Highlights from ACFW 2012

So excited to see the FINALIST ribbon on my name badge!

Hi everyone!

I made it back from Dallas in one piece and thoroughly exhausted. I would have posted yesterday, except that I felt no better than a wet piece of tissue paper and couldn’t seem to pull myself together.

This was a challenging conference for me. A dear friend’s son had been battling a highly aggressive cancer since January and he passed away on Thursday morning. The news wasn’t unexpected, but it was still heart-breaking. I struggled with being far away from my friends and family at such a challenging time. Thankfully, many friends were praying and their support (and His strength) got me through the remainder of the conference. God’s timing is never wrong, even when it is difficult to understand.The memorial service is today and I’m thankful to be home in time to participate in that much, at least. In a few hours we’ll gather to say goodbye–many of us sporting Angry Birds t-shirts in honor of our young friend. I’m praying that this gathering will be a witness to his classmates and a comfort to his family.

Between the devastating news and my fluttering nerves over the results of the Genesis contest, I spent more of this conference in prayer than any conference in my past. Even though the worship team never performed it, a special song kept tugging at my heart–David Crowder Band’s “Only You.”

Take my fret, take my fear
All I have, I’m leaving here
Be all my hopes, be all my dreams
Be all my delights, be my everything
And It’s just you and me here now
Only you and me here now 

God drilled home to me that the results of this conference were in His hands, not mine. It was “only You and me here now” and that was a huge comfort.

I did not bring home the Genesis award (and was actually sort of relieved I didn’t have to give a speech), but I did take home many wonderful memories. Fantastic meetings with editors, inspiring teaching, plenty of hugs from fellow writers, and scads (I mean SCADS) of photos. I’ll post a few below. Feel free to pop over to my Facebook Page to see the rest.

 Thanks everyone for your prayers during this time.

Posing with my Genesis co-finalists and Becca Witham and Brandy Vallance in the historic romance category.

Eeek! That’s me–on the BIG screen at the gala.

Had a wonderful time celebrating at the Gala with two of my critique buddies, Pat Lee and Marilyn Rhoads. That’s three out of the five members of our amazing critique group, His Wordsmiths.

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