About Me
Born and raised in Florida my parents were highly involved in children’s ministries until God finally opened a door for them to be missionaries in Bogota, Colombia. We moved there when I was 8 years old and my parents were teachers at an international MK(missionary kid) school. We spent 5 years there. Next we spent my high school years in Quito, Ecuador where my dad was a teacher at an another international school.
My first two years of college started at Northwest University in Kirkland, WA then I switched to Evangel University where I got my bachelor’s in biology. After my graduation plans didn’t work out, I moved to Bangkok, Thailand for a two year assignment working for a missionary. During my time there I started to enjoy writing stories for my monthly newsletter back home. When my time was up I moved back to the States where I worked for Disney World as a safari driver and dream squad cast member.
Like most missionary kids that have moved around a lot, I couldn’t stay long in Florida. I ended up in Missouri as a nanny for 8 children for about a year. It was a time I tried to slow down and listen more closely to what God had called me to. That is when my desire for writing had increased and I got to be apart of a college creative writing course. It helped me build my fictional writing. From there I got a job as a children’s ministries assistant at a church in Raleigh, NC. I felt God calling me to more writing while in NC. That is when He challenged me one lent season to write a phrase each day of Lent.
During my years at that church, I went to Spain to help with the missionary kids at the Europe retreat. Thankfully I met my husband, Mark, in the last minutes of the retreat. That is a story for another day. We dated long distance for about a year until I moved to Springfield, MO when he proposed. My passion for TCKs (Third Culture Kids) and MKs (missionary kids) grew and I continued to volunteer and work at missionary retreats and camps.
My writing change a lot when my daughter was born and she struggled with various food allergies. We spent a year trying to get her diagnosed. God is good he did give us answers and healing like he promised, but it took time. Once we felt like we could handle her diagnosis I came down with some mysterious symptoms. Then we spent the next year searching for answers from doctors and specialists. We finally figured out I had Lyme disease, alpha gal syndrome and some other issues. Through the constant pain and fatigue I experience I kept feeling like God wanted me to write. At one point I felt challenge to write a little devotional with each of the quotes I had written years before.
Healing continued in my body and I was able to do more jobs. I went back to teaching at local private school where we live now in NW Arkansas. I kept on writing mostly short fiction stories, but I love writing cozy mystery novels, and even experimenting with sci-fi.
Finally my prayers to have another child came true and I got pregnant. I decided to not return to teaching and stay at home with my baby. I am blessed and excited to say that God has completely healed me and my daughter of all our food allergies and other issues. My writing has been fueled by my experiences with lyme disease and food allergies and I wouldn’t trade my journey even though I would not want to go through it again. I am blessed to have a strong and faithful husband and two beautiful lively children that provide me with great content for devotionals and stories. Also they always keep me laughing, smiling, and on my knees praying!