Year 37

This past year was one for the history books! 2020 was a year like nothing we have ever seen before, with every area of life and society touched by unprecedented events. 

My 37th year of life was the same for me. God saved me by His amazing grace at the age of four and not long after this I had a vision for my life. I was going to become a nurse, marry a boy from Smyrna, live in Smyrna, then be a stay at home mama and have ten children. While the order was not quite the same as my stated vision and we did take a detour to Louisville for 7 years and we currently live in Mableton (which is right next to Smyrna), this year literally made my vision for my life a reality. 

I am living my lifelong dream!

How many people can say that?

16 1/2 years ago I married my love, Jim, who is from Smyrna, born and raised.

Nearly 14 years ago I graduated from nursing school and began working in labor and delivery, with God giving me a deep love for helping women have their best pregnancy and birth possible by educating them on all the choices they have during this season.

During the first six years of our marriage we lived in Smyrna. God took us out of Smyrna to Louisville for a seven year whirlwind that we thought would lead us overseas. But instead God in His sovereignty brought us back to Smyrna (Mableton) three years ago to be a part of what He is doing in our area and at our home church of Smyrna First Baptist. 

"I'm mommy's dream come true"

Then seven months ago, our sweet Esther Elizabeth made me a mother of ten precious blessings. 

Everything, every idea and, if you will, prophesy God gave me for my life He has brought to pass. 

Not only that, when I was about seven I started writing creatively on my own. I wrote little five sentence stories or songs for my number doll choir to sing or short thoughts on what was going on in my life. This started that love of writing and God grew it. I don't remember at what point the desire to publish a book actually entered my mind, but in seventh grade, my English teacher, Mr. Tony Smith, showed me that I was, indeed, a writer. 

That is when I began my first book. That book still sits on my shelf, incomplete and possibly will never be finished. But God gave me another story, one I started in early high school, and I began to work on crafting a story to share with the world. It was a long road writing it as I worked on it on my own. Afraid to share I wrote without telling anyone what I was working on. It was inconsistent at best in those early years, but I kept coming back to it. 

In Louisville I found a writing group with other Sisters and for the first time I shared something that wasn't a school assignment. Again I was affirmed that I was a writer. This was something God has given me to do. With the encouragement of these women I finished and edited my book in 2013 and started looking for how to publish. It would take another six years to find the right way for us. 

In my 37th year, I became a published author! Together or Apart is my first novel and it was an amazing experience to walk through. My longest labor by 20 years and hands down my most difficult delivery. But God did it. He taught me that my talents can be used even in creative ways to bring Him glory. 

And if that was not enough, God began moving us in wanting to serve families, beginning at birth with Childbirth Conversations. He opened up opportunities to step in and learn how to run an online ministry business for His glory. While this is still in the early stages, this past year I developed my first free resource and mini-course to help women plan their best births with the LORD. 

In the midst of all of this God has taught me what it means to walk with Him, follow when it seems crazy, seek Him in everything, admit when I fail, and ask Him before I talk to anyone else. God has grown me as a wife, a mother and a homemaker and given me strength that I didn't know I had. He has taught me the importance of community and the church and given me an even deeper love for both, in spite not struggling too much with the quarantine part of isolation. 

Our family has grown together, read more, dreamed more, learned more, laughed more, watched more movies, and learned what things individuals are good at as well as what we're good at together. We have learned to work together and the value of team work. We have learned we want to be together! 

Year 37 was big! In many respects bigger than 2020 for me. Year 37 showed me how big my God is and how much He has for me to do to bring Him glory. 

And by His grace I'll step into every good deed He has prepared in advance for me to do FEARLESSLY!