Blessed Beyond Measure

My precious dalmatian and muse!

I am not the typical working mother. I don't get up in the morning, throw on a suit and walk out the door to my job. I work from home. I spend my days joyfully taking care of Punky jr and working on the computer. I also do not have the typical work from home job.  I'm not an accountant, a medical transcriptionist, web designer, or anything fancy. I'm an author. I spend my days telling stories.

Mostly Punky is the recipient of all my stories, whether she wants to be or not! She truly is a captive audience (she has started adding her 2 cents into the stories)! I love to sit with her and make up stories. I can't draw very well, or sing in a way that draws a crowd (in fact it drives away my husband), but I can spin words into a world of make believe that my daughter seems to enjoy.

Right now I am in the final stages of publishing my first book. This book is unlike any other thing I have done. Joyfully After All is the true story of my college experience (told through my journal pages). Most stories that I hope to publish are fiction--purely made up stuff, but this one, this debut book is the real McCoy. It is the story of how I was raised loving God, but then after being raped had to make my faith my own and live it out. A lot of the story shows how much I screwed up, but in the end it is a tale of redemption and God's grace and how everyone is invited into His family.

Being an author is fun-- I spend my days doing what I love best, playing with my daughter, taking care of the house and my husband (when he is home) and making up stuff that hopefully someone will buy and read. It is not the easiest way to support a family! You never know from month to month how many books will sell and how much you will contribute to the family bank account. You don't always have much advance warning when people want you to come speak, and how much you will make at those (I hate asking for a love offering or an engagement fee, but this is my business after all and I have to support my family).  Yet, it is what I have wanted to do.

Even in grad school I didn't really know what I wanted to focus on. My heart goes toward helping people find Christ. My degree is in Pastoral Counseling and my focus was on PTSD and for awhile I focused on working with the military, and then with fellow rape victims, but my heart has grown. I do sincerely want to help people with PTSD, especially military folk, but I also have a heart for the next generation and for women in general-- especially women that have been psychologically wounded in same way and are yearning for the comfort and peace that can ONLY be found in Christ Jesus.

So yes, I am a working mother. I may not have set hours, a "boss" that I answer to, or a guaranteed paycheck, but I do work and I work hard. I am just blessed beyond measure to get to spend my days doing what I honestly love to do-- telling stories and sharing Christ with my daughter and those of you that take the time to read this blog and my books.

-JLP-