Author Archives: oldtonew_creation

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About oldtonew_creation

I am a wife, a mama, a creative, and someone who has spent most of her life believing that God is in the business of making something new out of the old, the broken, and the left-behind.

Let’s Talk About the Things That Matter Most

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I believe that the most powerful conversations happen when someone is willing to tell the truth — about the hard things, the beautiful things, and the God who shows up in the middle of both.

That is what I bring to every room I am invited into.

I am a speaker, a writer, and the founder of Old to New Creations — a ministry rooted in the conviction that God is constantly at work making something new out of the broken places. I speak from lived experience — as a woman who has walked through infant loss, stillbirth, grief, and the slow beautiful work of healing — and from a deep love of Scripture and the practical, life-changing disciplines of spiritual formation.

What I Speak On

My speaking centers on three core themes — the same three pillars that run through everything Old to New Creations is about:

Grief & Loss Honest, faith-rooted conversations about walking through loss — for grieving families, bereavement ministries, grief support groups, and anyone who needs permission to tell the truth about where they are. I speak from the inside of this — not as someone who has it all figured out, but as someone who has been there and found God faithful in every hard middle of it.

Faith & Calling Grounded in Scripture and deeply personal — I love helping women discover and walk confidently in the calling God has placed within them. My teaching Act Like Women: From Comparison to Calling explores what it means to be created with intentional design, to bring peace to chaos, and to be rooted in God’s love rather than the world’s ever-changing expectations.

Spiritual Formation Practical, accessible, and life-giving — I love introducing people to the ancient disciplines of spiritual formation in a way that feels approachable for everyday life. From the Examen to gratitude journaling to listening prayer — these are tools that have changed the way I practice faith, and I love putting them in other people’s hands.

A Sample of My Teaching

I recently had the privilege of teaching Act Like Women: From Comparison to Calling at Northland Christian Church — a message for women navigating the noise of cultural expectations and looking for a Biblical foundation for who they were created to be.

You can listen to the full teaching here (Spotify Link).

Who I Speak For

I speak for —

  • Women’s ministry events and conferences
  • Workshops
  • Retreats
  • Guest speakers
  • Church grief support and bereavement ministries
  • MOPS and women’s community groups
  • Hospital chaplaincy and pediatric palliative care teams
  • Parenting and family ministry events
  • Spiritual formation workshops and retreats

Let’s Connect

If you are interested in having me speak at your event, church, or ministry — I would love to hear from you.

More details — including topics, availability, and booking information — are coming soon.

In the meantime, reach out directly and let’s start the conversation.

Contact me here

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” — Ephesians 2:10

A Book Born From Two Losses: Introducing Mommy, Is Madison Sleeping?

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For over fifteen years God has been nudging me toward this book.

Quietly. Persistently. In the way that only a calling feels — impossible to fully explain and impossible to fully ignore.

It started with a question.

Not mine — but one that my sister heard every single morning for months after she lost her baby girl. My nephew — two years old, full of that particular toddler energy that has absolutely no interest in slowing down for grief — would wake up every morning and pad down the hall and find his mama. And every morning he would ask the same question:

“Mommy, is Madison sleeping?”

He asked because he didn’t have other words — he had done it so many times before when Mommy was reminding him to keep his voice down because the baby was resting. He asked out of love and out of hope and out of the beautiful, heartbreaking logic of a two year old mind that had no framework yet for what death meant.

And every single morning — my sister’s heart caught in her chest.

What the Book Is

Mommy, Is Madison Sleeping? is a faith-based picture book for children ages 3-6 and the caregivers who love them.

It follows a little boy named Owen whose baby sister Madison has died. It is the story of a mother sitting down on the couch morning after morning — taking his little hands in hers — and finding the words to answer the question he keeps asking. Honest words. Gentle words. Words rooted in Biblical truth and the real and certain promises of a God who has never broken one yet.

But while Owen’s story is specific — the truths his mother speaks are not.

They are for any child who has ever lost someone they loved. Any child trying to make sense of an empty chair at the table. Any child asking why someone they loved is not coming back. Any child who needs an honest, loving, faith-rooted answer to the hardest question they have ever asked.

The book addresses the questions children actually ask — What does dead mean? Where did they go? Can they see me? Am I going to die too? Will we ever see them again?

It validates every feeling — the confusion, the sadness, the anger, the fear — and gives each one a name and a place.

It anchors every hard truth in Biblical hope — not vague comfort, not empty reassurance, but the real and certain promises of a God who has never broken one yet.

And it includes a comprehensive guide for parents and caregivers — because grief is not one conversation. It comes back in new forms as children grow. And every time it does, you deserve a resource to come back to.

The Two Names at Its Heart

This book carries two names.

Madison Joy — born on Christmas morning, gone at thirty-five days, whose brief life raised a question in her brother’s heart that took fifteen years to bloom into something that could help other families too.

And Lucy Grace — my own daughter, delivered still, whose brief and beautiful presence gave me the courage to finally stop saying someday and start saying yes.

I wrote this book for my nephew — who deserved honest, loving words for the hardest thing his two year old heart had ever held.

I wrote it for my sister — who deserved a resource to come back to every time the question returned in a new form.

I wrote it for my own children — who asked their own questions alongside me and needed truth that was bigger than my grief.

And I wrote it for you — whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever loss has brought you to this page.

What Comes Next

Mommy, Is Madison Sleeping? is currently on its journey toward publication.

I will be the first to let you know when it is ready to be in your hands.

In the meantime — subscribe below to stay connected. And if you are walking through a grief conversation with a young child right now and need resources, I would love to help. Leave a comment or reach out directly.

This book is fifteen years in the making.

It is almost time.

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” — Philippians 1:6

Want to be the first to know when the book is available? Subscribe below.

Tools for the Intentional Life: Introducing the Old to New Spiritual Formation Journals

I believe that faith grows best when it is practiced intentionally.

Not perfectly. Not without interruption. Not only in the quiet seasons when life cooperates and the calendar is clear.

But intentionally — with tools in hand and a willingness to show up on the page even when the words are hard to find.

That conviction is what gave birth to the Old to New journals.

What They Are

The Old to New journals are a series of spiritual formation journals designed to help you document God’s faithfulness, practice the disciplines that deepen faith, and move — one intentional page at a time — from a hurried life to a holy one.

They grew out of a season of intentional spiritual formation that changed the way I practice faith — a Fuller Theological Seminary cohort that introduced me to ancient disciplines I had never encountered in years of faithful church attendance. Disciplines like the Examen — pausing at the beginning and end of each day to recognize God’s presence in it. Gratitude journaling. Intentional, Scripture-rooted prayer for the people you love most.

I left that season with a full bag of practical tools — and a deep conviction that these tools were not meant to stay in a seminary cohort.

They were meant to be accessible.

To the woman who has never heard the word Examen but who would practice it every day if someone just showed her how. To the father who wants to pray more intentionally over his family but does not know where to start. To anyone in a season of grief, transition, or waiting who needs something more than good intentions to anchor their faith.

The Old to New journals were my answer to that conviction.

What Is Inside

Each journal includes:

  • Space to document God’s faithfulness day by day — because the moments we do not write down are the ones we are most likely to forget
  • The Examen practice — a simple morning and evening rhythm of recognizing God’s presence in your day
  • Gratitude journaling — the daily discipline of naming what is good even when the hard things are loud
  • Intentional prayers to pray over your spouse, your children, yourself — and your future spouse, future children, or grandchildren if they have not yet arrived
  • Scripture and prompts designed to move you from surface-level reflection to genuine spiritual depth

For Men and Women

The Old to New journals come in two designs.

The women’s version features a warm, feminine design that feels like a quiet corner and a cup of coffee.

The men’s version features a cleaner, sharper design — same content, different aesthetic — because intentional faith is not a women’s only practice. The men in your life deserve these tools too.

If you are looking for a meaningful gift for a husband, a father, a son, or a friend who is ready to go deeper in his faith — this is it.

Who They Are For

These journals are for anyone who has ever wanted to be more intentional about their faith but did not know where to start.

For the woman in a season of grief who needs a place to put what she is feeling and what she is holding onto. For the couple who wants to pray together but keeps running out of words. For the person who has been a Christian for years and suspects there is a depth of practice they have not yet found.

For anyone who wants to document the story God is writing in their life — so they can look back one day and see His faithfulness clearly.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” — Philippians 1:6

The Old to New journals are available now. You can find them here.