🇺🇸 American-born, Italian at heart. I’m a mom, nonna, and wife to my own personal superhero—my very own Super Mario! Above all, I am a follower of Jesus and have been serving, with my husband, as a missionary in Italy since 1989. My passions in life are my faith in Jesus, my family, simple slow living, and my dolce vita in Italy. I write about these things, as well as the challenges of expat/missionary life and living on a shoestring budget.
🇮🇹 Nata in America, ma italiana nel cuore. Sono mamma, nonna e moglie del mio supereroe personale: il mio Super Mario! Soprattutto, sono una seguace di Gesù e dal 1989 servo, insieme a mio marito, come missionaria in Italia. Le mie passioni sono la fede in Gesù, la mia famiglia, una vita semplice e lenta e la mia dolce vita in Italia. Scrivo di queste cose, così come delle sfide della vita da espatriata/missionaria e di come vivere con un budget limitato.
According to Celtic Christianity, ‘thin places’ are moments or locations where God’s presence seems intensely close and reachable. They are places where it seems as though the boundary between heaven and earth has become somehow porous. Thin places are where heaven and earth seem to meet. In a strictly physical sense, I liken this feeling […]
Today, I remembered the day our daughter and her family moved back to the USA, which was several years ago. They kept their house here in Italy, so in the beginning we had to go there frequently. We had to empty the fridge, close windows, and tidy things up. Then we went upstairs to strip […]
That’s a question I often ask myself. Not ‘Why am I here on this earth?” No, that question was answered years ago, many years ago at this point, when Christ entered my heart. I was created because He wanted me to be. Just as He wanted you and every piece of creation. He loved us […]
They said we were crazy — and we probably were. But we’ve got a story to tell. It was May 1989, 37 years ago, when we embarked on this crazy adventure, a craziness that has only intensified over the years. “It’ll never work”, they told us. “Don’t do it! It’s crazy, insane. You’ve got to […]
Our Spring time change is scheduled for the last weekend of March, despite rumors circulating about canceling it. I don’t understand why they insist on doing it or why they call it “moving forward.” Losing an hour of sleep never makes me feel like I’m springing ahead. My biological clock really struggles to adjust, leaving […]
Growing up, I thought I was an orphan, unwanted and abandoned by my “real” family. I imagine many kids have such thoughts, possibly influenced by books or movies. But in my case, these thoughts came from my own family and friends. “Is Sheila adopted?” family friends would ask. “She doesn’t look like anyone in the […]