"God-Winks" Part 4

Hello Gentle Readers,

Today sees the release of part 4 of “God-winks”.

In 2012 I was working my 10th year as a 4th grade Language Arts teacher. A new teacher was hired on who, among many other talents, happened to have a penchant for helping animals, particularly dogs. We became friends. A few years later an author named Linda Zimmerman contacted my friend. Linda’s German Shepherd, Sadie, was suffering from Degenerative Myelopathy. Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) is a neurological disease that affects dogs' spinal cords. It causes progressing muscle weakness and eventually loss of all coordination. The average life expectancy of a dog with DM is 1-2 years from the time they are diagnosed. There is no cure for DM. Sadie was at the point in her illness where she was in need of a wheelchair. While considering this Linda wanted to meet someone whose dog was also in wheels. She went to meet two boxers also suffering from DM, Bailey and Theo, and their owners. Bailey, who has since crossed the Rainbow Bridge, belonged to my friend. When she met Bailey and Theo and saw how well they were able to walk in their wheels she made the decision to get some for Sadie. It wasn’t long before Linda also decided to write a children’s book about her experience. The resulting book titled “Sadie and Her New Wheels” features Bailey and Theo. Together the 3 dogs help teach children to accept the differences of everyone and to be helpful to others.  Sadie has been on many new adventures in her book series since that book released. She’s even been skiing!

It just so happened that while all this was going on, we were blessed with the birth of my daughter in 2020. While I was on maternity leave my friend sent a copy of the book to my daughter. Needless to say, my then 6-month-old daughter loved the pictures of the doggies and the story has now, 4 years later, become a favorite on our bookshelf.

Reading Linda’s book relit the “maybe one day” spark in me (Remember I told you about it in part 3?) to do something with my story. Over the next year, at the height of the COVID pandemic, and still healing from a traumatic birth, I contacted several publishing companies. I investigated, I researched, I sent queries, I sent dozens of unsolicited pitches. I even looked into self-publishing. One day in 2022 I turned Sadie’s book to the back to see who the publisher was. The book was published by Orison Publishers, Inc. under their imprint Little Blessings. Marsha Blessing, the CEO of Orison Publishers, Inc. returned my very first message to her. We met in a Zoom meeting while my baby napped in her swing. Another year passed. On Valentine’s Day of 2023 Marsha sent me a message asking if I had published yet and if I was still interested. I thought about it for a long time…a long time…May came. I took a deep breath and replied back. Yes, I was interested.  

Stay tuned for part 5 of this trail of “God-winks” when the doll, the angel, the publisher and “The Tiniest Angel’s Gift” all meet.

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