Lately, I’ve been going through a very surreal life experience. Over twenty-six years ago, I gave birth to my first daughter, Rebecca. It was the most wonderful time in our lives up to that date, a time of great joy and awe. It was also a time of worry and fear and uncertainty. Would we be good parents? Had I read enough books on motherhood? Were we fully prepared for all that was to come? What if we messed up? What if we did something horribly wrong?
As it turns out, Rebecca’s birth was pretty uneventful (as far as births go), and her life has been anything but uneventful, so it seems that our worries were all unfounded. Those first few days of joy and awe became a lifetime graced with joy and awe.
How beautiful it is to see that process begin to repeat itself.
There’s a chance Rebecca’s labor experience will be the same as the one I had with her as we have breach baby begetting breach baby. The other thing that seems to be fairly similar is the mother-daughter time that I so cherished leading up to and in the weeks after Rebecca’s birth. My mother did so much to help me get ready–washing, folding, and hanging baby clothes, making sure the nursery was just right and the house was clean, reassuring me that I was ready and capable. Then, after Rebecca was born, my mother spent two weeks at the house doing everything my c-section body could not do.
Rebecca and I, along with Ken, Anthony, and best friends, Joe and Bailey, spent a lot of time this past weekend getting the house ready for Rebecca’s baby. Even after everyone else left, I stayed and continued helping through the following day. I was treated with the simple pleasure of watching Evelyn move and maybe even suck her thumb (I can’t figure out what other rhythmic motion she may have been performing). Just sitting there beside Rebecca, watching that little pulsing at the top of her belly, I was filled with so much joy and awe. It brought back so many wonderful memories!
Over the next few weeks or so, I will be able to do for Rebecca what my mother did for me. I will be there for her and for the baby. I will help Anthony with household chores, and I will cook and clean and be at their beck and call. Maybe it all sounds old-fashioned to some, but this time has been twenty-six years in the making, and I plan to enjoy every minute of it. I might even find some pleasure in changing diapers. Well, maybe not.
The point isn’t that I will be serving as a maid. I simply will be doing what mothers and grandmothers do–caring for the ones I love. More than that, though, I will be repaying Rebecca for the gift her life has been to me, for all the years and even tears of joy and awe.
AbbeyFest
September 17, 2022 – Daylesford Abbey, Paoli, PA 12 Noon-8pm
The event is a festival atmosphere featuring amazing music, Catholic and Christian vendors, the presence of Religious orders, food trucks, family and kid-friendly activities and games. Tickets available.
National Oyster Festival
October 15 and 16, 2022 – St Mary’s County Fairgrounds, Leonardtown, MD
Amy will be signing and selling books at the festival. All ages are welcome for a day of sun and seafood! See event website for more details.
OysterFest
October 29, 2022 – Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD
Amy will be signing and selling books at the festival. The event features live music on two stages, boat rides, retriever demonstrations, oysters and other local fare, an oyster stew competition and cooking demonstrations, along with children’s activities, oyster demonstrations, harvesting displays and Chesapeake-related documentary screenings. More details coming soon.
Write What You Know Writer’s Workshop
November 12, 2022, 10am-Noon – Leonardtown Library, Leonardtown, MD
Amy will be giving a workshop for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). She will talk about how to write a more authentic and readable novel by writing about what you know – the people, places, and events that have shaped your own life. More details coming soon.
Eastern Shore Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival
November 19, 10am-4pm & November 20 10am-3pm – Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD
Amy will be selling and signing her books at the annual event just in time for Christmas! The Festival will feature artisans from around the country selling coastal and sea-glass related jewelry, home décor, art, and more. The two-day festival ticket includes entrance to the festival, live music, and all the exhibitions and historic structures on the campus of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.
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What I was writing about one year ago this week: Family Togetherness, A Gift From Heaven.
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Amy Schisler is an award-winning author of both children’s books and sweet, faith-filled romance novels for readers of all ages. She lives with her husband and three daughters on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Her books, Picture Me, Whispering Vines, and Island of Miracles are all recipients of Illumination Awards, placing them among the top inspirational fiction books of 2015, 2016, and 2017. Whispering Vines was awarded the 2017 LYRA Award for the best romance of 2016. The Good Wine, the sequel to Whispering Vines was released in June of 2021. Island of Miracles has outsold all of Amy’s other books worldwide and ranked as high as 600 on Amazon. Her follow up, Island of Promise is a reader favorite. Amy’s children’s chapter book is The Greatest Gift, and her most recent suspense novel is Summer’s Squall.
Amy’s second book in the Chincoteague Island Trilogy, Island of Promise, was awarded First Prize by the Oklahoma Romance Writer’s Association as the best Inspirational Romance of 2018 and was awarded a Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2019 for Inspirational Fiction. It is the 2019 winner for Best Inspirational Fiction in the RWA Golden Quill Contest, Best Romance in the American Book Awards, and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award of Fiction. Amy’s 2019 work, The Devil’s Fortune, a finalist in the Writer’s Digest Self-Publishing Awards and winner of an Illumination Award, is based, in part, on Amy’s family history. The third book in Amy’s Chincoteague Island Trilogy, Island of Hope, was released in August of 2019. Amy’s book, Desert Fire, Mountain Rain begins her new Buffalo Springs series. Book two, Under the Summer Moon, was released in December of 2021.
Amy’s new book, Seeking Tranquility, was released on June 15, 2022. Buy your copy now!
You may follow Amy on Facebook at http://facebook.com/amyschislerauthor, Twitter @AmySchislerAuth, Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/amyschisler and at http://amyschislerauthor.com.
Amy’s books: Crabbing With Granddad (2013), A Place to Call Home (2014), Picture Me (2015), Whispering Vines (2016), Island of Miracles (2017), Stations of the Cross Meditations for Moms (2017), The Greatest Gift (2017), Summer’s Squall (2017), Island of Promise (2018), The Devil’s Fortune (2019), Island of Hope (2019), A Devotional Alphabet (2019), Desert Fire, Mountain Rain(2020), The Good Wine (2021), Under the Summer Moon (2021), Seeking Tranquility (2022).
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