Laura Parker

Currently, my family of five has bid goodbye to the mountains of the West and to say hello to the jungles of Thailand.  My husband and our three small children (ages 6, 4, and 2) have just relocated here so that my husband can direct Christian orphanage for girls who are targets for the sex industry.  The orphanage is a ministry of the non-profit foundation there called Joy to the World .  We are in the process of creating secondary income streams for the orphanage itself, developing a trade skill for the girls when they graduate, and creating transitional housing for the 50 girls once they turn 18.  We also have a heart that beats for mentorship, and we host teams of college-aged Westerners for a two and three month program here in Chiang Mai (Thailand Mentorship).  In the midst of donning flip-flops and trying to navigate the car on the left side of the road, I am homeschooling our three small children and hugging on lots of little Asian girls.

 [You can read the whole story of how we arrived at the decision to move in November of 2009 HERE.]        

Just a few years ago, I was born to a family of sweet-tea drinkers in North Carolina.  I was a preacher’s kid and learned to accept my fate of always wearing hand-me-downs.  Cancer was a part of my childhood, claiming my dad’s life and stealing some years from my mom, as well.  My highschool years introduced me to my husband, and I was actually his date for our senior prom (you can laugh at the picture here).  We got married as young ‘uns, after our junior year of college at Appalachian State University in NC, where I majored in Middle Grades Education with a minor in English.  Wanting adventure, we spent a year on a tiny island no one has ever heard of (called Saipan) teaching, then headed back to North Carolina where we worked with students at a local church.  After a brief trip back around the world to New Zealand to live (which regretfully didn’t work out), we landed out in the tiny mountain town of Woodland Park, Colorado, where my husband worked as a pastor for a Community Church.   For nearly five years, I reveled in glorious summers and endured cold winters as a stay-at-home to our three little people.  It was here in the shadow of Pike’s Peak that my path crossed Kelley’s, often on our back porch, and a passion for speaking about spiritual things to others who were dissatisified with the American church developed.  Eventually, Tattered Couch , a website devoted to honest spiritual conversation, was born, and I find myself writing and listening on this particular virtual couch quite often.

In essence, I am a Southerner with a heart for the globe.  I am a homeschooling mom who doesn’t have it all together and isn’t afraid to admit it.  I fight passionately for my kids’  hearts, for orphans’ futures, and for extra cream in my coffee, and I confess that wrestling with carseats brings out my personal worst.   I am still madly in love with my husband of 11 years (really, I’m not exaggerating), and I also admit that I am a bit of a gym-junkie (not exaggerating here, either).  Ultimately, though, I am a lady who believes in the richness of this Story I am living, and I am committed to the honest recording of it.

Regardless of where you find yourself on the globe, thank you for taking the time to visit me here at Life Overseas.   I hope you leave a little more hopeful than when you arrived.

Feel free to email me with any personal questions or comments at:  Laura@Lauraleighparker.com .