How an old teddy bear became a new friend to Shepherd kids

How an old teddy bear became a new friend to Shepherd kids

One fact of life is that children get older and quickly outgrow shoes and shirts. And even beloved toys. One Indianapolis-area mom faced that reality recently in her daughter’s bedroom: The giant teddy bear who had watched over her daughter for years as she played and slept and dreamed about her future had been supplanted by new friends and new...

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Podcasts

Columns by Jay

Legos at Easter: We’re made to work together to build something beautiful with our neighbors.

Legos at Easter: We’re made to work together to build something beautiful with our neighbors. My grandchildren love to build all sorts of things – spaceships, castles, skyscrapers – with Legos.  For them, snapping together brightly colored Lego bricks to create something new is a fun outlet for their imagination. I’m not so enamored with Legos myself – I’ve had too many late night, barefoot encounters with hard-edged bits of plastic that a grandchild left behind on the floor. The other...

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As inflation bites, my neighbors water down their children’s milk to make ends meet.

As inflation bites, my neighbors water down their children’s milk to make ends meet. Inflation is an insidious tax on people in poverty.  And it’s one that forces my neighbors on the east side of Indianapolis to make heartbreaking choices each day. I know parents who in recent months have begun to water down their children’s milk to make it go further. I’ve seen multiple families move into one small house because they can no longer afford a home of their own. And I’ve listened as mothers...

read more

Podcasts

Columns by Jay

Legos at Easter: We’re made to work together to build something beautiful with our neighbors.

Legos at Easter: We’re made to work together to build something beautiful with our neighbors. My grandchildren love to build all sorts of things – spaceships, castles, skyscrapers – with Legos.  For them, snapping together brightly colored Lego bricks to create something new is a fun outlet for their imagination. I’m not so enamored with Legos myself – I’ve had too many late night, barefoot encounters with hard-edged bits of plastic that a grandchild left behind on the floor. The other...

read more

As inflation bites, my neighbors water down their children’s milk to make ends meet.

As inflation bites, my neighbors water down their children’s milk to make ends meet. Inflation is an insidious tax on people in poverty.  And it’s one that forces my neighbors on the east side of Indianapolis to make heartbreaking choices each day. I know parents who in recent months have begun to water down their children’s milk to make it go further. I’ve seen multiple families move into one small house because they can no longer afford a home of their own. And I’ve listened as mothers...

read more