Wow! What a
wild ride this has been. I am so happy
things fell into place like they did. I
look back at my initial brainstorming session from March 2014 when I
entertained the idea of documenting our family story. The process was a bit overwhelming at first
because I was not sure 1) if I could accurately remember all of details of the
events, both big and small; and 2) whether or not I would be able to find the
time to develop the story in a way that would interest people.
I had some ideas how I wanted to execute it but I
also had reservations because I was not sure I wanted to make the time
commitment. Our experience with the
spiritual medium was so amazing and it brought peace to our family. During the reading Lilly mentioned there was
something big planned for me after my surgery with an emphasis on this ‘big
event’ being outside of my comfort zone.
We all wondered what it would be but we knew we had to be patient and see
what would transpire.
I walked away from my computer for nearly two months
because life was busy and my heart just wasn’t into it at that time. May 5, 2014 was a turning point for me. I knew as soon as I read the article “Tell
the Untold ‘God Thing’ Stories in Your Life” I was supposed to keep
brainstorming and make a commitment to document our story. A few days later I heard, for the first time,
about the book titled “It’s a God Thing” on the KLove radio station. It was the string of events that fueled my fire
to start writing.
I could not get the thought of writing out of my
mind. I continued to brainstorm where I
left off in March and I could not stop.
Every time I sat down at the computer my fingers did the typing. All of the memories came flooding back and my
fingers could not keep up with my thoughts.
I started telling my family about my journal and the idea of blogging
about it to share our multiple spiritual events with everyone. We were all very excited at the idea. I estimated I would have 75 pages in a Word
document when I was finished but ultimately I ended up with 201! I truly feel God gave me the grace to write
and to tell our story.
I started working hard on the entries in hopes I would
complete a vast majority of it before my surgery on June 16, 2014. I knew it was going to be a 7+hour procedure
so I wanted to provide a distraction for my family so they could not worry
about me during the surgery. I was able
to complete approximately 11 entries before my surgery. I allowed myself a few weeks at home to
recover but then I decided it was time to plow through and get several more
entries completed. I wanted to keep my
mind busy while I was not working so the transition back to the office would be
a bit easier. I was on a lifting
restriction and Chelsea was at our house taking great care of Bryson, Holden
and Layton.
After several entries I decided to get to work on
the boys’ scrapbooks. Since Holden came
along I was unable to keep up with printing off pictures and putting them in
albums. I started doing scapbooking
through Shutterfly and I set a goal to complete Bryson and Holden’s 2013
albums. As I was completing the albums,
an advertisement jumped out at me. On the
right of the Shutterfly screen was an ad
that said, “Do you want to get your work published?” I never pay attention to all of the pop ups
but that one caught my attention. I clicked
on the ad and it took me to the Author House website. I filled out a one page form and clicked ‘submit.’
A few days later a representative of Author House
contacted me to discuss my inquiry. We
talked about the process of getting a book published and the packages available. I told him I would talk to my family and
would get back with him. After some discussion
with my Dad, Rochelle and Josh, we decided this would be a great tribute to Mom
and a keepsake for our family. Our goal
was to tell our story so our children could one day understand who Mom was and
what her life was about.
Near the end of July 2014 I contacted the gentleman at Author
House and signed the papers. He told me
I was under no time frame to get my final manuscript submitted. After I got off the phone with him, I got on
my blog and I saw it had 6,462 hits. I
starred at the number for a brief moment because it seemed significant. First of all I was shocked that after 4-5
weeks there was that much interest in our story but then it hit me. The number 6462 was the last part of Mom’s cell phone for many years. I really felt that was a sign that this is
the ‘big event’ Lilly kept referring to during the reading. That same day, my Check In Coordinator, Rochelle (Keith) contacted me. Again I felt this was the path I was supposed
to take and it definitely was outside of my comfort zone.
The countless hours spent on typing each entry is absolutely
worth the end result. The whole process was
therapeutic and it really helped me cope with Mom’s illness and passing. There were times I had to walk away from the
computer because the emotions were just too raw. I would go to bed and lay there thinking
about how I would complete the entry and tie it into the next one. I enjoyed going through old pictures and
talking with my family about various memories for clarification. We reminisced about all of the time we spent
and the memories we made as a family.
The last entry was completed on December 28, 2014 at
11:01 p.m. I was determined to get my
final manuscript to the publishing company before the new year but I missed the
mark. I spent several hours during the
holiday weekend editing my manuscript.
There were several rules I had to abide by before I could submit the
final work to the publishing company. We
also decided to purchase an editing package so the book could be written as
well as possible. We were reassured the
content would not be changed but word usage, tense and punctuation would be the
main focus. They charge per word so I knew
I needed to cut out a lot of items to help minimize the cost of editing.
Once I was finished with combining all of my entries
into one document and editing the transcript, I had to draft a portion on “About
the Author” and a brief summary of the story for the back of the book. I also had to submit my thoughts on what I
wanted the cover to look like. Once that
was completed, I was able to move forward with the online submission
process. This was completed on January
4, 2015. My manuscript passed content
evaluation on January 9, 2015. During
that process, potential copyright issues were addressed. I had to reach out to the author of the “God
Thing” article as well as the author of the “Schmidt Sisters Make Their Mark”
in order to reference them in the book.
Both authors were very responsive and executed the release to use their
articles in the book. I had to get
written permission from Rochelle to use her Caring Bridge entries in the
book. Of course, that was the easiest
and least time consuming request I had to submit.
Also during that process, I had to contact the
producer of bib number 333 from Jason’s Bug Run so I could use a copy of the
picture of the bib in the book. I was
shocked how quickly the company got back to me.
Finally, I had to reach out to the Jadon’s Hope Foundation to make sure
it was okay to use the picture of the bib in the book. I received a very heartfelt response from the
father of Jadon and I am looking forward to running the 5K on April 8th
in Olathe in honor of Jadon!
The funniest request I had from the publishing company
was to get permission from Dad since he was “modeling on the cover.” I had to read that email twice and I
immediately called Dad. You had to be
there but it was so funny! Clearly this
was an error on their end because we had no intention of having Dad serve as
the “model” on the front cover. We
concluded the misunderstanding happened because the picture we ultimately chose
for the cover initially had Dad in it. The
picture was taken on the day of Rochelle and Scott’s wedding. As soon as Josh found that picture on his old
computer, I knew it was the one we had to use for the cover. I love how vibrant and happy Mom looks in the
picture. We chose to crop Dad out of the
picture so the focus could be on Mom as she was faded into the clouds.
On January 29, 2015 the editor was ready to take
over. We were told the process would
take about a month. I received the
edited manuscript on February 27th and at that time I had two
choices. I could either read through and
accept and/or decline the suggested changes or I could not read through it and
agree to all of the changes. By this
time, I was getting tired of going through the process and I was not sure I had
it in me to read through the manuscript again.
I was tempted to agree to the changes without reading it but I knew it
was important to read through and make sure the suggested changes made
sense. I described it to people as if I
was on the last mile of a marathon. I wanted
to give up but I knew I was so close and I would regret not taking the
time.
I locked myself in our room one weekend and read through
the manuscript from start to finish accepting and declining changes. I was so relieved when I submitted it back to
the publishing company on March 1st.
A few days later I checked my email and I saw that the proofs were
ready. They emailed me a draft copy of
the cover as well as the pages formatted for a 6x9 book. The tears filled up in my eyes when I saw the
cover for the first time. I was so
excited to finally see it all come together.
I called Dad and Deanna and Rochelle and Scott. I emailed them a copy and asked for
feedback. We were all very pleased with
the progress.
At that time, I was provided a form to identify up
to 25 changes I wanted to make both for the cover and for the inside of the
book. I really did not want to have to
read through it again but I knew this
was my one final chance to make any/all necessary changes. As I identified changes I pulled out the page
and added it to the pile. At the end I
counted up the changes and there were 32.
I then identified the most important 25 changes of the 32 and filled out
the form. The following morning I submitted
the changes and the following day I received the proof with the requested
changes. I compared the form to the proof
and agreed with all of the changes. I
emailed them to Deanna at work and asked her to take a quick look. We agreed everything looked good and I submitted
the approval form. Just then Deanna
called me but I could not take the call.
She sent me an email and said she noticed changes made to some of the
captions under the pictures. The changes
made were an error on the publisher’s end.
They applied a caption change to the incorrect picture. I was so glad she found the error when she
did. I contacted my check in coordinator
and she rectified the problem.
I was informed on March 10, 2015 the book became
available for purchase. I was notified
today that e-books are also available.
Below is a link to the Author House website where you can read a preview
and/or purchase the book.
I really hope our story brings hope, peace and
comfort to others who need encouragement during difficult times. Our blog has over 17,000 hits and has been
read by people in France, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Germany, Turkey, Canada,
United Kingdom and Ireland. If our story
has impacted just one person our mission is complete.
I still have not found any strings since June 2014,
however we continue to receive gentle reminders that Mom is present in our
lives. A few months ago, Layton passed
by a shadow box with Mom’s pictures and he stopped and pointed up and said, “Nana.” I was taken back because we had not pointed
that out to him before. Just the other
day, Chelsea told me she felt as if something brushed by her. She glanced over expecting to see either
Bryson or Holden but they were in the basement.
She then looked back at Layton, who was in the tub, and he was pointing
and saying, “Papa’s Nana!”
Once again, thank you for your constant love and
support! I truly believe God had a plan
for all of this and we are so humbled and blessed to have walked this
journey!
