THE UNDERPINNING (OR UNDER-PENNING)
Amber Haines has 4 sons, a guitar-playing husband, theRunaMuck, and rare friends. She loves the funky, the narrative, and the dirty South. She finds community among the broken and wants to know your story.
Amber is curator with her husband Seth Haines of Mother Letters and a contributor at (In)courage and A Deeper Church. Once upon a time she was Christmas Change Blog Editor, BlissDom Community Leader Coordinator, and !dea Camp Orphan-Care Blog Coordinator. Her degree is in English/Creative Writing, and she has persevered through half an MFA in Poetry at The University Of Arkansas before birthing 3 boys in 3 years. There have been no signs pointing back to those workshops, so she feels perpetually unfinished, and yet the study is somehow better now.
Amber Haines thrives on Saturday mornings at the market square where mandolins play, oddly combined outfits, and arranged mason jars on the countertop – anything to spur creativity. If she can get to the keyboard quickly enough, she’ll write it out, though often she just whirls from child to yarn to garden to spill. If she’s writing it out, she’ll want to encourage you in your creative endeavor, even if that simply be Motherhood.
Amber and her husband, Seth Haines, entered the adoption process for a daughter from Ethiopia, and after much investment and prayer, they canceled the adoption to pursue ways to keep families together, at home and abroad. They’re still only getting glimpses of what this really means.
In the meantime the Haines family has added their 4th BOY to their story. Amber Haines writes about mothering many boys and keeping faith, from the perspective of a Christian woman who’s had an abortion and an affair. She loves to speak and write about the church and the power of story: forgiveness, restoration, freedom, and redemption.
Subscribe to theRunaMuck. Follow Her On Twitter: @AmberRunsaMuck. Keep up with TheRunaMuck on Facebook. Send inquiries about speaking engagements and freelance writing to therunamuck@gmail.com.
Seth
January 14, 2009My wife is my rock-star.
Steve
January 21, 2009Yes, Seth, your wife is a rock star. A rock star of sweetness. Kinda like great french toast with maple syrup, butter, and powdered sugar. Not that I want to eat her ;)
hamster
January 21, 2009eaves dropping and mustard and invisible things - here, here!
happyvalleygirl
January 31, 2009Hi, just popped onto your blog and I love it. Will add it to my google reader. The Lord has been dealing with me over the past 3 years concerning humility, firstly teaching me that my definition and His are totally opposite! Everywhere I look, everything I read in scripture all point me to the humility of God. I have especially enjoyed your humility tag, but look forward to reading other things too. I too, had 3 children in 3 years, but also had an older child at the same time. They're teens now, but need me just as much as they did when they were young.
Ray
February 16, 2009Hey Amber, your site is awesome! Great work and heart.
Boy Crazy
July 18, 2009Hi Amber
I just found your site through BlogNosh and I've added you to my Google Reader. I also am a creative mama to three little boys, and a Christian. When I clicked on your 'about Amber' I had to laugh, because on top of the other commonalities I just listed, we have the exact. same. hairstyle. LOL! :) Anyway, I'll be back.
- Elizabeth
Sara Sophia
August 2, 2009Your words are pretty.
I love the Jesus-Man-God myself.
I am a really great speller.
It's the conjunctions that trip me up.
I think horses smell like Christmas.
I always want snow.
At parties I hide in the corner.
Unless I have a friend to talk to.
Be my friend<3
--Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and saying such sweetness about The Sister Project essay I wrote. It was a brilliant spot of happiness in my day--
sarasophia
ron
September 11, 2009Amber, the depravity of man is what makes you and me and this world so ill. Knowing is half the battle but we all still stumble. We always will stumble. We , (all ) have fleshly desires, age has nothing to do with it. Everyone seeks self pleasure, power , money, sex. Time and age only make those desires more intense. As humans get older, that all long to find that thing or things that for some reason they misssed or did not achieve. The key to sucess in this life is of course prayer but also, avoding those places where you are surrounded by people that doubt. No one is ever so strong that they can continually enter into a place of decpetion and doubt and overcome, no one !
I can remember like yesterday when I was your age. The strugles, the doubt even though I knew the truth. The truth is often hard to accept ,it is not our will, it is against the desires of the fleseh. Why ? because man is depraved...period. To be around people that are always questioning the the truth, always causes one to question himself, his place where God has put him for whatever reason. We all want something more . We all think that we should have more, that we are better, that people should recognise us a special. We all want , deep down inside where no one goes, more money, more pleasure, more me. That is why man is so deprived.
God and the Holy Sprit are the only thing that can ever, I repeat ever, change that. No matter how hard we try, no matter how many church services we attend, no matter how much money, we give or how many mission trips we go on, ultimately at some time, as humans we will desire someting that for what ever reason we do not have.
Whe I hear you speak about missing your " artsy friends " gives me pause. I was there once, exsousing the problems with government , of all the social ills and problems, of the implasibility of God. Desiring the prise of men that told me how wonderful I was, what a great mind I had. I remember the days of acid and reaching a higher mental plane where I alone was the one. I even had visions of being governer. Then I got married, had chrildren, got in debt and somehow the vison got shuffled to the side. Looking back I can see God's hand in my entire life. Had life been different who knows. I am not talking about salvation or any thing along those line but if........ that could make a lot of things different. Most sucess that I have seen comes overnight only in the dreams of the young and passionate. God has given you a gift of writing, your sucess will come in time. You are ,in your spirit an artist and you know it. . A hippie back in the 60"s was someone that always questioned authority, always bucked againt the status quo, God, and anything that was considdered truth. Now however after living thourgh those times, I can honeslty say it was about" me." It was about sex, and drugs rocknroll. It was way to , almost an excues to, do what i wanted with out being told that it was bad. As you can see that has lead to so many changes in our world, good and bad. You are a poet, a writer, but now, you are a Christian wife and mother. In the final analysis , it is only what we leave behind we go to be with Jesus that is important . There is no me in sucess, happines, or family. There is no me in nurturing, in caregiving, in being a mate for life. There is no me in Jesus.
The word is the truth, everything else is a lie from the deciever.
I love you
Amber
September 11, 2009I love you, too, Daddy-O. Thank you.
Sara Sophia
September 17, 2009I like your Dad:)
Amber
September 18, 2009I like him, too. That's actually Seth's Dad. I started calling him Daddy-O the first week I met him. He's a cool cat.
thegypsymama
October 10, 2009I have always liked me a side of poetry to go with just about any main dish of writing. Sweet, light, frothy or for serious - words taste delicious. I am enjoying yours.
Cate tuten
October 12, 2009I love your site!!! And its content!!!! Will you kindly tell me who designed it???? Blessings, Cate
Scott Carothers
October 18, 2009That is the coolest sentence ever...
"I should be dead, but God."
You are a cool cat.
I like mustard too by the way.
I am a good speller though. That gene must have skipped me.
mandythompson
December 3, 2009First time at your blog and I love the feel here... Very warm and thoughtful. Wow to have 3 boys in 3 years. What a blessing! I'm sure a lot of people say "bless your heart" but I say you are blessed indeed.
:)
~mandy
Natasha
February 4, 2010You forgot to mention how you are gifted with God's song inside of you!!!! I love you so much over many miles!! Love you forever!
Ben Guyse
May 11, 2010Amber,
I've known you since you were a baby. You've become a beautiful and talented lady. Love your writing.
Ben Guyse (Stacey's dad)
Liz Bruns
May 12, 2010Amber,
Your words are so stirring. I love your heart & your outlook on life. It was fun reading & getting to know you better. Hoping to get more moments of quietness like these to read a little more soon!
sprittibee
May 13, 2010"...but God."
That's how all the greatest of love stories begin.
Sharing in the struggle,
Heather
rene'
June 9, 2010oh amber....it is good to know you --and i just saw a post from a dear sweet friend from my high school days...Cate Tuten! You, Cate and this way of connecting feels like something eternal just got born.
Gina Lind
October 20, 2010I like you AND your blog!
Rae
October 24, 2010I have been soaking up your blog this past week. Thank you for your sincerity (and your kind words on my blog a few days ago!). Your thoughts and words are stirring in me a desire to develop some parts of myself that have been neglected lately. Not sure how to do that right now, but thinking I should probably figure it out.
Blessings to you!