Seeing your name in print

Last weekend while in Arizona we headed out to Chandler and hit the mall with the kids. Honestly I am not a huge 'shopper' --I know Im a woman but I just don't really get the whole idea of spending a Saturday at the mall there is so much else I would much rather be doing, seeing, living but not really the mall. Since Dennis had the kids he was trying to do something for them and having 3 girls who love to shop, the mall seemed the place to go. A mall with a Build a bear shop in particular. This mall was a nice one, one that would put a huge smile on my girls faces if we get the chance to visit, and of course seeing there was a Barnes and Noble there, I was happy :). Wandering around while the girls ran up and down the isles I found myself in the parenting isle. I wasn't sure if I had shown Dennis the book that had the section I wrote in it so I scanned the rows. I didn't see the title I was looking for but picked up another in the Childwise, On Becoming Babywise series and my eyes about jumped out ! My NAME! I still remember what it was like to see the book that I received my first 'token' payment from. I was flat out broken, broken from all that I had encountered going through my divorce and then to have some part of my prior life actually be important enough to be asked to use as an appendix to another book being written. Words just don't describe how much that moment stood out as the beginning of my climb out of that dark pit of despair. Last weekend I found several books (at least 3) with my name in them. Acknowledging the workshops I had held in my home and written papers on to hand out to all those moms who were here . Those papers were used, and assisted in Gary and Anne Marie's writing of their 'secular' series. I want to write a book. Maybe just saying it outloud is something I need to do each day. I remember the words well of someone who encouraged me not to long ago that I need to 'carve' out that time each week to make this happen. That is my goal to figure out how to do just that!