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Volunteering
Currently: Stay at home wife.
2015-2017- President: PWA of Inverell Presbyterian Church
2016-2018:-PGR: Northwest Presbytery
Qualifications
Bachelor Teaching FET USQ - 1995
ABOUT ME
I was Born in Mount Isa, the eldest of five children of Salvation Army Officers and lived an almost nomadic life until I was fifteen years of age.
I discovered books as a preteen and read a lot, well into the night and occasionally all night. Two stories that captured my imagination were: “Anne of Green Gables” and “Little Women”. Just like the heroines in these stories, I wanted to write. A learning disability, which was not corrected until I was in my thirties, meant that schooling was a real struggle. It also meant that my dream seemed to be a distant mirage.
I started writing poetry in my late 30's and had some of my poems published by the local newspaper. It was not until my late 50's that my dream of writing a book was finally realised. I now have several books published, which proves that God often takes us to places way beyond our dreams.
The struggle of raising five children and being a wife to a shearer/farmer in a small town, taught me a lot about life and the grace of God. During this time, I also completed my teaching degree and worked many casual jobs, in order to ensure that the farm was viable. Today, I still live on the farm in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales.
Why I Write the Way I do
It seems important to me that I share something that may help others understand why I do not respond to certain blogs or why I might ignore a book. You see, I judge a book not by its cover but by its title.
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When I was a young person I wanted to learn to be the best that I could be. I researched every possible subject relating to living, from time management, raising children, family life, marriage and personal development. So, you would think that this was a very good thing and that I have turned into the most confident and well-adjusted person on this planet.
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WRONG
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You see the thing about my life is that I am not a typical person and I didn’t have a typical family, children or life. All the books around at the time were for normal people and we are not normal. So, when I applied the formulas that were presented in the books that I read and they were many and varied, some even contradictory, the outcomes were always different to what I was told would happen. Now when this happened the first few times, I didn’t give up, I ploughed on, I kept trying for years but eventually, I gave up!!! I just couldn’t do it anymore, no one seemed to understand my circumstances and how my family worked. I didn’t know, so how could they, not realising then that we were very unique. I actually told my mother that I would never read another Christian book ever again and no I don’t think she believed me either.
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So, I stopped reading. I carried on the best way I knew how, I prayed and prayed, worked hard and took every morsel of grace that God gave me. I watched my family grow, I asked friends to pray but the minute someone suggested a new strategy, I shut down.
It was a long time before I picked up a book again and then it was either an autobiographical or fiction.
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So, when I started to write I wanted to encourage people. I wanted them to understand that God loves us each as individuals and designs our lessons to meet us where we are, in the circumstances that we find ourselves. God has taught me and yes, I want to share those lessons with the world - not to tell people how to do things but to encourage them to keep going even when things are tough and to look to God for the answers to all their problems.
My Journey with my Learning Difficulty
I have been asked to share my journey with my learning difficulty. So, the best place to start is at the very beginning. My father was born with a turned eye which wasn’t discovered until he was in his early twenties. Therefore, his school experience very difficult. This meant that when we, myself and my siblings, started school our parents were very particular about making sure that our eyes were tested in order to make our school life much easier.
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What was not picked up in my eye tests was that my eyes did not work together. This meant that when I looked at a word such as “at” my left eye would see the “a” and my right eye would see the “t”. This was a real problem when it came to numbers. I always loved numbers like 11, 22, 33 or my brain did, because it didn’t have to try and work out which order the letters or numbers needed to be in. This process took up precious time, enough time to keep me behind the rest of the class, which had moved on.
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My parents became aware quite early in my schooling that something was not quite right but when they spoke to the teacher they were told that I would catch up when I was ready. As no-one was aware that there was anything wrong with my eyes, during my later years, my poor results were put down to laziness or an unwillingness to work faster, as it seemed that I knew my work.
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I remember clearly one incident that should have given everyone a clue that something was not right if I had actually been smart enough to say something, but children don’t always know when to speak up or when to keep quiet. We were driving somewhere in our car, I was sitting in the back seat and I looked through the rear vision mirror at the car following us. I tried to read the number plate and couldn’t. I remember thinking that I should have been able to do that, it seemed simple enough. I should have been able to reverse the letters and work out what was it was. The other clear indicator was that, even in high school and my early working career, I had a habit of reversing letters and numbers when I was writing.
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Things came to a head in 1987, at the age of 30, while I was working in an accountants’ office typing pool. Not only was I constantly typing numbers the wrong way around by I was also suffering constant headaches. It became obvious that I needed to have my eyes checked. Not only was there a diagnosis but also a solution. Eye exercises over several weeks fixed most of the problem. The only problem left is that if I am stressed or tired, my eyes will play up again and my brain sometimes still thinks it has to work out which way the letters go.
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Why did God leave it so long to fix this problem? I have no idea. What I do know is, that had it been found when while I was a child, I would have travelled a different road. I would have gone to college or university sooner than I did and probably studied different subjects. I have to trust that God used these issues to get me to the place where He wanted me to be and that He has very good reasons for me being where I am.
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There is one verse that I constantly hang on to when I get discouraged about how long it took to have this problem solved. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28.