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Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
200 Noll Plaza
Huntington, IN 46750
1-800-348-2440
ISBN: 978-1-68192-268-3 (Inventory No. T1958)
eISBN: 978-1-68192-269-0
LCCN: 2018949469
Cover and interior design: Lindsey Riesen
Cover art: Christy Stephens
Interior art: Christy Stephens
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To Ava Madeleine, Elise Gabrielle, Noah James, Gianna Christine, and Kolbe Joseph —
I thank God for each of you—beautifully and wonderfully made. Stay close to Jesus and Mary and watch what God will do! I’m so incredibly blessed to be your mother. Love all y’all to infinity and beyond.
To David —
What a long, strange trip it’s been! Let’s keep going all the way to heaven, okay? I love you.
Table of Contents
Foreword (( by Mary Lenaburg ))
Mamas, Start Your Engines (( author’s note ))
Buckle Up, Buttercup (( prologue ))
Windows Rolled Down, Music Cranked Up (( joy ))
Caution: Merge Ahead (( humility ))
Are We there Yet?? (( patience ))
Foot Off the Gas (( gentleness ))
Is it Supposed to be Making that Sound? (( humor ))
For the Love of God, Use Your Turn Signal! (( kindness ))
Don’t Make Me Turn this Car Around!! (( self–control ))
U-Turns Encouraged (( forgiveness ))
Thank God, We Made it! (( gratitude ))
It’s What’s Under the Hood that Counts (( goodness ))
Keep on Truckin’ (( faithfulness ))
Eucharisteo (( with thanksgiving ))
“How good God is to give me his Holy Spirit to supply what I need to strive for holiness. I must not stray to the right or left, but keep to the middle of the road—straight as an arrow—to arrive at a humble detachment from myself. This will keep me from despair and from presumption.”
Mother Angelica
“If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?”
Milton Berle
Foreword
Heather Renshaw and I share a love for cold Long Island iced teas and bad karaoke. As a matter of fact, it’s how we met in the summer of 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. We were both attending the Edel Gathering hosted by the phenomenal Jennifer Fulwiler and Hallie Lord, and a karaoke dance party with two hundred of our closest girlfriends was the highlight of the event. Two things you need to know: I was a high school choir dropout, and one of Heather’s love languages is musical theater.
I sang “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor and sounded like a drowned cat. Heather took the stage and belted out, in perfect pitch mind you, “RESPECT” by Aretha Franklin. She took us to church, and it was glorious. It takes quite a bit of chutzpah to get two hundred women to sing along, but Heather, she’s got chutzpah in spades. She is sassy, funny, a tad snarky, but full of the Holy Spirit. We became immediate friends, and my life has been forever changed in the very best of ways.
Over the last three years we have walked through many challenges together, as God has stretched our faith and grown our friendship. Heather’s encouraging words always land gently, even when they reveal a hidden truth about something that may need rooting out or changing. We’re both passionate about women’s ministry and lifting up those who feel marginalized and unseen.
When Heather enters your world, it gets brighter, funnier, and more exciting. Your heart is filled with the sure confidence and peace that you will not be abandoned on the side of the road. Heather is your roadside assistance plan, and she is darn good at it. She sees your heart and speaks with truth and grace. She encourages and uplifts while walking alongside you, holding you up when you cannot stand on your own. She is a woman of God on a mission to make sure you know that as woman, wife, sister, and mother, you are seen, known, and loved by a God who has drawn a very unique and special road map just for you to follow.
Heather is one heck of a travel buddy. Imagine those minivan windows rolled down, wind whipping your hair, hands in the air, while the Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff accompany you down the highway of life.
Death by Minivan is a celebration of motherhood with all its twists and turns along those mountain roads you are terrified to navigate. Using the fruits of the Holy Spirit as a guide to celebrate seeing motherhood as God’s carefully considered gift to us for our sanctification, Heather shares the truth of God’s economy of embracing our cross to be free, dying to live, giving to receive.
Some of us love the ups and downs of hills and valleys, some prefer the winding mountain road, and others the straight and narrow surrounded by wheat fields as far as the eye can see. No matter your landscape preference, no matter your past driving record or how many speeding tickets or fender benders you have been involved in, every