I remember having an old pair of penny loafers when I was a little girl. There was stitching all along the top portion of the shoes. These shoes became old and brittle after wearing them for awhile. Then, the thread along the top portion of the shoes would break and unravel, leaving a huge, gaping hole.

Whenever my shoes would fall apart, my father would simply re-stitch them by hand with regular sewing thread. This was only a temporary fix, and the next month or so, the shoes were falling apart again. My father would re-stitch the shoes over and over again, until I eventually outgrew them.

My family would apply this same logic to every challenge in our lives. Whenever our family would "unravel" under the struggle and strain of life since moving from Mississippi to St. Louis, they would do whatever it took to "stitch things back up" again. That "better life" that we thought we had found seemed to elude us, and we were Still Searching...