Announcement!! & the name of the book is....

My dear sweet friends! 

Today is a really special day. I am finally announcing the name of my book and sharing more about it! Freaking out that after a year and a half, I'm sharing this book with you!! 
But I'm also celebrating a very special anniversary...

Twenty years ago TODAY, I met Jesus - committed my life to Him, and fell head over heels in love! I dedicated my life to Him and  I seriously cannot believe it was 20 years ago. Wow! He is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And He is the reason I am write this blog and the reason I am writing and self-publishing my upcoming book.

So it's fitting that today of all days I share with you the title and a little taste and idea of what this phantom book you've been hearing of for months will be!  I am thrilled, excited, and thankful to share it with you - my dear sweet friends and readers! Ahhhh. And totally nervous too!

So, without further adieu... announcing....  my upcoming book's title and working cover!!!!! 

There it is.

The Lord gave me this name for my book a year ago and it's exciting to see this next step take place. What do ya think? 

In a few days I will be sharing the book's website with you, chapter names, more idea of the content, and possibly a pre-ordering option! But until then I wanted to share a few words.

The Darling Diaries is oh so close to my heart. **insert tears!** (I am so passionate and emotional about this book because it's my heart on paper, for you.) I've written this book over the course of a year. One of the sweetest, hardest, most healing years of my life. 

Mostly because - oh how I wish I could invite you all into my home. A cheery fire burning, my signature sugar cookies (with the best icing on planet earth) on a small mint green plate on the table. We all wear our comfiest yoga pants. I would hand you a cup of coffee (with your favorite creamer), & we would sit around on cozy couches for a girl's night in. Laughing til we cry, crying for real, & chatting about everything....dreams, falling in love, making mistakes, guys, dating, sex, marriage, babies, disappointments, failures, breakups (of all kinds), endings, beginnings, loss, beauty, heartaches, hurts, confidence, secrets, and Jesus and everything else.

But since I cannot, I wrote you a book instead.

May it be a little love letter from me to you.

Or maybe, from Him to you. 

Quite honestly, I've grown tired of picking up Christian women's books and feeling a disconnect, an impersonal 10 step program to being godlier. That feeling of being preached at. I'm tired of 25 Steps To Being Godly. I'm tired of hearing from perfectly coiffed women who tell me how to get my act together and start acting like I'm OK when I'm not. Tired of reading boring books that drone on and on and on in a way that is irrelevant to my life and makes me feel caged, not free. Condemned, not loved. Judged, not forgiven. 

The pages in The Darling Diaries are really honest. They are tear-stained. I share my story in a way I never have on this blog. It's my mess - it's real, it's vulnerable and it was pretty hard to write. I am far from perfect and I do not have all the answers. But I do have one answer, and that is the Man I found who heals my broken heart and romances me in a way no one else can. And I just have to tell you about Him.

It reads like a coffee date. The kinda coffee date that starts in the early afternoon and melts slowly and effortlessly into dinnertime. Just like our coffee date conversations, it is messy and real, fluid and random at times. But at the end, just like our random, real coffee dates – it’s tied up as if with a sweet little bow and all the messiness kinda makes sense. 

The Darling Diaries is for.....

You teenage girls who are scared and excited and hurting all at the same time in a new season of life and you just need a friend to be real with you. 

For the college girls who are wading the murky waters of dating, guys and confusing, hard, beautiful real adult life. 

For you precious single ladies who are waiting and wondering, feeling forgotten... and very alone. Secretly crying yourself to sleep 4 nights out of 7, waiting for dreams. 

For the wives and mamas - happy, tired, and in desperate need of "me time" with Him.

For the working girls who are weary.

For you who have dreams as big as the sky.

And you who hold secret dreams you're too afraid to tell a soul.

For you who have been deeply, searingly hurt by the kind of religion that poses as Jesus but isn't Him at all. 

It's for you grandmothers who have all the wisdom in the world but need a little inspiration, a little reminder.

For you heartbroken women of all ages and stages. 

For anyone who has tasted loss and grief like a best friend.

Anyone who needs to be reminded of who they really are. Who they can be. 

Anyone who feels alone in this dark world. 

For you who messed up and failed and feel like it's over.

For you who feel like life is just so unfair. And it makes no sense.

For you who have run so far, you need to be reminded that He is still chasing you. 

For you who want to live for Him, but get beaten down and confused at times by the blurred lines of a culture that screams at us to be anything but pure, strong, gracious, rare women of God. 

For you who need someone, something to hold onto in hopelessness - who crave a love that will last forever, never let you down, never fade, never hurt you, never leave you. Who want to meet this Prince I call Jesus, but don't know how. 

For you who just need to curl up at the end of a long day with a cup of tea and a book you can relate to, and smile and laugh and cry and feel stronger and somehow not-so-alone. 

           

This book is for the countless women who have shared their stories with me. After almost two years of blogging, you’ve blown me away with your hearts for the Lord, your openness, your heartache, your struggles, and the way you so strongly take the broken pieces and give them to Him. 

Rest between His shoulders. Give Him your “hot mess”.

If you let Him, He can take it and make it into something beautiful. 

More to come, loves.

Thank you for reading, for being there. For "getting it." 

Check out my book's Pinterest board and pin any of these photos you'd like - I want to share this book with any women who might need it. 

Pray for me as I finish it up and format it. I am so excited to make it available to you in the next few months, dear ones. I hope and pray it somehow touches you and changes you for the better. I will be updating you as these days go by on specific release dates, so stay tuned! 

Also planning to make it available not only in e-Book format available for download but also in print on demand so you old fashioned readers (like me!) can have a hard copy if you'd like.

Love and a hug.
To you and you and you. 
I really love you all oh so much.

 

linking up here ////