To share with you a snapshot or two of my life: I was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to a military family. This special heritage delivered on its promise of travel and frequent moves. For me, it meant attending three different high schools before pursuing college. Tenth grade school year was in Arlington, Virginia; eleventh grade in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and twelfth grade in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the close of each school year, leaving friends was a tearful travesty as a teen, but each new move quickly became “the best one.” As the new student walking through the hallways, I quickly learned the importance of each school’s “crew sock constitution:” that is, straight up the calf in Virginia, rolled down like an ankle cuff in Michigan, and obsolete in Hawaii where flip flops (or bare feet) dominated the protocol. Carefully avoiding the misfit category, this newcomer learned the key to contentment is adaptation. Unknown to me, a lifetime algorithm was developing. Adapting would serve me well in the future, especially during my years in a spiritually unequal marriage.
My husband Kip once attended a men’s retreat where the speaker said, “At nine years of age our lives have already begun to shape future interests as an adult. (What did you find intriguing at nine years of age?) For Kip, the speaker’s statement triggered the childhood memory of buying a baby goat, raising then selling it at a livestock auction in Oregon. This event foreshadowed later endeavors as a quintessential entrepreneur.
For me, writing was a keen interest. Listening to a story, then reproducing it on paper. Though it seemed fun at the time, I’ve asked myself, “Who does that?” (And then I remember, I do.) Also, when eleven years old, our family attended a large church in Nebraska that sponsored an annual essay and Bible Reading Contest. Attracted by the prize offered, I enrolled and won two free weeks at summer church camp. Interwoven with the camp activities, a deeper awareness of God was flavoring my spiritual life and shaping his future purposes for me. Yet before I committed my life to him as an adult, I experienced the spiritual void of dismissing God to the sidelines. Once I became a believer, Bible reading assumed new relevance. I developed a love for mining the depths of scripture to weave its truth through the stories I write.
Today, Kip and I are settled in Northern Virginia. We are active attendees of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg. Bible Studies, dinner parties with old and new friends, and individually ministering to others brings us joy. With our family in the area, our lives are enriched by our children, grandchildren, and our grand dog, a fur baby lab named Tucker.
