It has been a while since I last posted. I didn’t realize so much time had passed. My leave of absence from posting wasn’t planned, but a much-needed time for sorting through some things in my life. These past couple of years have been rough for a lot of people. I needed to understand what direction God had planned next for my life. Much prayer and heartfelt pondering went into this search for a clear sense of where my next step is to be.

As many of you know I wrote my first novel rough draft in 2013 loosely based on a family legend discovered while researching genealogy in my family. When I told my parents what I had found Mama was the first one to say, “That would make a good book.” I agreed and the story began to take shape with research into the times and as the characters came to life with conversations and I completed a 50,000+ word rough draft during National Novel Writing Month that year. Mama got very ill and moved to Heaven a few years later and my writing faltered. I tried. I just needed some time. When I finally started thinking through picking it back up seriously I was concerned with not being able to travel to Ireland, where the story begins but was convinced there must be a way for this to be if God really wanted it to be. This weekend I went to a craft fair at our local library. Before I went in I met a couple out front and the husband happened to be from County Cork, Ireland which is where my novel begins! When I found that this couple lives a few miles from me we exchanged information. I had gone to the library to see a best friend from high school and saw two of my writer friends, both of whom are published several times, and met some more writers. One of the writers I knew had helped me in genealogy and helped me discover the legend that sparked this novel.

The more I pondered on all of this in connection with writing this novel something begin to settle in my heart. God had solved the travel challenge and brought Cork County, Ireland to me! He literally moved someone from there to just a few miles away. God put me back in touch with fellow writers who can help me and spur me on in this endeavor.

Today is Mama’s birthday. I can’t think of a better way to have spent her birthday weekend than this. God is such a personal Lord and Savior. He attends to detail in ways no one else could ever do. He hears our heart cry. One of mine for years has been while sharing God’s love and salvation with others to accomplish that partly in having my novels published. I truly feel God put that in my heart for a reason and He can make it happen. I thought I had trusted Him with all of this. When I really had put it in His hands and some “fullness of time” had passed God made the source location of this novel of faith, forgiveness, redemption, and His abiding love come to me. I don’t know how He could make it any plainer to me that this book has a purpose and He is the plan.

I’m still reveling in all of this. This is one of the best early Christmas gifts God could have given me. I will spend the rest of my life absorbing the shawl of blessing He has placed around my shoulders. There will never be enough words to express this, period. I pray that all of you have the most blessed Christmas season you have had, and that you have a special encounter with Jesus that will be just what you need at this time.

Have a blessed life, friends.