Serena

It has taken a couple days to write about this–a couple days to believe that it is true. On this past Saturday night, my second novel, The Measure of Katie Calloway won the most prestigious award in the romance genre–the RITA. I was up against such strong writers, I didn’t think I had much of a chance. Still….I watched the tweets of those who were at the awards banquet in Anaheim with a small flicker of hope in my heart. Then I saw my name come up as the winner of the inspirational genre and I will never forget that moment as long as I live. I screamed, and my husband came running. Then he realized what had happened and threw his arms around me and we hugged and cried and laughed and sobbed. It has been a long, long road. I read many times that it was practically impossible for an unknown author to get published anymore. I kept telling myself that the Lord had never asked me to be successful, He had only asked me to be faithful. It’s hard to write year after year with nothing to show for it except a stack of unpublished manuscripts and […]

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At our church, we pull out all the stops for our Vacation Bible School. It is not unusual for us to have 150 or more little kids running around squealing and having a good time. Last Friday, though, the squealing turned into terrified screaming. On the Friday of VBS we traditionally hire a company to put up a parking lot full of inflatables. We rent a sno-cone machine, and grill about 300 hotdogs and make vats of baked beans and it is all free to the children and their parents. One of the prettiest sights in the world is watching these little kids skipping around, giggling, having fun, just playing themselves silly, while the adults stand around, watching out for them, while they congratulate themselves on having survived another year of VBS:-) The wind came out of nowhere. Apart from an overcast sky, there was no warning. None. In a matter of seconds…not minutes…seconds….hurricane force winds swooshed down and literally almost blew some of the children away. The wind picked up a 1400 lb. inflatable and carried it several feet along the parking lot–even though it had not yet been inflated. Peat moss from the playground swirled around in everyone’s […]

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Many of you know that my son is an HR contract worker in Afghanistan. This morning at  6:00 a.m. (Afghanistan time) his compound in Kabul was attacked by Taliban men dressed in women’s burkas. They set off a car bomb at the front entrance and then began lobbing grenades into the compound and shooting. By the grace of God, my son got into a bunker safely, but it was the closest call he’s had since going over there. A sad little side note is that May 2 is his birthday and the cooks had made him a little birthday cake–which got destroyed by shrapnel–along with most of his clothes which was in the laundry that took a major hit. A pretty lousy birthday.’ I got to skype with him this morning, and he is fine. Here is a small story about the experience that he sent me to cheer me up: “Here is your happy thought, Mom. I got to the bunker and was looking around and saw my Rough Tough Marine friend sitting at the end of the bunker reading An Uncommon Grace when the second round of bullets and explosions were going on. I knew he was ready […]

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