At a revival in my hometown church, at the age of seven, I understood that I was a sinner and needed the forgiveness and mercy of Jesus Christ. I was saved that night and baptized a few years later.  I attended church and sung with my mother and sister for 11 years as a Southern Gospel Trio. Unfortunately, my home life was very difficult and I was never really discipled until I moved to Atlanta to start my career following college. I was seeking the leadership of the Lord and joined FBC Tucker. There I began to grow in my understanding of what it really meant to allow Jesus to not only be my Savior in time of trouble, but also the Lord of my life. When I really surrendered to His lordship, I met Dan, who would become my future husband, and we began to lead praise and worship for youth. A year later we married. Through studying God’s word and seeking His guidance, I have come to understand just how much He really loves me and just how lost and alone I would be without Him.

In 1995, my father died and unfortunately he did not have a last will and testament. This was the beginning of a long and painful journey for me and my family. In the midst of sorting through the legalities in that situation, I soon learned that there was a possibility that my dad might not have been my biological father. In a short time I lost my dad, the foundation of my family and my identity. This journey lasted for almost seven painful years, and through it all the Lord was there every step of the way revealing His miraculous beauty at every turn. Finally the day came when the Lord made it clear that it was time for this journey to come to an end and that He wanted me to reach a settlement in the case and take a DNA test in order to answer the question of my identity. Two nights before the test was to be taken, I opened my devotional to read and it was on Jesus in the Garden, the night before His crucifixion. For the first time in my life I truly saw and understood how He felt when He had to surrender to the will of the Lord out of complete and total submission. It was in those moments in the garden that Jesus was cloaked in his humanity. In His holiness, he had to come to the place of surrender and say, “not my will but thine be done”. Through that surrender he understands our struggles with obedience. On the morning of the DNA test, I carried that same devotional with me for comfort in hopes that the Lord would again teach me something. I was scared and fearful of what the test would be like. Would I be ridiculed? What would the results reveal? Would my life ever be the same? As I sat down in the hall to wait for the test facility to open, I opened my devotional and to my amazement, at the top of the page, it said “Bounteous Grace”. I thought to myself, “ I could sure use some grace right now.” Then I read the Lords message to me on this day; “And you never again have to wonder who your father is--- for you have been adopted by God and are therefore an “heir of God through Christ,” Galatians 4:7. At that very moment, it no longer mattered what the results of the DNA test were, because I realized that God is my father and, I am the heir to His throne, and I am the daughter of the most high King. My life has forever been changed because of that journey, and I am truly thankful that my life will never be the same. I have learned to hear the voice of my Father clearly, and to be obedient regardless the cost. I will forever love Him for every miracle that He has done in my life including adopting me as His own and saving me when I was so unworthy.