Today, I watched a TikTok video that left me shaken. It featured two adult daughters recording a conversation with their father—a conversation that should have been private, sacred, and handled with care. Instead, it was edited, packaged, and shared publicly for the world to consume. What disturbed me most wasn’t only that the conversation was posted. It was the tone. The amusement. The ease with which deeply personal pain was turned into content. I watched a father who was c

⚠️ Trigger Warning This story contains references to childhood abuse, trauma, seizures, identity loss, child death, and estrangement. Please read gently and protect your heart if needed. Estrangement and My Unexpected Journey of Change When estrangement first entered my life, it didn’t knock — it stormed in. It rearranged the furniture of my heart and left everything in a painful, confusing mess. I didn’t choose estrangement with my adult child — it chose me. And in the begin

Christian parent praying during family estrangement while seeking healing and reconciliation” Christian parent praying during family estrangement while seeking healing and reconciliation” “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” – Colossians 4:2 Family estrangement is one of the deepest wounds a parent can experience. It changes how you breathe.It changes how you sleep.It changes how you pray. But even in the pain of adult child estrangement, God calls us

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.No gifts to wrap.No rush.Just family, food, and the kind of laughter that lingers long after the dishes are done. Growing up, we usually had 19 or 20 people for Thanksgiving — family, friends, and always a few people Mama had invited who had no family to go home and see. It was always fun to meet strangers at our table and hear their life stories. And every year, there was the traditional trip to take Thanksgiving meals to th

“Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins.If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.No , they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” — Matthew 9:17 (NIV) Is God Calling Us to Change? If you’re walking through estrangement, you already know what it means to be broken open. You’ve felt the tearing, the stretching, and the ache of something that once felt full—now emptied. But what if that emptiness is

Stretching the Edges of Capacity By Crystal McDaniel – Strangely Estranged Blog Stretching the Edges of Capacity There are seasons in life when growth feels like expansion—like our hearts and minds are being stretched in ways we never imagined possible. We read the books, pray the prayers, do the therapy, and lean into the lessons. We keep saying yes to growth, because somewhere deep down, we know staying the same costs more than the pain of stretching. But what happens when

It has been a while since I’ve written here on Strangely Estranged . Honestly, so much has happened since my last post that it would be...

A Mother and Daughter that are enmeshed together Estrangement from my adult child has left me feeling confused, heartbroken, and, at...

t has almost been two years since I’ve spoken to my estranged adult daughter. Just typing that sentence brings a lump to my throat. It’s...

The Pit of Despair, from the Movie, "The Princess Bride." The beginning of the description of what is going to happen to Wesley, in the...

Before, After, and Today...Mount St. Helen, the terrain change after the explosion, and the beauty that has come afterwards When Mount...

this is my estrangement Motto When people ask me about my journey through estrangement from my adult daughter, I often find myself...

Inspirational Scripture with a Heart, This photo is the very description of what this blog is about. Search Me, O God: Owning My Role in...

Two People Pull a rope in the opposite direction. A Tug-O-War Being estranged from my adult child has created a pain unlike anything...

My friend and colleague, Marilia Zandrandi As I sit in the Milan-Malpensa Airport, soaking in the last few moments before I board my...

Person with a scar on their back Dragged Through Hell by Estrangement: Finding Strength in Every Scar I never imagined that one day I...

This is an image of stale bread, and it represent estrangement and staying in the past. The Power of Distance I boarded the plane to...

My group of singer friends after our first show There’s something about standing on a stage in a foreign land, singing your heart out,...

Estrangement is a word that carries so much weight, yet often floats around in whispers. For many of us, it’s a quiet grief we carry in...

Estrangement from an adult child is a quiet kind of heartbreak.   It doesn’t make headlines. It doesn’t show up in the family photo...