A New site for A New Day

This is my first day of blogging. I hope that you will come here often and see what is new in the life of this new writer.

First of all let me tell you who I am. I am Lisa Marie Higgs Smith, born to wonderful parents, Ed and Mary Higgs. I am married to an awesome Christian man, Gary. We have two beautiful children. Our 17 year old daughter will be a senior in high school. Our son, who was born with special needs, is now residing in Heaven with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can check out his website at www.caringbridge.org/va/josiahsmiraclepage.

I am in the process of writing a book entitled, Against All Odds. This is a book inspired by the last five years of our life, through the challeneges of having a child with special needs and the way that family, friends, church, and community came together to help a family in crisis. Interspersed with stories from our life, it is my prayer that this book will help families, church, and communities know how to help families in crisis through illness, finances, depression and life in general.

I have just returned from the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer's Conference directed by Marlene Bagnull. Wow, what an awesome time I had. God is truly working in this new chapter of my life. Every step of the way, I see the new thing that he is doing in my life.

I would like to thank Marlene for the opportunity to attend GPCWC. If it were not for the scholarship program, I would not have been able to attend.

I would also like to thank my dear friend and mentor, Kay Walsh, for nominating me for the scholarship. Kay, you are so awesome! Thank you for all of your encouragement and editing.

To my family and church family, thank you for all your support of the years. Thank you to those who supported this dream and helping me get to Philadelphia. Thank you to, WINGS, without whose friendship and support I could not have donew without over these last 4 years.

To all my new friends from the conference, if I try to list everyone, I know I will leave out someone. So, to all of you, I say THANK YOU!! You have given me encouragement and faith to move ahead.

The next step for me is to write more. With the first chapter of Against All Odds complete, I am moving on to complete the synopsis of each chapter. I plan to have the first three chapters with appendixes complete by October. There are also several devotionals in the works. I am also planning on going to Sandy Cove, if all works out. Please pray for me as I try to be obedient in what God has called me to do.