans - apparently I sound Trinidadian!

  5. I went to public and private schools where I received an excellent education, but I have decided to homeschool my children.

  6. I spent 5 of my school years being the only white student in a school of 800 non-white students.

  7. I attended an all-girls school for 5 years, then an all-boys school for 2 years.

  8. I am a Millennial by my age, but in most generational characteristics I fit into Gen X. 

  9. I look American, talk like an American, dress like an American, but am as un-American as you can get. I am a hidden immigrant.

  10. I have strong, well thought out opinions on almost every social and moral issue that exists, but you would be hard-pressed to know my opinion unless you directly ask. 


I write here because my perspective is different. Having a global childhood changes your thoughts and behaviors in millions of hardly-perceptible ways. I have spent a lot of years looking for good advice from others to help me navigate new and unfamiliar systems as I go through different things in life, but quite often I found that my situation is so unique that the advice, though well-intentioned, is not informed enough to be helpful. As I am learning about who God has made me to be, and how the experiences I have had with the Lord have shaped my thinking, I have started to realize that perhaps, my unique “fishbowl” lessons may be helpful to others who have different perspectives. 


When you are a missionary kid, or a preacher’s kid, or a preacher’s wife, you are always being watched. You learn to live a life that can stand up to scrutiny, or you learn to not concern yourself with what other people say, think, and do. In that sense, believers are all “in the fishbowl” - trying to live a life that persuades others to want God. At least, that is what has kept me moving forward. It is my sincere hope and prayer that something I have learned or experienced may be an encouragement to another “fish”. 


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