The community that carved a hole in the roof and lowered me on my mat to His feet stretches across continents and all over these states. This community, which wrapped its arms around my waist and ushered me to Him for a measure of heart healing and which prayed, over years, for my body to be healed, is both cohesive and beautifully independent.
And it’s for your uniquenesses in Him that I thank each one of you who formed a part.
To my agent, Curtis Yates, and his wife, Karen: you have made this process measurably more enjoyable than I imagined it to be. He has used you to debunk my fears about publishing a book and made you to be dear friends in the meantime. You so masterfully carry both attention to detail and perspective on the vision He is unfolding in a person. One of the greatest gifts of this process has been you.
To the entire Zondervan team: I am blessed to have you carry my story. Sandy Vander Zicht, I liked you from the moment I met you and was thrilled to be able, then, to work with you. Thank you for seeing this manuscript with His eyes, even in its roughest form. Brian Phipps, I’m certain you didn’t miss one jot or tittle, and I got an education in writing from witnessing your craft. Elisa Stanford, He rested on you as you so skillfully handled my story and gave it wings in a way that it made me want to know your story even more. I have a new friend in you.
Katie Davis: is it really possible to forge a friendship with more than a dozen children and an ocean between us? Your heart for Him provokes me, and your timing in this process was beautifully indicative of how you hear Him. I love how you love. You are leading many to shed their tears over His dusty feet.
Judy Lewis, your response to His little nudge to reach out to me was paramount in this process. I feel spoiled, now, to call you my friend.
Mandie Joy Turner, you’ve made this little habit of adoration accessible to so many who are hungry. Your heart for Him precedes your creativity, and the rest of us benefit. (And to think Lily wouldn’t be ours without you. How do you thank someone for that?)
Amy Julia Becker: one afternoon and one single email took the ceiling off my expectations of what He can do. You have spoken beautiful vision into something that I thought would forever be just a hobby.
There are ones, so dear, who are now pushing me closer to Him and ones from the days when this manuscript was barely a breath inside of me who helped teach me how to walk when I could barely crawl.
From back then:
Bill and Cindy Finley, Eric and Holly Nelson, Susan Cunningham, Chris Martin, Cathy Wicks, Trina Jones, Mara and David Roberts, Jamie Price: you loved when we were unlovely; you lived unnatural love toward us when it wasn’t easy and we weren’t easy to love.
Jonathan and Julie Baker: that summer on your farm, and your continuing faithfulness to us, has changed us. Forever. He planted a seed there, through you.
Marcy and Corban Klug: by letting us watch and pray with you, He opened our eyes to what He can do. Your friendship is rare.
To the Miami girls, who embraced me during the years when I had no idea who I was and only an inkling of who He is, especially those who’ve held my fragile heart these past few years (you know who you are): I love your part in my history.
And all of you continue to shape our story with your love, albeit over a distance.
And here, now:
Dana Candler and the Wednesday night group girls: each one of you so uniquely burns for Him. I haven’t left one single week without being stirred to let my heart burn like yours do. Who gets to have friends like these? I often think.
Michelle Seidler, you and your crew had His perspective, consistently, when I wavered. I have seen His love trump fear at the hands of your encouragement.
To Russell and Eliza Joy Capps: you’ve traveled with us through two very different seasons and witnessed lots of our awkward growing pains in between, and you’ve still chosen to see us through eyes of love. Thank you.
Elizabeth Wilkerson, you put up with my immaturity at sixteen and have pushed me to dream with Him at thirty-six. Twenty years and I still feel like the adventure in Him, together, is ahead of us. Kelly Tarr, the gift of your friendship makes me worship Him. I love that I have a window into how you love Him all over the hidden pockets of your life. It’s stunning. Jen Stutzman, the yes in your everyday walk redefines the beauty of adoption, and your encouragement of me embodies that.
And friends whose names aren’t listed here but who held my hand at various times throughout my living this book and then my writing this book: I love the different angles of Him that each one of you reflects.
Blog readers: for so long I wanted to hit “publish” and hide underneath my chair, but He used your notes and emails and stories to ever so slowly uncoil me. There were hearts on the other side of the screen that He was touching. Thank you for so graciously handling my little art project, week after week. Thank you for being vulnerable enough to let Him speak to you through it.
Mom, Alison, and Chris — the family anchors for emotional ones like Dad and me — I have loved being all that it means to be a Welter with each of you.
To my dad: you set me up for this with all of our talks on the living room couch. Until we meet again.
Lily, Hope, Eden, Caleb, and Bo: you are five of my six favorite people on this planet. Each one of you carries such a beautiful piece of His heart for the world — and His heart for me. I am crazy about you.
Nate, the truth is I get to be the one. I get to see who you are when no one is looking, and your hidden life has been the greatest surprise of this marriage. Your dozens of yeses toward Him in any given day shape this family. Thank you for steadying me with your love.
To God, the famous One who made Himself famously tender to me when I least expected it: You continue to turn my understanding of You anew by Your unnatural love. Thank You for preparing for Yourself a bride and inviting me into that white when I felt stained. I love the story You write on me.