My journey from start 'til now.

Hello everyone, I thought it would be nice to share my journey of this book with you from the start, it will give you a much better appreciation of just how special this book is. About two years ago I was laid off due to a plant closing down like so many because of a bad economy. It was at that time that I was at home everyday with a lot of time on my hands, the kids were at school and the husband at work, so it gave me a lot of time to reflect on my life and the direction it was going or lack there of.

In that time I decided that I needed to renew my walk with God so I started reading my bible and praying a lot, just getting reacquainted with Jesus. After a few months of doing some much needed inner healing and reprioritizing things and relationships in my life, I was sitting on the couch one morning and I heard a voice in my inner spirit and it promptly said "write the book" I knew what book it was because I had the idea for this first story years ago, and even though I had sat down to write it many times it just never worked out.

It didn't work out because the time wasn't right. So out of sheer obedience I said "OK" but I don't have an ending for this story, but I had a peace in my inner spirit that the ending would come to me, well sure enough it did. I went and got a notebook and an ink pen, sat down on the couch and the words flowed from my pen, the story just came, and what really came as a complete surprise is that the whole thing rhymed and not only that, I also wrote five more books, it became a series. After finishing the book I thought, what now? Well I needed an illustrator, I knew a couple people that would be great, one of them was my high school art teacher, and the other was a friend of mine from high school that was now my children’s art teacher. I contacted them both by phone by neither answered so I left messages; it was really surprising that neither had gotten back to me, because I know that they would have.

A couple weeks later I still hadn't heard anything so I thought what am I going to do now? God works in mysterious ways, later that day my mom was talking to my aunt who lives in California, and she just happened to mention to her that I had written the cutest story, but was having a hard time finding an illustrator. My aunt said that she just happened to know a Christian lady that was an illustrator and wanting to do a children’s books, but she had turned down a few offers, well long story short, my aunt talked to her and gave me her number, I called sent her a copy of a portion of the story, she loved it and agreed to illustrate it for me.

Turned out that she was sent to me by God, because we have become very close friends and she has been a HUGE help to me (not to mention a great partner for this book), we have grown to love each other as sisters would we call and talk and tell each other if one of us has a problem. Even if this book never sold a copy becoming her friend has made this journey well worth it.

Ok I have the book written and the illustrator now what God? So I did what I could do and let Him do the rest. I had never wrote a book or even knew anyone that had, so the next steps were just a guessing game, with the security that God would bless my steps and close doors that needed to be closed and open doors that needed to be opened I did the only thing I knew to do, I got on the computer and typed in "book publishers" wow!!! There are only a million- lol, where do I start, come to find out there are very few if any that will take a manuscript submission, with out the representation of a literary agent.

Soooooooo I then wondered how do you get one of those and how much is this gonna cost me. Well I put it out of my head for awhile and found a " Christian publisher that was willing to look at my manuscript, after looking at it I was told that he wanted to change too many things, "which I might add would be hard to do because the whole book rhymed, I felt strongly in my spirit that I wasn't to change anything, that the book was written just the way it was supposed to be, so being obedient I turned down a publishing deal, and was back to square one.

I put the book thing to the side just temporarily, 'til I had some more guidance come to me. One evening as I was cooking dinner my illustrator called and said "you need to check this website out" she said it just popped up on her email, " weird I thought" but what the heck, turns out that God was at work again! Because the email was about a children’s book literary agent looking for new authors! Hmmmmm, how interesting.

Well, you guessed it, I submitted it and a few days later got a reply back that they had a publisher that they thought would be interested but that they needed to submit it to them and wait and see. A couple weeks later I got an email that said "WE WANT YOUR BOOK" I just about fainted talk about excited!!!! After crying and jumping up and down and telling my husband and kids, I called my illustrator and told her, let the journey begin.

OK fast forward through the next six months of ALOT of work I never realized how much work was involved in publishing a book. There were ups and downs but through it all we grew as people and got business savvy and learned a lot, but most of all we grew in Christ.

Finally the day came that we got the email " it is done and ready for sale" So this is where we are now, really the journey is starting now' Its now that the traveling, book signings, book readings and all the promotional event start. There were so many more miracles in this whole process that I just don’t have time to write about, but I wanted to make sure that you all understood just how special this book is and that if you follow God closely He will go above and beyond what any of us would expect.

I’m hoping that after the book is out and people start getting familiar with my name that I can start giving speeches on this journey. My family deserves a lot of credit, they have been so very and completely supportive, and in fact this whole thing has changed many of them, through watching this unfold in front of their eyes. I think this book experience was brought about for many, reasons. So a BIG thanks you to my precious family for your awesome support, my mom, dad sisters and brother I love you all!

I'd like to say I have the best friends a person could ask for, they too have also been so supportive and still are its truly amazing and such a blessing I love you guys!

My husband what else can I say, he is my BIGGEST fan and my partner, he will always be by my side, and I wouldn't want anybody else. He is the love of my life!! Thank you, Honey. We are truly in this together.

Thank you to my precious children, you are both a part of my life that can never be replaced, you are my heart. I LOVE YOU Paige and Zain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And last but certainly not least THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!!! By whom which none of this would have been possible, thank you for giving me life.

I hope this story has inspired all of you, because I know it has changed my life.