Acknowledgme n ts
I
like to joke that I’m an “accidental author.” Although writing has long been a passion of mine, I always thought of book writing as a far-off dream, as in, “In another life, I’d like to be an author.” But God had other plans, and He used a lot of good people along the way to get me to this place of being a published writer. Thank you, Mrs. Rouse, my 12th grade AP English teacher, for drilling those five-paragraph essays like it was your job (wait— it was your job!), and encouraging my willingness to think deeply about rich literature. Thank you, Dad, for seeing something special in my writing from an early age, and paying ridiculous amounts in international postage to send me really heavy writing books because you wanted to push me to pursue my dreams. Thank you for editing and praising my work, while also being willing to say, “This isn’t quite right; you can do better.” Thank you, Mom, for supporting me like only a mama can. Thank you, Faithful Fifty, who were the selected readers of my first blog—a blog I kept “invitation only” because I was too scared to let too many people see my heart. Thank you for reading when I really didn’t know what I was doing. Thanks for telling me that my words impacted your life. Thank you, readers of my Bringing Lucy Home blog, now jenniferphillipsblog.com. Thank you for hanging on my every word during our adoption immigration crisis and for asking me to keep writing, long after the drama had passed. Thank you to all who have read and championed my book, Bringing Lucy Home. Your kind, generous words and five-star reviews helped me to realize, “Wait a minute. I think writing is actually what I was made to do. This brings me so much life.” Thank you, New Hope Publishers, for reaching out to me and giving me such an incredible opportunity to do, on a large scale, 9
