When you first meet someone, you want to know a little about them, and I thought since we are hopefully gonna be friends, I’d tell you about myself and also tell you about the awesome Savior I serve.

      First of all, if you haven’t noticed, times… they have truly changed; and I think sometimes it helps to be reminded of just how much they have changed. 

      When I was in high school in the late sixties, there was one young lady in the ENTIRE SCHOOL that became pregnant out of wedlock.  Because she was an honor student, in the Beta club, came from a wonderful Christian family, was planning to marry the young man, and would not be showing by the graduation ceremony, they allowed her to stay in school

     Now, let’s go back to the fifties when I was born, and consider this.  My mother was a very young beautiful woman who married a man who loved her dearly, but that wasn’t enough for her.  She went looking for love in all the wrong places; and as you know, sin is not hard to find.  She thought she found the answer to all of her wants in a relationship with a much older married man.  I was the only good thing that came from that situation, and it has taken me forty plus years to be able to say that with confidence.  But it took many broken hearted struggles to get to this place.  If I had a dollar for every time I was called a mistake, a love child, illegitimate, or worse, I would be a rich woman today. 

      Some of the memories I have concerning this include being in a bathroom stall one Sunday morning after Sunday school.  My precious little grandmother raised me and saw that I was in church every time the doors were opened.  Her name was Althea, and I loved her so much.  As I listened to the two ladies talking with each other while washing their hands, they began to talk about that bastard grandchild of Althea.  I couldn’t believe my ears, and I sat there until they left, reminded once again about my curse. 

     Another time, my grandmother planned a huge birthday at my mother’s house who lived just across the street.  She and my mom always had a knack about putting a celebration together, and I was so excited.  Little did I know that one of the well-meaning Christian mothers had gotten on the phone to share with the other parents that this party for me would be at my mother’s house, and since my mother was known for having a drinking problem and a not-so-great reputation, it would be better if the kids didn’t go. Can you imagine what I felt when I sat there all afternoon looking at my birthday cake made to look like a Barbie doll with a ruffled dress made from icing?  I was trying to figure why anyone would not want to come and have a good time at my house.  And I learned another painful lesson about life far too early for a little girl.  

     As time went on I remember having so many feelings that there was something so wrong with me, but I also felt there was a destiny for me that I