Sharing a Moment

Well friends, this past Tuesday I had one of those once in a lifetime moments.  The kind that you will always remember because it is the culmination of a lifelong dream.

I went to lunch with my daughter (we had a sweet time!) and when we arrived back home there were 4 big boxes waiting for me.  I knew immediately what was inside of them….MY BOOK.  For the first time I was going to get to hold the real deal in my little hands.

I almost cried the ugly cry.

The only thing that held me back from excessive tears was that my entire family (aka: whoever happened to be home at the time ‘cuz I wasn’t going to wait) was standing around me as I pulled the tape off of the first box labeled David C Cook.  My publisher.  Everyone gave me room to just experience the moment as I lifted one out of the box.

What looked like a simple moment on the outside was really years and years of dreams and work and watching God do miraculous things in my life and the life of my family.

Since I was a little girl I wanted to write a book, or two or ten.  It was something I was supposed to do, but how on earth does a plain old girl from Texas get a book deal?  I knew God put the dream in me, but I had NO idea HOW He would pull it off.

So I kept honing my craft and continued stepping down each section of path that God lit up for me along the way.  But I could never see the end of that path, or even two steps ahead, it was one step at a time.   It was a lot of waiting and wondering and “this may never happen” moments.

But it did happen.  God moved in amazing ways and one by one the pieces fell into place.  I’d meet someone, who led me to the next step, which gave me another idea and so on.  Each piece of the story is such a God-thing.  How I met my incredible agent is a great story I need to tell you someday.  The other author friends He gave me….unbelievable.  How He provided a beautiful place for me to really dig in and write….I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t lived it.

All leading to this…..

The proof of how excited I was shows in the fact that I didn’t even stop to brush my hair or put on lipstick.  Please just look at the book and don’t focus on how sweaty I was.  It was 107° and I had been outside all morning.  Let’s just be glad that my eyebrows are still there.

And this is an even better picture….

These people have my heart.  They have stuck with me through more failures and mix ups and messes than I care to think about.  This is my cheering section.  And I am theirs.

In fact, several of the kids took a book to their room and started reading it.  That actually never occurred to me….that they would read a book written for moms.  Even Levi got in on the action.  I walked into the living room and found this…

I held back a laugh as I asked him, “Well, how do you like it so far?”  He gave me a serious look and replied, “Well, I’m only on chapter 2, but I’ve learned a lot about being who God made you to be and a little about why you’re so tired.”

I’m calling it.  Best book review I’ll ever get.

The book will be released on September 1, but you can pre-order it now.  In fact, it would be awesomeness if you would go ahead and pre-order because that gives Amazon (or wherever you like to buy) the illusion that I am someone worth paying attention to and they will give it a higher rank-something-or-other that I don’t really understand.

Check out my book page for more details and a link to my 7-day reading plan.

I want to thank you all for your incredible support also!  It’s been a long road and you’ve been a source of strength for me.  I just adore ya!

Mwah!

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