Those close to me know I was pretty elusive this summer while working on a writing project.
Well, not entirely elusive. There was that family trip to Duluth…
Not to mention the Colorado adventure I went on with my Mama…
Oh, and Mom’s 80th birthday celebration. What fun!
We also did the usual family firepits with S’mores and summertime walks, too.
But whenever those things weren’t happening, I was running in one direction or the other — to either Maryvale, a Franciscan convent, in Valley City, N.D….
Or the Carmel of Mary Monastery, a Carmelite cloister, in Wahpeton, N.D.
How grateful I am for both of these places that harbored me as I worked and worked and worked on a project that, if all goes as planned, will be ready to share in full, in book form, this spring.
I didn’t work alone. The project involved two of us writing together, though on opposite ends of the state; Patti Armstrong in Bismarck and me in Fargo (and surrounding areas).
Throughout the summer months, on our respective evening walks, we sorted through topics, chapters and content, and swapped prayer requests along the way.
It was intense! We had a tight deadline and a lot to work out together. At times, we needed to stop in the middle of it all and just pray that the Holy Spirit would help us reach our finish line.
Aug. 31 was the day we had promised to turn in our manuscript, and, despite how impossible that date seemed in moments, thanks be to God, it happened.
Now, the book is making its way through development with the publisher, and we are tossing around ideas on how to reach the readers we have had in mind, and been praying for, throughout this process.
Patti and I have 15 children between us. We each know what it’s like to be pregnant and waiting to meet our babies. Many people have compared writing a book to having a baby, and though no comparison is perfect, certainly, there are parallels in waiting for babies and books.
God already knows what this “baby” is going to look like. We have taken part in the process, but the end result is not all up to us. We are co-creators with Him (and with our publisher in this case). So, like mothers awaiting a new addition to our families, we wait, pray, and prepare.
Fittingly, around nine months from now, give or take, we will be able to share the fruits of our laboring. But today, what might be akin to our first “ultrasound” happened.
While co-hosting for Real Presence Radio this morning, I was given a chance to share a little about this project with listeners. Though we’re not yet ready to “name our baby” publicly, the name exists in our minds and hearts, and as the due date nears, we’ll have much more to highlight.
The segment from today offers a little glimpse. In the meantime, we welcome your prayers for a healthy “child” that, we pray, will bring hope to many.
For now, enjoy! Real Presence Live host banter with co-hosts Jeanine Bitzan and Roxane Salonen, Sept. 27, 2021.
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