No, Those Weren't Poptarts, but These ARE Cupcakes

My youngest sister commented on the poptarts that were on my leg in my last post. Poptarts aren't that small. Or, maybe, my leg isn't as big as she thinks? :0)

Whichever the case, those pastry things are 100 cal Special K bars. They are not bad, but they are not the same as a real Poptart.

Nor are they same as a cupcake.

The kind which I am about to eat.

The kind bought in a real bakery. You know....one of those places that smells a little like heaven?

The kind that uses butter and sugar and real ingredients. None of which is cattle scale friendly.

Today, though, I don't care.

Today, I am celebrating.

What, you may wonder, am I celebrating??

First,  the fact that the Holder family is a step closer to meeting their son in China. Jacob is a soon to be six year old with albinism. The bakery that produced the above mentioned cupcakes is running a fund raiser to help get the Holders to China.

So...of course...I must sacrifice by eating one of their cupcakes to show my support for their wonderful business.

I am also celebrating a dear friends' achievement. Maybe I should not call her a friend. She is more an extra daughter. Not that she doesn't already have a fantastic mother, but if I would gladly call her my kid....

She attends the same ballet school as my kids, and last night, she was offered a trainee contract with Ballet Tucson . This is a huge achievement, and I am so happy for her that I could burst. Here she is. The one on the left. The guy partnering her is her best guy buddy. My oldest son. (BTW, my youngest son is partnering the other dancer. A beautiful young woman who attends Kirov during the year).

But, I digress. Back to why I am so proud of Sara. You see, she was born premature. Because of that, she has lagged behind in some of the physical aspects of her development. She's fought her way up in the ranks of the ballet school she attends with my kids. Now, at 19, she is at the point where she either gets more training and continues to pursue her dream of being a dancer, or she starts teaching younger kid dance classes and accepts that she has progressed as far as she can.

Which would be a shame, because she has worked so hard, and she is so beautiful on stage (she is in purple here). And, also, because she is a wonderful young lady with a fantastic work ethic and a gracious spirit.

This summer, she was in a ballet intensive at our home studio, and a lady from Ballet Tucson was teaching. This lady saw something in Sara and offered her the trainee contract.

Finally, all those years of hard work are paying off.

I love that I get to watch this happen, and that my girls get to see it, too.

Sometimes our dreams seem so far out of reach. If we let ourselves, we can begin to believe that we will never accomplish the things God has called us to.

The truth is so far from that, though.

God has a way of making things work out when He is at the forefront of our plans. He doesn't even need our competence to achieve His goals. He doesn't need anything but our willingness.

Which brings me to my other reason for celebrating.

I have been given a fantastic writing opportunity. It is something that I have been praying about and dreaming about for a long time. Something I really believed I would never achieve. Suddenly, out of the blue, it happened.

And, I mean that quite literally. I was offered a contract within two days of a certain editor receiving my project. While I still plan to write many more Love Inspired Suspense books (So I am very hopeful that my editors will allow me to), I am also going to be writing mainstream women's fiction.

The opportunity couldn't have come at a better time.

After a rough and rocky six months, after struggling so much with pain and facing setbacks that made me question my purpose, it seems to me that at the very moment I relinquished it all to God and said, "I can't do this any more."

He said to me...through me, you can.

And, you know what?

He is right.

Wherever we go, God is here.Wherever we are, God is here. There is no place, there can be no place where He is not. Ten million intelligences standing at as many points in space and separated by incomprehensible distances can each one say with equal truth, God is here. ..... It will  be a great moment for some of us when we begin to believe that God's promise of self-revelation is literally true, that He promised much, but no more than He intends to fulfill. -A.W. Towzer, The Pursuit of God