In 2005, Mary and I began talking about the possibility of writing a book together – someday.  It would be about raising our 14 children together, with the hope of encouraging today’s young moms. We would share what worked and what didn’t, not as experts but as ordinary women who learned by trial and error.

The next year, 2006, we began meeting to strategize, and got together 8 times to plan the book. Mary, a whiz at bringing order from chaos, would establish the “bones” of it, after which I would put “flesh” on those bones through writing. We would use examples from our own experience, including failures, since we learned the most from them.

We wrote a statement of purpose and chose a tentative title and subtitle: Old Mommies to New Mommies, What we wish we’d known at the beginning.

We labeled 10 giant yellow envelopes with 10 chapter titles and began filling them with “snippets” of mothering information that would eventually become polished prose. We began writing what would evolve into 57 sidebars and gathered a team of friends who were willing to pray for us.

But then, as I wrote in a blog posted on May 3 of this year, life got in the way:

My family moved from our home of 29 years to a much smaller place and had to focus on eliminating and concentrating. Shortly thereafter, Nate got sick, and in a whirlwind of upheaval and grief, he passed away.

While we were still reeling, Mary and Bervin’s home of 40 years sold, and they too downsized big-time. Then shortly after that, Mary learned of her cancer and began treatment with major surgery and 6 months of chemo. During these same years the two of us greeted 19 new grandchildren and 6 new in-law children.

And our book was set aside.

But since we’d asked God to orchestrate the timing, we just figured he wasn’t ready yet—until that day 8 months ago when he gave us his green light. (A Blog Hiatus) And so we dug out our old notes and went to work.

Today we happily announce that our book is finished! It has taken 8 months, scores of meetings, and hundreds of hours, but we’ve enjoyed every single minute. And since we’ve asked the Lord to choose a publisher, we’re currently in another wait-zone. But we’ll keep you posted on whatever 2016 brings.

P.S. As a publishing postscript, the book of prayers for widows that I was working on in 2014 was published on December 2 and is now available in bookstores and on web sites. (See left margin.)

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you…. one voice [to] glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6)