Dear Reader,

"I bet not many people know you were a thief," my son states. My cheeks color-pink as I remember the moss I pulled up from below my neighbor's dripping air conditioning unit or the snowball blooms I picked off Monty's tree to toss as grenades at my brothers. I was a daffodil bandit; no daffodil was safe in our neighborhood. My childhood remains vibrant and near. Its details and emotions are crisp. And like my parents before me, I tell these stories to my boys.​

 

My mother and father's stories have been woven together with my own flights of fancy into Taming a Hummingbird. My hope is that you, my dear reader, will tiptoe back into childhood for a moment and experience its wonder and magic.

 

​It is awkward to write one's own obituary, and in a sense that is what an author bio is, for it is a summing up of one's life to salient tidbits of information. It is hard to know what someone may find interesting or worthy of note.

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​My greatest accomplishments are not professional. After changing my major multiple times, I got a degree in Elementary Education from Union University. I taught Junior High Classes before I elected to stay home with my colicky baby. Since then I've started and closed a Homeschool Tutorial, taught English to students in China, and been a receptionist for a Premier Doggy Hotel.  While I've enjoyed each, my unpaid jobs of writer, mom, homeschooler, and wife have given me much more fulfillment than my paid ones. ​

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I am the second of four children. I joke that I'm not sure if my brother abdicated the role of the first-born or I usurped him, truthfully it was both. My siblings endured my self-appointed leadership and still managed to like me. My father hand drew me valentines and told me stories about grumpy bears. He proofread my essays and watched me toil around the track eight times. My mother read books to me, helped me plant secret gardens, and taught me to use an acorn top as a faerie cup. I was loved.​

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I meet my sweet Chad in the receiving line of a play. He taught me and another fellow how to swing dance and a year later we were married.  He tirelessly serves our family and sacrificially loves us. He is still my favorite. Together we have four sons who fill our days with messes and laughter. I hope they know deep in their bones that they are loved forever and ever and always. 

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​My relationships have shaped and changed me far more than my circumstances. I was changed by love and being loved. This is no more true than in my relationship with Jesus. His love has changed me and will continue to do so until this really is an obituary. ​