Good Morning Everyone!  On August 16th I was blessed by a phone interview with the Syracuse Post Standard.  The following Friday their photographer came for a photo shoot in my very own living room.  It was an exciting week.  Since then - I've been checking the Post Standard anxiously each day. 

After a couple weeks I called the journalist that had done the interview and she explained there had been a couple other stories that were more news worthy - hot and happening events.  I understand that.  I'm writing and not yet published so my story doesn't have a time deadline for its ability to sell newspapers.

Heidi's birthday was September 14th - she explained that originally it was to run the Sunday prior to Heidi's birthday but SUNY Oswego has some hot and happening news so it would have to wait a week. 

So it should be in this Sunday's newspaper (that is today!) - I can't wait to pick up the Sunday paper this morning when we are out for church! 

I'm hoping the article expresses my desire to help others while serving God and bringing Him the glory. 

God is good and it is all in His timing...I need to rememember this in case this article is pushed back again because something more important has come along - Praying and waiting...working on the pate


Habakkuk 2:3 (Amplified Bible)
"For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day."

Hello Everyone!  Thanks for visiting my blog.  I am so thankful for a God that lifts us up when we are feeling down.  My previous post came from deep within my heart - I received a few emails and had a couple people stop to share words of encouragement or words of "I don't what to say" with me yesterday.  I was told it was a depressing post and some weren't sure why I had posted it.  While others thanked me for sharing the good, bad and the ugly! 

I honestly thought about whether to post or not the other day for these same reasons.  I didn't want to depress anyone yet I wanted you all to know that life isn't always easy.  I have friends that have lost loved ones (parents & siblings) to cancer, disease and old age so I know they experience similar sadness in attending the milestone events of other friends and family.  I don't believe my feelings are unique yet at the same time they are. 

When we lose someone to death - we know where they are.  If you have lost someone to kidnapping or abduction - unless the body or person is recovered - we never know.  We can presume...but we don't know for sure.  I had been praying for God's guidance to finish the revisions of my current chapter - He is so faithful and came through. 

A couple of my critiques and comments were to keep the grief and intensity in the beginning because I wasn't who I am today during the time I'm writing about at the beginning of the book.  This is so true but I was having a hard time finding that deep sorrow and sense of loss - until the wedding. 

Don't get me wrong - I'm not walking around wallowing in grief and depression.  I'm celebrating my sisters - sisters in Christ, sisters by marriage and the beauty of life's journey.  Yet because of the perspective God placed on my heart during the service - HE found that emotion needed to wrap up the next chapter's revision! 
Thank you Jesus!  He always knows what we need, when we need it.  I apologize if you thought the previous posting was too much.  I only want each of you to travel this journey with me.  There are days that revising and writing break my heart.  There are days I can't formulate the words and sentences needed to finish.  So God finds the triggers in life to stimulate my creative genious, the gift He has given me to share and help others. 

Most of my post have been filled with sunshine and roses but that isn't always the life one lives when they wake up each morning not knowing where their loved one is...are they alive or dead? I write to help others and in the process...God is helping me grieve and heal through aspects I hadn't yet dealt with.  (and I thought I had)

Psalm 8

O LORD, our Lord,
       how majestic is your name in all the earth!
       You have set your glory
       above the heavens.

 From the lips of children and infants
       you have ordained praise        because of your enemies,
       to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens,
       the work of your fingers,
       the moon and the stars,
       which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,
       the son of man that you care for him?

 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings  
       and crowned him with glory and honor.

 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
       you put everything under his feet:
       all flocks and herds,
       and the beasts of the field,

 the birds of the air,
       and the fish of the sea,
       all that swim the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord,
       how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Today has been such a blessing!  Before I even arrived at work I had a few messages via Facebook, my email and through the Blog encouraging me today!  Thank you everyone! 

I heard from a couple of Heidi's dear and fabulous friends - oh my goodness!  It is so touching to know Heidi's friends still remember her today and even more touching to know they take time to remember myself and my parents.  Heidi was lucky to have each of you in her life. 

I thought for today -we could post some fun memories and thoughts about Heidi - to encourage each other on this special yet sober day. 

If you knew Heidi - do you have a memory you want to share? 

If you didn't know Heidi - do you have words of encouragement for her family and friends with today being her birthday? 

Heidi would have been 35 years old this year - abducted at 18 - almost half of her years spent as a "missing" child. 

Pray there would be closure and answers...Thank you everyone! :)

Special hugs to Suzie and Karrie today - thank YOU both!  Bittersweet tears reading your messages - love you!  Thanks for being such great freinds to both Heidi and me! :)

As the new school year starts in Central New York I am inspired and motivated through the energy and excitement exhibited by the children crossing the school's threshold in the morning.  The smiles extend from ear to ear while bouncing down the hall to meet their new teachers and possibly some new friends.  :)  I've worked with 3rd and 4th grade the past couple years and have been blessed to be placed back in a kindergarten classroom this year for a good part of my day.  It is so much fun. 

Are you asking yourself how working in a kindergarten classroom is related to my writing journey?  I remember starting kindergarten with anticipation of making friends, taking naps and learning the alphabet.  Today though, children this age may anticipate the same thing yet find something different as they walk into the classroom. 

Kindergarteners are writing!!!  They write their names, words and even sentences!  Our sweet cherubs will have daily writing time - teaching both letter formation and penmanship before leading into forming words from those letters and then a sentence or two before June.  I think this is amazing.  If I was in kindergarten today - I would probably write a sentence like this "I am so tired, I need a nap and my mom.  Thank you." 

Thank goodness writing begins in kindergarten because their excitement to learn how to write is motivating to me.  I know how to form the letters and make words and even sentences.  Yet as a life-long learner I need to keep learning how to finesse the words and sentences into paragraphs, chapters with a book as the completion of this process. 

"I am a little pencil in the hand of God who is sending a love letter to the world."  Mother Theresa

In order to be the pencil I need to keep in God's Word and learning to be a better writer - this week I'm going to learn from five year olds!  They have a great attitude and perspective!