Meeting Karen....

Yesterday started out at such a rough day. You name it, and it went wrong... let me rephrase that since last week it has been rough.

On Saturday my bestfriend Joseph and I got in a terrible fight, and I ended up spending the entire day alone. I watched many episodes of Hannah Montana that day, and re-read Divine (my favorite Karen Kingsbury Novel)

Towards eightish I decided to check my email, and I had an email from the Karen Kingsbury Postings... her new book was commming out and she was doing a book tour. The tour kicked off in San Mateo (well that two hours from here, with good traffic). Anywayz, as much as I love her books I did not see that very possible.... little did I know God felt otherwise.

I made it through the weekend, tried talking to Joe, went to small group dinner on Monday, and again left frustrated.... except my idea (which is really inspired by Karen) to support the troops was embraced. We will be adopting a Platoon from California that is currently deployed.

Long story short, I went to work, had a crummy day.... got bad news... and just all out wanted the day to end. As I was leaving I decided I really needed to meet Karen (hah two hours) so I drove home, and begged, asked, pleaded with Joe to pretty please drive with me all the way to San Mateo, and being the bestfriend that he is he said yes.....(and we talked and resolved our fight on the drive)

I have not been back to San Mateo since I left.... so this was a hard trip on so many levels... as I was pulling in the Hillsdale parking lot, Gina (my dearest friend in Cambodia) called me.... I was so excited to tell her I was headed to meet Karen, and she shared with me that the girls at her orphanage also read Karen's books, and love them.

Karen was amazing, she answered all of our questions... and then did a small raffel for two of her Childrens books, (I won) God is so good to me, one of the books is Stay Close Little Girl...I read it and cried on the way home, sad that my father and I would never share the last few lessons, but so greatful for the time we had. Karen and I also share the same favorite verse JER 29:11 (this is the one I carry in my wallet along with my fathers dogtags).

During my meet and greet (I was the last person) I shared with her how life-changing her novels really have been in my life. She was the most amazing, down to earth person. I shared with her about how through my friend Tasra I have found an amazing loving church, (as well as her little push towards Christian Fiction which led me to Karen's books) and my darling friend Gina that since the day we met (at 12 years old, camping with our familys) has been sharing Christs message, and the Fathers love, and that I am finally though Karen's books learning to understand it. I also shared with her, about how I have shared her books (as well as my faith, and personal journey)with my friends Alicia, Jill and Beng, and how they also were excited by her stories...Karen gave me signed personalized bookplates for each of these women! I am really excited to see all of them next, hey girls guess what you are getting soon? She even wrote a sweet bookplate to Joe for driving with me four hours round trip just to meet Karen.

Thank you my friends and family for your support in the past year, I just had to share this story with you. I love you all :) Always, Helga Marie