Brilliant Plan Helping Female Pakistani Doctors Return To Practicing Medicine

70% of Pakistani medical students are women. So you would think there is no shortage of female doctors in the country. Yet, education runs up against cultural expectations. That when a woman has a baby, she gives up her career and stays home. This has meant the end of many promising careers. It also means with fewer female doctors, many women aren’t getting the medical attention they should because they would never go see a male doctor. Along comes two

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You Could Call This The Worst Anniversary Dinner Ever

You could’ve called it the worst anniversary dinner ever. This week, Husband and I were excited to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. Yes, can you believe it? It’s already been three years since this forever-single lady found a perfectly imperfect man who wanted to spend his life with me. Getting hitched at Silver Run Falls, NC. July 2012. We had reservations at a fancy, new restaurant in town. And sure, we could’ve gone there and had the latest “farm-to-table” dishes. But

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Teenager Sassy Talk Is Taking Over Our Family

We have a sass problem in our family. Teenaged sass. Talk back, argue, and try to negotiate every boundary kind of sass. “Take away their iPads!” you suggest. “Send them to their rooms!” you insist. Thank you very much for your parenting input. Thing is… The sass, well, it’s not coming from either of the two human teenagers who make their home under our roof. It’s coming from— The cat. The 3-legged cat. Pisa is her name. As in “Leaning

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When A Dozen Eggs Doesn’t Equal 12

Leave it to a bunch of chickens to teach me a lesson. About gratitude. About what is enough. About what makes a party. Yes, I did say, “chickens.” As in the 7 crazy chickens I have living in our backyard. Got my first chickens about four years ago, the day before my first date with my now husband. That was one lucky week. Lets get right to it. Folks always want to know do we get fresh eggs? Sure do.

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The Night Cancer Did Not Get To Win

Too many days. Too many days, that awful, despicable, rude, ruthless bully called, “cancer” has knocked on the door of those I love. That day in high school when it took the life of my best friend, Cyndi’s, mother. That day just out of college when my roommate, Sandra’s, mother was diagnosed. Doctors gave her less than a year. She got the rare last laugh and lived 10 more. That day in ’97 when it was my other roommate, Heidi’s

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The Hair Question Every Woman Eventually Must Answer

It’s the looming question waiting for every woman at the bottom of a plastic bottle. The answer you give that informs the world information about you without your saying a word. What do you believe? What is beauty? And so, Dear Woman, I know you’ve asked yourself. Will you or won’t you? Do you or don’t you? When that time comes, do you— Reach for the bottle? Bottle, as in plastic. Bottle as in— Do you choose to color your

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Fumble: Handling A Family Crisis From Across The Country

“We have a crisis going on here.” Those are not exactly the words you want to hear from your daughter when you’re calling home from the other side of the country. “I’ve only been gone a few hours. What could possibly have gone wrong?” I asked with a jillion scenarios racing through my mind. “Daddy can’t find his keys,” my daughter explained. “Oh,” was all I could say, at first simultaneously giving thanks that that was all it was, and

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Change Your Name When You Marry? Your Take!

Well, hello there, brides and wives! Looks like my column from a couple of weeks ago where I shared my choice not to change my name when I married has touched a nerve.  The responses have been pouring in. There’s no way I could print all of them, so here are a few. Tammie Morris represents the majority of women I heard from who chose to take her husband’s last name and make her maiden name her middle name. She

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Shocking: Sometimes Death Helps

My dad and I are getting along much better these days. Which is interesting, especially considering he has been gone for more than six years now. Gone in the sense of he passed away. Gone in the sense of it was his time. Gone in the sense that what’s left of him, here in my heart, finally feels good. The enormity of the positive and negative influence my father had on me was twisted together like a mighty tornado zooming

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The Question All Brides Must Answer

This day is coming, Brides. I warn you—it’s coming. Plan a huge Southern wedding including 68 cousins four times removed, go rustic chic spending thousands to say your vows in a splintery barn or elope to be married by an Elvis impersonator. No matter what you do. This day is coming. There’s simply no avoiding it. Anyone woman who has been married must answer the question. Will you or won’t you? My friend, Treva, asked me just the other day. “Did

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