United States of America
Born Kenyatta Sirena Lowe 11-20-1991. My mom wanted to name me Spring. My mother was a single parent. Who came from a single parent. She raised four kids on her own, with little help. I witnessed what God could do at a young age. We always had what we needed. Living in government housing always felt like an abundance. My mother’s mentality was “greater.” Before I started my 5th-grade year, my mom bought a house in Pooler, GA, on her own. I remember her ranting for years before how she’d buy this house and celebrate by playing Jesse Powell’s song “You” loud on her stereo. In the kitchen of this house, she also married my bonus dad.
In 2008, February 7th, the Imperial Sugar explosion would take her life and take her from us. She suffered four weeks in the Augusta burn unit before succumbing to her injuries. My mother worked 12-16 hours faithfully, and the value of her life was determined by white-collared white men who did not know her.
I would suffer with healing for ten years. In 2013, I married and had my first child in 2015. I filed for divorce in 2016 after I had enough of the abuse. I was pregnant with my second child. Now a mother of one daughter and son, we struggled with stability for one year before moving in with family in October 2017. From 2018-2019, I would work warehouse jobs, barely making ends meet for my kids until finally declaring to God that I’d had enough.
In January 2019, I received a full-time job, and on April 15th, 2020, on my daughter’s 5th birthday, I purchased my second home. I had no money saved because I couldn’t afford to save, but God covered all expenses. I had no money for closing, but I received money back. After a year of being in our home, I had started two businesses while working full-time, and I felt a tug in my heart that led me to leap. I thought of my mother and knew God had called me for more. He wanted more for my family. On June 17th, 2021, I quit my 9-5 to be a full-time business owner. God said it. Jeremiah 29:11
United States of America
My mother died after a lengthy illness when I was 16. She and my father were high school graduates, and this was a big deal because their parents only made it to around the 8th grade due to the Great Depression and living in the rural South.
My mother desired that her and my father’s children, my brother and sister, and I would become college graduates. It was difficult, with many long nights, but all three of us were able to graduate from college and improve our life opportunities. I’m not sure if she is aware of those accomplishments, but if she is, I know she is very proud.
Rick Smith
United States of America
It was in the spacious confines of the Target family bathroom, alone, where my world was knocked off its axis. It was 2011, and I found out that sunny morning in early April that I was pregnant with my fourth child…nine years after my husband’s vasectomy.
I had just received the beautifully printed invitations for our eldest daughter’s high school graduation; our second daughter was 15 and in the throes of adolescence, and our youngest was 10 years old. My husband and I had only recently begun going out on dates again.
After three stick tests and a blood test, a very long walk around the block with my husband, we were forced to accept it-we were going back to the starting line of parenting. We would be parenting for a total of 36 years.
I was reminded of the old Yiddish adage, “Man plans, and God laughs.”
After our baby came, Skye Lynn, the adjustment was very difficult. I endured a horrible postpartum depression and left behind my music career for a season. I began writing in the late hours of the night when I couldn’t sleep, which led to a blog and then a book of family stories, “The Secret Life of a Doctor’s Wife.”
Over time, I recovered, and Skye became the joy of our home; our older kids gave her a thousand nicknames, songs were written for and about her, and we all continue to delight in her as she has become a talented visual artist and animal enthusiast.
How do we handle the unexpecteds that come to us in life? We may struggle during the adjustment, but in the end, we trust that God knows what is best for us.
Rebekah McLeod, author, musician, storyteller
United States of America
October 31, 2019, I tripped and fell and broke my wrist at work. After having immersed myself in worship to the song, “The Goodness of God” that morning, my accident woke me up to how good God had/has been to me over the course of my life. But most especially, to how GOOD HE HAD BEEN in the 10 years before my accident. You see, summer of 2009, I left my husband, my four children, and my home. It was a marriage of about 35 years – a VERY difficult marriage, an emotionally exhausting marriage. Never able to live up to his expectations. However, it wasn’t just leaving him. It was leaving my four children behind, abandoning them. What nearly killed me for it was my children, who kept me going, and then, without them, I felt, “what was the use in living?”
Mother’s Day 2011 my sister came and rescued me from going back and brought me back home, where I grew up. Again, after a year and a half, I left and abandoned my children, yet once again. But God had not abandoned me. He brought me back and placed me in a job that I never in my life imagined I would have. He placed me at Gulfstream as an upholstery tech, where He knew that I could not easily escape back to Jacksonville. This was a job where the Lord could take care of me and have coworkers who would support me, and the healing process began. Eventually, He brought me to Compassion Christian Church, where I was accepted and loved right where I was. Over the next few years, I was able to travel back and forth to Jacksonville to restore relationships with my children.
Only God can mend what we break.
A.S.
United States of America
Humility is strength under control. I am having to learn to let the Holy Spirit show me how to love like Him, with a sincere heart of discernment and wisdom. Most of all, His compassion and patience.
My desire is to become a wife, mother, and business owner, progressing towards the mark. Starting with community is nutritional for building my foundation with God.
My purpose and value is in preaching the gospel of Christ and allowing Him to shift my perspective to fix my attitude. Also, I need to remember to be a woman of gratitude, praising God while I’m waiting.
Missy
