Sharing our Story of Grace Marie

On January 10, 2010, we celebrated Grace Marie's 7th birthday.   She had a fun celebration with a group of 1st grade friends at a local Pottery studio in town.     It is hard for me to conceptualize the fact that my story of Grace started over 7 years ago.    She is the youngest of our five children and life since her birth has been - well should I say - quite full!     The importance of her birth story lives on, however, and with her entry into full-time school - I have taken on a personal mission to widely share her story.

About 1 week before school started in September, I started discussing with my husband Patrick ideas for my "life" now that my kids were returning to school.   Patrick immediately encouraged me to take on the task of sharing Grace's story.   Coincidentally, a day later, I received a phone call from the director of a Benefit for Life Charity asking me if we would keynote speak about Grace at their fall event.   My heart raced fast as I accepted - trying to ignore my very real fear of public speaking.   I knew it was a calling and something that I have been longing to do for a few years.    I had never publicly spoken about our story, other than as a volunteer speaker at a few small school events.

The next several months were spent in dusting off the details of my fall 2002 pregnancy and birth of Grace in January 2003.   It was a very emotional journey and a thrilling hunt of all details releasing some indescribable emotions.    The letters, journals, doctors notes, cards, pictures, and video made it feel so real to me again as if were happening for the first time.    My speech was delivered on November 12th, 2009.   Dave LewAllen, a newscaster from our local ABC affiliate, spoke first about a news story he did in 2003 about the miracle of Grace's Birth.   Patrick then did a wonderful introduction to the story.   I was thankfully very prepared.    I was completely humbled and overwhelmed by the positive response that I received.     There was not a dry-eye in the room and I was shocked at the end with a standing ovation.

Since that time, I have come to realize fully the significance of our Story of Grace Marie and have decided to widely share the intimate details.     I have had our story including in the book "Defiant Birth", but I now feel that it is important to preserve the details of her story in my own book - which I have started to write.   I will share details of this writing journey on this blog.

Yesterday, we filmed an updated News story that will air this Monday on the 11:00 news.   I will try to post the promo clip.

My future posts in the next few weeks will include a written copy of my speech, a clip of the original news story that aired in 2003, and the follow up news story.    Thanks for visiting my blog!