Kinda a big day for me today.  Tonight I’m going to be the guest speaker for the “Joy Club” of a local church.  They asked a few months ago if I would share my story on how I became Frankie’s mom for mothers day.  I’m not really the public communicator around here.  That job gets done very well by my sweet husband.  I’m not sure when the fear of communicating in public came about.  I can probably peg it back to my college summer days when I worked at Crosspoint Camps and daily was put in one on one counseling situations that I did not feel adequately prepared to handle.  Why someone thought that was a good idea is beyond me.  Fear came in and I think I decided I’m not going to go around talking about things unless I really have something to say. And I’m not going to talk about things if I don’t know what it is that I am talking about. 

4 months ago I had to become a big girl.  With the earthquake and then Media opportunities that came knocking  I had to swallow my fear and just put myself out there.  I called my friend when the blitz started happening and begged her to go and get me some shirts that covered my neck.  When I get nervous my neck goes blister red!  She did and I was so thankful.  In fact I still think I owe her some money. In the midst of talking with people and fighting for our son in the midst of the crisis in Haiti I began to feel a sense of normal and peace in working out of one of my fears.

Through all of our interviews and having opportunities to share our story I realized that I could do this.  I went with Dave on a trip a few weeks ago to visit our 3DM friends and I remember Steve telling me that we can’t ignore our weaknesses.  That sometimes we need to make ourselves work from them so that in the end we become a better and a whole person.  Or something like that. So I’ve been aware of lots of my weaknesses lately but looking at them in a different light. 

So tonight I will walk into what I think is a  weakness of mine.  The art of communicating in Public.  Strange thing is that I’m not really nervous and in fact I’m very excited about tonight. It helps to have an easy crowd to talk with.  I have a lot to share and a huge passion behind it.  I even find myself daring to pray for more opportunities like this one will come our way.  There is a lot of power in our stories.  I’m not the only one with a story to share.  You have one too.  And I’m praying that you’ll have opportunities too.  Not everyone will be able to relate to our stories but those that do hopefully will be encouraged as they continue to walk their own journey.

This was me in my first trip to Haiti back in 1993.  The trip that changed the path of my life.