About Jamie

I often tell people that I grew up in Wichita, Kan. but became a grown up in Arkansas. After all, that’s where I graduated from college at John Brown University, started a career in journalism, changed careers and eventually started my own business, met and married an amazing and Godly man, and decided to return to a life of having a relationship with God.

I’m a wife, a furbaby momma, a professional writer, a hobby blogger, an aunt, a sister, a daughter, a novice cook (as in, we have to eat so I heat stuff up), a lousy housekeeper, a business owner, a person with a major disability and two auto-immune disorders, a creative, and most of all a grateful believer in Jesus Christ.

I’m a forever changing, hopefully always growing, human being who is a child of God. I hope by telling my stories, you will discover inspiration and see Jesus. 

A closer look

As I change and grow, these are roles that I believe will forever be with me in some way.

Wife

Getting married to John is one of the best decisions of my adult life. Life is never perfect, but I believe we truly found our soul mates in each other. He’s my best friend, my lover and my life partner.

People often ask how we met and the truth is, it was on MySpace. The short version of the story is that he found one of my blogs and commented politely about it but I ignored him for several days. I decided I was being rude so I responded back. We got to chatting and two weeks later had our first date (March 30, 2007). Eleven months later John asked me to be his wife (Feb. 15, 2008) and seven months after that, we married (Sept. 21, 2008).

We’ve built a life together and seen each other through major illnesses, financial struggles, lost jobs, purchasing a new home … and so much more.

Furbaby mama

Choosing to nurture and love any living being is a blessing and a major responsibility. I love each of my animals individually and am proud to call them my kids-even when I know it sounds a little crazy. Learning that being “mom enough” in my aunt and furbaby momma roles has been both painful and freeing for me.

 

 

 

Like most mom bloggers, I write about fun activities with my kids, problems we’ve had with them and solutions to those problems. We are parents to two beautiful cats and two wonderful dogs. Our little family is a little crazy and a lot content!

Writer/Speaker

Believe it or not, it took a long time for me to be willing to call myself a writer even though I’ve enjoyed the craft since I was in early elementary school. My writing takes on many forms and I enjoy it that way. I spent more than a decade as a reporter for various publications now I’m an entrepreneur and professional writer through my business, Jamie’s Notebook. I also speak at conferences and various seminars about writing and personal leadership effectiveness.

 

Grateful believer in Jesus Christ

Anyone who has been through Celebrate Recovery knows that phrase is something we say as part of our introduction in that program. To me, it communicates that I do believe in God, that I’m a faith-based individual. I’m not “religious” in a pious way, my faith is more of choosing to have a relationship with a loving, powerful God.

I was raised in a Christian home but walked away from those doctrines in my 20s. Truth be told, I never really had a relationship with God.I believed in him, but didn’t have the relationship. In my late 20s, my life decisions and lifestyle were sending me down a dark, painful path.

When the results of some of those decisions came to a big ol’ head, I was tired. I was spent. I was at rock bottom emotionally, spiritually and mentally. Ironically, it was the time in my life that should have been one of the happiest because I had just had gastric bypass and was on my way to losing more than 100 pounds. I think now I was on a path to get my life back on track and the returning to God was the most valuable and important aspect of that process.

That’s the next step in the story, by the way. I made a “deal” with God that if I were to try this whole relationship thing with him, that it had to be only about him. Not about people at church, not about picky doctrine that is loosely based on the Bible. The funny part of all that is, he wants it no other way.

Don’t get me wrong, doctrine is important and so is meeting with fellow believers. But in our heart of hearts, it should be all about the relationship we have with our Redeemer.

I don’t say all this to sound pious. Good grief, I’m not pious. I’m not going to be one of those people who says “Look at me, I’m not perfect.” When I hear people say that, it makes me feel like they think they will eventually be perfect or that it is even something to care about.

The truth is, we are all imperfect sinners serving a perfect God. My faith is not about a list of do this don’t do that. It’s about celebrating the glory of God and recognizing that because of him, we are in fact a treasure despite our brokenness.

Well, that’s enough about Jamie. Tell me about you! I hope you subscribe to this blog so we can travel life’s journey together.