When God Say Yes

Yesterday morning I got a text from Melody's teacher thanking me for sharing my story about Spencer and the tree being set in my driveway by God. She said that she was reading the book When God Says Yes and when she saw my name she was like, "I know her!" She said that it truly touched her heart.

As I read the text it took me a minute to understand what she was talking about! Then I asked her if the book was by Julia Loren and she replied yes.

So...here's the scoop!

About 3 years ago I went to a writer's conference with my friend Francesca all the way in CALIFORNIA (insert Arnold accent of course!) It was at Bethel Church, Bill Johnson's church in Redding. For a fee before the conference we had the opportunity to send Julia Loren a sample of our work beforehand and then she would read over it and meet with us at a specific time and give us pointers about our writing. I sent her several things that I had and then met with her during the conference. It was definitely a highlight of the conference. She liked my writing and my style. She had some book ideas for me, but I wasn't really interested in going those directions. She took special interest in a story I had written about Spencer and told me about a contest she was doing and said that I should consider submitting the story in the contest.

After I got home I looked up the information. Then I had to revamp the story to fit in the guidelines and submit it. I was so excited during the 2 weeks or so that I had to wait for the winners to be announced. She picked 3 winners from all the stories submitted. I was one of them! Not only was I one of the winners but I was also one of the only ones that didn't need to revise or edit my writing! (That probably only mattered to me, but I actually cared about that a lot!)

Well, my memory is a little fuzzy about the time frame but I remember that I was waiting for the book to come out around summer time, but it didn't happen. Then the book idea had turned into maybe a 4 book deal and my story had got moved to the 2nd book in the series that never made it to print. Periodically I would check her website to see if anything was happening, but life happened and it got pushed further and further from my mind. Every once in a while it would cross my mind, but mostly I forgot about it.

Then yesterday I got that text from Melody's teacher and I was so excited! I got online and started looking up the book at amazon.com and found it! I went to barnesandnoble.com and found it! I looked it up at Mardels.com and found it! I had butterflies in my tummy from the excitement. I had a house full of company so I couldn't just get out and buy it like I wanted to. I had to stay and eat the Best Breakfast Ever that my Mom had made! Then Randy and I hopped in the car and ran over to Mardel's to buy the book. Of course Randy had to tell the guy who helped us find the book that I was published in the book. (him being my number 1 fan ya know) Anyway, we stood in the aisle as I flipped through the book like a wild woman until there it was....my name...in black and white.



We took it up the front to pay for it, and the man that had already helped us was up there. Randy proceeded to brag about me some more so I got to tell the worker the story. Of course I enjoyed it while I acted super cool about it. : ) Isn't that what famous people are supposed to do?

On the way home Randy began to read the story to me as I drove. When we parked in front of the house I grabbed the book so I could finish reading the story. As I got to the end and it was talking about one day Miles walking into the arms of his big brother Spencer...I lost it. I cried so hard. After the year we've had with Miles and the miracle of him even being alive was so overwhelming. No, he wasn't walking, but he was alive which means there's still time for the miracle of walking!

I got to go inside and show off the book and read what I wrote to my family. Today I got to take it to church and show a few people. The whole thing has been very exciting.

Yes, it's only 3 pages. I know that. It's something though. It's a beginning. For several years now I've had the dream and I believe the promise that one day I will be a #1 Best Selling Author! This little published piece of writing in the middle of other authors like Bill Johnson, Heidi Baker, James Goll and Particia King was a delight to my day and it renewed hope in my heart for the future.