Four Days to Acclimate!

It was noon on January first. Months had gone into planning how and when I would turn myself in on an outstanding warrant. I had been promised child care and then witnessed how much my children were treated differently than their cousins.

It is good that I know as much as I love my children that God loves them more. It is good that I know He is their true provider and protector or I would have never had the strength to do what I did.

As I sat in the lobby with Mike waiting on them to call me, I was silently crying. I knew God would see me through it all, I was just unsure what all I would need to be seen through.

I would never change one minute I spent behind bars and it is my intention to share every moment in this next book that will be called 16 days and two head counts.

This video will lay out a little bit of what is to come. It took me four days to acclimate to the scene I faced behind closed doors. It has taken even longer to get back into the grove of life on the outside. No wonder there is a revolving door! There is so much work to do and I welcome the challenge. I found my purpose and I am blessed to have known that the Lord of Jacob is and forever will be my stronghold! Shalom!!! <3

Today I come to you Father with great appreciation for the work you completed in me during my stay behind bars. How you humbled me and opened my eyes. I love to minister to others and realized the depth of my passion for the message of Grace and sharing the Gospel while behind closed doors. I will never be the same and for that I am thankful. Please put a hedge of protection around all those who find themselves in this kind of hell. Humble the so called correctional officers. Bring their dirt out into the open Father and expose them all for who they are as well! I look forward to becoming all you have destined me to become and am so blessed to have answered the call! Please move others to donate time, energy and resources to the ministry you have both placed and expanded on my heart. I love you. I thank you. I am blessed beyond measure! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen!

In Defense of My Step-Mother

Throughout my story I don't want people to get the wrong idea about how I feel towards All my parents. I LOVE Them. Yes throughout my life you will see mistakes they made in both judgement and discipline. Who among us can say any different? Chris pushed me like the military pushes it's soldiers. I thank her for her training. She gave me so many tools. I honestly don't think I'd be as rounded had she not been in my life.

If you have read my story from the beginning you know that Chris is the one that got me to say my first prayer. How can you be angry at someone who helps you get closer to God? The short and simple answer is, "You Can't". A relationship with Our Father should be your number one goal.

As it says in Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice (some versions say righteousness but I think people associate that word with hypocrites now a days) and all these things shall be added onto you.

So to me Chris was a great teacher who provided me with many Life Skills. Some highlights

1. The importance of a budget
2. How to get the most value out of a dollar
3. How to see "Long Term"
4. How to cook
5. How to clean
6. How to bite my tongue
7. How to turn off my own ears
8. How to love a baby
9. She gave me my knowledge of why it is important to breast feed your children
10. If I didn't know it before the importance of self education
11. She is the one who got me hooked on books
12. Salesmanship and customer service

I know there are more but that is quite an impressive list! Chris no doubt pushed me. She drove me. She was so worried I might fail and she didn't want that to happen on her watch. She wanted to be able to say she had succeeded where my mother had failed. In my eyes we all fail at some point in our lives. Some of us more than others. It is our perseverance through our failures that I find the most impressive. Who has never felt like curling up in a ball and dieing?

The best way I could describe how Chris felt about me when I was growing up was this, "She loves to hate me and hates to love me."

Now my only wish for my step-mother is the same wish my grandma made for me on my 25th birthday. "May you learn how to LIVE before you die" took me forever to figure that one out!

I know that will not happen without helping her find God. She helped me with this as a child. I have to return the favor. Her life depends on it!

I know that was short and sweet and by far the easiest chapter I have written! If you are lacking in your Faith like my step-mother is my prayer for you is the same. I leave you with this one simple question, "If there is no creator, if there is no Almighty Father, why does every child on earth seek the approval of their own earthly father?" I know there are other moms out there reading this who have men in their lives they have fathered children with. Even if those fathers seem to be rotten at their fatherly duties, their children love them and seek their approval regardless. Why? It is my belief that somewhere deep inside all of us is a desire to please Our Heavenly Father. With that being said, I ask you, "How can you deny God exists?"

The best line I heard about believing in God was last night on my way home from work. I was listening to moody radio and a man was discussing his own sons struggle with Faith as he hit the year 19. While at dinner with his parents he was asking them how they could believe in a God who allowed young children to die in horrific ways. Without missing a beat his mom said, "Honey don't worry about that. It's natural selection."

You cannot have it both ways. If you feel your heart being torn when you witness the pain of others you are closer to God than you realize. Without God, you would have no heart!

Today, I pray you learn to listen with your heart. I pray you open yourself up to the possibility of God if you are a non-believer.

That is all I have for now. May your day be full of blessings, may you bless a complete stranger,


Wendy, Mom of Many