well, i've been home for Christmas for about 37 hours

and it seems like so much has happened.

there's no way i can even begin to describe all that has happened to me, even since yesterday, but be assured it's all good. yesterday when i got home (and was a zombie....i don't think i've been that tired in a loooong time) i went to a women's Christmas tea thing with my mom at calvary...

anyway, when i got home, there was a card on my dresser from a charlotte address. i opened it and there was a note from a woman who evidently attends calvary who had seen my journal entry of the story i wrote for chicken soup and she was telling me how much it meant to her...so that was pretty random and unexpected, but very nice.

then i went to the Christmas tea and the speaker was a 60-something year-old woman named daisy hepburn who was just a wonderful speaker. her talk was entitled "have a mary, mary, mary Christmas" and she used mary and martha, mary magdalene, and Jesus' mother mary to illustrate how women can relate their stories to their own Christmases. it was a really great lesson altogether and i realized that on the table close to the door, she also had books for sale that she also referenced many times in her talk.

about mid-way through her talk, i really felt that God was telling me the only way to get into speaking is to write. i really haven't felt that sure of anything since all that happened to me at big break in the spring, so i was really, really glad to have that feeling. and right after the program, my mom and i got up and she saw a friend at the table behind us. when my mom introduced us, the lady said "is this the one who wrote that story?" and she went on to tell me how my chicken soup story really encouraged her and spoke to her.

the thing is, it took me until last night when i was telling jeff about all this to realize that God was both preparing me (with the mail letter) and confirming me (with the lady at the table behind me) for before and after He spoke to me. how incredible is that?!

so, my mind has really been consumed with that since yesterday and i have been praying for inspiration to write. tonight i went to barnes and noble and bought a new journal to start this writing in, and i wrote down exactly what happened and the few ideas i do have already. now i just plan to write stream of conciousness-ly and see what happens. i do know that i'm going to write about my life and what God has taught me, because that's really the only thing i know enough about! so we'll see, but i really think it's what i'm supposed to be doing right now.

i'm also very excited, because i found out last week that i might be going to a media conference in new york at columbia university in march ,with jeanna and will (through yearbook staff), and i was thinking about it today and realized that they are also offering writing classes, which fits in with this really nicely. also, i had already planned on attending the proverbs 31 writers and spearkers conference in august in charlotte (actually only for the speaking part, but sounds like plans have changed...). that also fits in nicely since the writers part of the conference is basically meeting with publishers and editors. wow.

so that's that. there is so much more that has gone on, but i'm so tired and need to get some rest. anyway, just wanted to get this on here because i'm very excited about it.

oh, and one more thing: i also find it interesting that for the past couple months i have literally told people "i think i might go speaking, but not writing, because my hands are too bad and i just don't want to write." and my chicken soup story was about how God uses my weaknesses.

in the words of melinda, "silly, silly me." :)

OH! and have fun in nyc, melinda, heather, shannon, rick, mike, brandon, and drew. i've never been more jealous and happy at the same time!