Watch Over Me – Available for Preorder!
Yup, I was checking Amazon for something else, and decided to see if Watch Over Me was listed yet. It is. On top of that, Bethany House sent me the tentative back cover copy today:
Her Rescue Might Be the Miracle They Needed
Things like this don’t happen in Beck County.
Deputy Benjamin Patil is the one to find the infant girl, hours old, abandoned in a field.
When the mother can’t be located, Ben and his wife, Abbi, seem like the perfect couple to serve as foster parents. But the newborn’s arrival opens old wounds for Abbi and shines a harsh light on how much Ben has changed since a devastating military tour.
Their marriage teeters on the brink and now they must choose to reclaim what they once had or lose each other forever.
Poignant and powerful, this novel confirms Christa Parrish as one of the most talented new voices to emerge in inspirational fiction.
I’m almost starting to get excited.
Hallo, Home Another Way!
Home Another Way is being translated into Dutch and German for publication in the Netherlands and Germany. How cool is that? Hallo mean hello (obviously) in both languages. I can remember that.
Second Tuesdays – Shoebox Ministry
I wanted to highlight Shoebox Ministry this month, not only to show how a simple but necessary idea can grow, but also to challenge other communities to conside establishing a similar outreach in their areas.
From the organization’s website:
Shoebox Ministry is located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Shoebox was founded in 1988 with a specific goal of meeting the personal hygiene needs of the homeless and working poor. We are the only agency in the greater Phoenix area that focuses on meeting this very important need. While we are not a shelter, we do distribute our toiletry kits through agencies and shelters that work directly with the homeless and working poor.
Shoebox has seen major growth and success throughout its nearly two decades in operation. The small non-profit that once only impacted the local area has now become a nation-wide program, with an outreach that has even extended beyond national borders.
What a wonderful idea. Shoebox fills, well, shoeboxes with necessary toiletry items, which are then distributed to those in need. You can find the “recipe” for the shoeboxes here, as well as an overview of the five other specialty events throughout the year (I particularly like the Mother’s Day purses and Undie Sundie).
You may not live anywhere near Arizona, but perhaps after reading this, you’ll be moved to contact your local homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or area working poor outreach, and ask if they’d be interested in some shoeboxes filled with toiletries. Or, perhaps you’ll consider starting a similar ministry in your own community.
It Happens All Too Often
A friend sent me this link, because it made her think of Watch Over Me.
From Click Orlando:
Abandoned Newborn Found Inside Box
OCALA, Fla. — A search is under way for the parents of a newborn who was found when a driver in Ocala spotted the infant’s hand sticking out of a box that was left on the side of an isolated dirt road.
The driver made the discovery Saturday evening at the intersection of Northwest 17th Street and Northwest 24th Avenue in Ocala. The newborn was found in a QVC cardboard box, along with a blanket, an article of clothing and a diaper.
Paramedics said the girl, who is about 3 to 7 days old, appeared to be in good health. Ocala police said the child may have been abandoned the night before being found.
The child has been placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.
“It’s terrible that someone would do that. I would rather them drop (the baby) on my doorstep than to do that. Take (the child) somewhere safe. They say ants had got on (the infant),” said Lois Dowdy, who lives near the location where the child was found.
“It’s very sad. It’s very dangerous. There are snakes out here,” said Florastine Lee, who also lives nearby. “A lot of dangerous animals come out at night that could have eaten up that child, and that child did not ask to come into the world.”
“I really don’t understand why somebody would do something like that to a child,” said Ernest Cox, who lives nearby.
Ocala police were searching for a woman driving a gray pickup with a white topper who was seen in the area on Friday at about 7:30 p.m.
“I hope they find the parents and get things resolved,” Dowdy said.
“I think that child deserved better than what that mother did,” Florastine said.
State law allows for an unwanted newborn to be left at a hospital, fire station or other emergency medical service station without it being considered child neglect.
