A Life Marked By Prayer

Yesterday, my middle child turned 13. I just can't even believe it. It feels like an instant ago that the doctor was yelling, "It's a nine pounder!" and handing me a brand new, squishy baby girl.

With corkscrew curls and cheeks you could squeeze and kiss for days.

And now she's a teenager. It's unfathomable how fast the time has gone.

Jacey Reid is beautiful in every way. She's gorgeous on the outside and her heart is so sweet and pure, I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. I'm so, so proud of her. As I've reflected on the first 13 years of Jacey's life, there is one thing that stands out to me, even more beautiful than the rest.

Her life is marked by prayer.

Before I ever got pregnant with her, I prayed that God would give me a daughter. We had already been blessed with a son and my heart longed to know the joys of having one of each, so I asked God for a girl the next time around. He said YES! And there was much rejoicing in the ultrasound room.

When they calculated my due date, they told me it was February 24th, but I knew she was due on February 8th (sometimes mommies just know these things). Plus, I am a terrible pregnant person. It's nine months of misery for me and everyone else who dares to breathe my air, so the sooner we can end the madness, the better off we all are. I (and my poor husband) prayed that she would be born on or before the 8th. She arrived at 2:09pm on the 8th.

When I was in labor, she was turned the wrong way and it was going to make the delivery long and complicated. So my friend, Kelly, put her hand on my stomach and asked God to flip that baby over. Within minutes, she was good to go.

Since she was born, I have prayed that she and her brother would have an unspeakable bond of love for each other. Most days, this is still a toss up. But yesterday, he posted this to Twitter...

"Happy Birthday to my little sister Jacey. They grow up so fast. :(" 

So, that's something, right? I'm believing God will answer this, too. It just may take a little more time. :-)

When Jacey was three, she told God she wanted a little sister. I said "Sorry, sweetie. We're not having any more babies." Her baby sister was born just before Thanksgiving the following year (I partially blame my mother's prayers for this one, too).

When Jacey was five, she began to pray that God would make a way for our family to go to Disney World. Every night for over a year, her sweet little voice would float before the throne of God, laying the desires of her heart before Him. She never gave up, never even questioned if or when He would answer, even though Ron and I knew we would never in a million years have enough money to make a trip like that. But one night, my sister and brother-in-law came over and gave us a present. SURPRISE! We're sending you to Disney World! It was so ridiculously generous and extravagant. We spent a whole week there and Jacey got to meet every princess in the land. It will forever go down in our family history as the best gift we've ever received and our favorite vacation.

A couple of years ago, the kids were finagling for a dog. They weren't getting anywhere with me and Ron because we didn't want to have one more thing to feed every day, so Jacey went over our heads and asked God to give us a dog...today. Within an hour, there was a cute little yorkie on our front porch and of course, it had no collar or microchip and we couldn't find the owner (believe me, I looked) so she became our beloved Jovi. After we had her for a year, we found out she used to belong to one of our neighbors, but they wanted us to keep her. They said they had been praying about what to do with her because they didn't have enough time to spend with her and felt like it was a God thing that our family found her and loved her so much. Poor guy didn't realize that he never had a chance of keeping his dog even if he wanted to. Jacey the pray-er was on the loose!

You only have to spend a little bit of time with Jacey to know that she has a special gifting when it comes to prayer. Our friends and family know that if they really need God to move on their behalf, Jacey's their girl. She's an intercessor. She's prayed people into jobs, orphans into families, the needy into provision. The list goes on and on.

It's such an honor to parent this precious girl. I can't wait to see what crazy thing God does next in her and through her, for His glory.

"... for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14

This Will Wreck You

At church yesterday, we saw two videos and I wanted to share them with you. To be honest, if I come across a video on a blog, it has to be super intriguing in order for me to click play, but I promise these are worth it.

The first is about Advent Conspiracy. It's how our family is approaching Christmas this year. We're praying and talking about how we can engage more fully in the true meaning of Christmas.

Somewhere along the way, we've strayed so far from celebrating the birth of a baby.

The coming of a King.

A Rescuer.

A Deliverer.

A Healer.

The One who takes everything that's wrong and makes it right.


Somehow, we have to make our way back. This is our beginning.



[AC] Promo 2011 from Advent Conspiracy on Vimeo.

The second video was introduced like this: "This will wreck you."

It's true. This is not okay. This is where our excess money will go.



Love146 Overview from LOVE146 on Vimeo.



This Christmas, I want to celebrate the One who came to bring good news to the poor, to set the captives free. I think helping to rescue people from unimaginable oppression is a good start.

Who Are You Trying To Impress?

The last week at our house has been focused on celebrating our baby girl's 8th birthday. After the party, special snacks at school, and her restaurant-of-choice for dinner (including dessert!), I think I have been absolved for the birthday injustice I heaped upon her last year.

Last year on Corban's birthday, we were out of town at her sister's cheer competition. We tried to make it special, but it's kinda hard to make sitting in an arena for 8 hours seem like something fantastic. After that, I kept promising we would have a party for her. And we did...

in April. (if you're keeping count, that's five whole months after her birthday)

Last year, I was stressed.

Last year, we were too busy.

Last year, the thought of having to do one more thing, much less plan and execute one more thing, made me want to eat cookies and sleep for days on end.

But this year, as I thought about celebrating Corban's birthday, I felt God whisper a significant question to me.

Who are you trying to impress?

Who are you trying to impress with the fancy themed birthday party? With the over-the-top goodie bags? With the super crafty decorations? Who are you trying to impress by implementing all the amazing party ideas you find on Pinterest? (and they are really amazing) With the adorable bakery-bought cake?

I avoided the question for a while, but after some deep digging, I finally came to terms with the fact that all this time I've been trying to impress myself. I've wanted my kids' birthday parties to reflect how wonderful and crafty and creative I am as a mom. I've wanted all the guests to be jealous. I've wanted all the moms to "ooh" and "aah" over the cuteness of the party they have just beheld. I've wanted my kids to think I'm the greatest mom in the whole world. Because of a birthday party? Really?!

It sounds ridiculous when you put it like that. So now, I'm doing things differently.

As I planned this year's party, I kept that question in mind. Once I got over myself, I realized the only one I should be trying to impress is Corban. It's her birthday and what she thinks about it is all that matters. I want her to feel loved and celebrated. I want her to enjoy the day.

So she got to make every decision about her party. She picked the place, the invitations, designed and helped decorate the cake, and even placed the candles wherever she wanted them. It turned out to be zero-stress for me, and she loved every minute of it.

My sweet birthday girl.

As it turns out, she's much easier to impress than I am. And I'm so glad.


What about you? Do you stress over making parties perfect?


P.S. I have a sneaking suspicion that I've been treating Christmas at our house the same way I've treated birthday parties, so this question will be staying with me through the holiday season.

Billy Coffey On The Writing Life

I read this amazing post on the WordServe WaterCooler blog today and had to repost it. I'm brand spanking new to the writing life, but I've already felt every emotion Billy describes there.

It's so nice to know I'm not crazy.

Wait, that might be too generous...

It's nice to know I'm not alone.

Staying Focused

I haven't done much blogging here or on my personal blog in the last few months because I'm desperately trying to stay focused and finish my book.

Like everyone else in the world, I have a day job and a super-busy family that I'm supposed to love and nurture and feed three times a day (or in the case of my teenage son, seventy-two times a day), so I have very little concentrated writing time. The time I do have, I spend on my work-in-progress. And yes, it's the same WIP I've been working on since last November. I told you how rough that rough draft was, right?

My goal is to have it completed by the end of November and enter it in another contest. I've found that contest entry deadlines are really great targets for me and help me to keep pushing through even when it's hard (which is most of the time). I like having something to shoot for and I think it's good practice at meeting real deadlines, which I hope to have someday.

Anyway, I just wanted to check in. Now back to writing rewriting. :-)

The Silver Lining of Loserville

I recently got my scoresheets back from the first writing contest I entered. Surprise...I didn't win. :-)

Let me just say, I have a whole new appreciation for anyone who creates something, then has the guts to release it into the world. It is a horrifying experience, but one I'm thankful for.

My entry was judged by two anonymous authors. Judge #1 gave me very high marks (we love her!). Judge #2 gave me very low marks (haters gonna hate). I've had some time to process, have an emotional breakdown, then come back to rational center. Now I can see how incredibly valuable each judge's feedback was.

I opened Judge #1's sheet first and it's a good thing I did. She made positive comments all over the place and gave me the kind of encouragement I really needed at this point in my journey. She also gave constructive feedback about specific areas she thought could be improved. Overall, Judge #1's comments helped me believe in myself and quiet that voice of doubt that had been whispering things like...  

The judges are going to laugh at how awful your entry is. 

They'll probably save your piece to use at conferences when they need a hilarious example of how not to write.

You're like one of those people on American Idol who says "My mama thinks I sing better than anybody else on the whole planet!" And then Simon tells them it was rubbish and that their mama's a tone-deaf idiot. (this one was honestly my biggest fear in entering the contest)

Thank you Judge #1 for helping me quiet those voices.

Then I opened Judge #2's sheet. She had nothing good to say about anything until the very end when the scoresheet specifically asked for her favorite part of the entry. And even then, she only mentioned one little sentence and said "Good detail." Meh. I had two solid pages of feedback consisting of comments like boring, not buying it, cliche, needs more grit, just commit and paint the picture, make me care about these characters. Okaaay then.

After I yelled at Judge #2 for a while, I went through and tried to look at every remark objectively. Even though it was painful at first, I had to admit that while I needed the emotional encouragement of Judge #1, following Judge #2's suggestions would make my story stronger which is ultimately what I want. I mean, if I can rewrite that thing and make Judge #2 love it, then there's a much better chance that other people would love it, too. Right?

So, I picked out a few things to keep from my original entry, then scrapped the rest and completely rewrote it.

And guess what. It's soooo much better.

Thank you Judge #2.


So the upside of being a big, fat writing contest loser is...

      1. Actual people read my work, criticized it and I didn't die.

      2. The criticism pushed me to become a better writer. Go figure.

Baby Steps

I'm taking baby steps on this journey.

When I first started thinking about writing a novel, I couldn't really imagine how little ol' me could start with a blank page and end up with an engaging story 100k words later. So my first year of dream chasing was spent testing the waters, seeking answers to "Can I really do this?"

I immersed myself in studying the craft and story ideas began to bubble up until one took hold and stoked me enough that I thought I could spend the next year(s) of my life laboring over it.  I created characters and outlined a plot, something I never imagined could be so life-giving for me.

I started following several writing blogs and joined My Book Therapy, an online community for aspiring writers of Christian fiction, a community that was invaluable to me when I took my biggest baby step yet. In November 2010, I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). During NaNo, people all over the world sign up to write a novel (at least 50,000 words) in one month. I don't know if it was a great idea for someone who has never written fiction to jump right in and try to write a whole book in 30 days, but guess what...I DID IT! I wrote my first-ever first draft of a novel and I got the little "NaNo winner" badge to prove it. (Note to self: slap that badge up on this blog)

That first draft was rough. Oh man, was it rough. But for the first time in as long as I can remember, I felt like I had actually accomplished something. I set a huge goal for myself and I reached it! And at the end of November, I decided I really can do this.

2011 rolled around and I set some more goals, mostly involving a complete rewrite of that rough draft, then fighting through all my fears & insecurities to submit my work to a contest where actual people who know what they're doing read it. Nauseating.

Baby steps, for sure. But with each step, I feel more alive. I feel like I'm finally becoming who I was made to be. My heart says this is it for me. I'm on the right path. 


Baby steps. It's really the only way to get anywhere, don't you think?


"Who dares despise the day of small things?" Zechariah 4:10