Adventures with Sarah and Al

Finding Home Where History Hurts The other day, someone left a comment on one of my posts: “Y’all are not even Puerto Rican. Ya just like the other mainlanders colonizing everything.” I’ll be honest — it stung. But it also made me pause and think. What does it mean to call Puerto Rico home when its history is complicated, when colonization and gentrification have shaped so much of the island we love? It’s a question I wrestle with often. And yet, this island is home for my family. My sons were born here. We live in a Boricua community, share daily life with our neighbors, and try, in small ways, to contribute and honor the culture around us. Home is layered — it’s both where you come from and where you pour your heart. For me, for us, that is Puerto Rico. Motherhood has a way of making those questions even bigger. Watching my boys grow up here, seeing them run through streets steeped in history, learning the language and traditions that are theirs by birth, I feel a responsibility — a...

How Moms Find Courage: Turning Fear Into Strength I remember when my husband and I were preparing to leave the continental U.S. and decided to mark the moment with cliff jumping at Flaming Gorge. Terrifying doesn’t even cover it. For my first “jump,” I couldn’t jump at all—I crawled to the edge, dangled my feet, pretended to be checking my strength, and held on until my fingers finally slipped. The fall was actually longer than I thought.  Deciding and planning to be a parent feels the same—pure courage. There is so much to fear as a mom, both for ourselves and our kids. Becoming a mom was a leap I didn’t look back from. The fall was actually longer than I thought.  Courage, taking the leap, isn’t about not being scared, it’s about moving even with that fear. Moms that I have the privilege of knowing are rewriting what courage looks like. I try to remind myself what Brown wrote in her book, Daring Greatly , “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” 2. Wha...