Seeing my book for the first time in a bookstore is…surreal.
I am at peace right now. I feel relief, pride, excitement, and curiosity.
How did it happen? How did I get to this point? How far will my words reach?
I want to thank God, my Savior & Redeemer for giving me hope and healing, and carrying me through the ups and downs. He made a way for my story to be shared. His peace, healing, grace, and hope is unexplainable. I feel these things deeply.
I want to thank my publisher, Trilogy Christian Publishing, for helping my book come to life. Thanks to my agents Stacy Baker and Allison Dyer for communicating with me each step of the way. Thanks to the editing team at Trilogy, and editor Lorilee Craker, proofreader Ann Byle, and the handful of friends and family who took time to give me feedback in the first draft and last drafts of my book.
Thanks to my speaking and writing coach Leona Carter for your empowering guidance in finding synopsis to my book in so many words. And for your kindness and enthusiasm to equip me to pursue those next big goals God gives a vision for. You go girl!
Thank you to my memoir writing teacher Joe Gross, and my classmates at The Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, for believing in me, my writing, and that my story should become a book to be shared with the world. Your confidence in my writing helped ignite greater confidence within me.
Thanks to my husband, Beau. You are my favorite team mate. Thank you for your patience, support, prayer, and steadiness as I work through big goals. Thank you for sticking with me in taking big leaps of faith and loving me in my pursuits!
Thank you, dad, for being my writing buddy each Monday at our favorite writing spot! I can’t wait for your book to come out! I couldn’t have done it without you. Your love, encouragement, humor, consistency and availability created a safe, welcoming, and inviting space for me to enter into a place to cultivate my book and write about my trauma, healing, and growth.
Thanks to one of my best friends, Kristen, for your cheerleading and reassurance whenever I needed a kind word. Your friendship means the world to me. Friends lift each other up and hold faith for us when we doubt and falter. Thanks for believing in me, sitting with me, hearing me, and being available. Open conversation with you helps propel me through all the fears, scares, joys, and unknowns. I love you!
And thanks to you, my readers, for finding interest in my journey. My prayer for you is that you would find inspiration, hope, peace, and joy in what God allows in your life. That you would find acceptance and healing. That you, too, would rise above, and conquer your problems with courage and hope, maintain your health, and pursue your God-given calling in education, career, relationship, and ministry goals.
May you experience that abundant life God calls us to.
Be well!