Go Ahead and Dream

I'm thinking back to less than a year ago . . .  when my H and I walked into a Barnes and Noble on the West Coast. We passed the aisle with the cookbooks and I looked at it like I had never done before. I took books off the shelf and looked through them . . . admired the beautiful pictures and layouts. . . and put them back with a silent sigh. I wondered, what it would be like . . . no . . . I could hardly dare to dream . . . it would be asking too much. But dream I did.

Sales took off quickly in Canada when the book came out. I really could not have asked for more . . . . yet when I mentioned the need for sales in the US to Kathy in Virginia, and she asked about getting us on at Barnes and Noble in her area . . . I got chills up my spine! And when I found out that the Barnes and Noble she was talking about was in the same city as our American publisher . . . well plans started shaping up. ... partly because I am married to someone who is not afraid to follow dreams.

Last Thursday, while in Harrisonburg, Virginia, we walked to a Walmart close-by to get some groceries. On the way back we walked past the Barnes and Noble and decided to go in and have a coffee. Lovella, ever the curious one . . . began looking for the cookbook isle. We checked the book shelves, almost afraid to hope . . . saw nothing . . . until we looked down the aisle and up at a display shelf that showed off the front cover of books... and there it was!

I went to bed that night . . .  overwhelmed with thoughts of how dreams come true. How little things happen that ultimately take us there. An email . . . an encouraging word . . . a friendship . . . a connection . . . another MGCC who is not afraid to dream.

It was way too early in the morning to start thinking .. . but my thoughts continued in the early morning hours. I had new hope to dream even better dreams. Dreams for my kids and grand kids. Dreams that affect a lifetime and eternity . . . and in the darkness of the morning, on my pillow, instead of counting sheep, I prayed.

I'm learning that I can have dreams, but that the God who loves us all can magnify those dreams into more than I could ever imagine. In meeting with the publisher and discussing royalties that are going to a children's shelter in the Ukraine . . .  we saw how God is enabling and providing . . . not just book sales.. but book sales to feed and provide for orphans. The dream is bigger than I could have ever aspired to . . . but in His love and wisdom, God is giving me the joy of witnessing loaves being multiplied.