My story begins back in 1941, the day that I was born into this world as an illegitimate child, never knowing my daddy.

This was my first taste of rejection and as a child I felt less than all the other children. At the age of thirteen, my mother let my aunt and uncle adopt me. In my young mind, I felt rejected and abandoned again.

I lived with my adoptive parents for five years. During that time, I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart. It was then I realized I had a Heavenly Father who embraced me in His family. I was a child of the King!

When I graduated high school at the age of 18, I married my first husband of 24 years. Because of a physical injury he'd received prior to our marriage, he suffered much pain for the rest of his life.

Prior to surgery eight years before his death, the doctors could not get him under the anesthesia until they dosed him four times the normal amount. This resulted in severe nerve damage and, from then on, he was in and out of the hospital. The last year of his life, he spent a total of nine months there.

On September 26, 1983, my husband took his life. For the third time in my own, I felt terribly rejected and abandoned. But out of the ashes of my life, God made something beautiful.

It was during the last year of my husband's life that I began to write in a journal. One evening after returning from the hospital, I began to write. I wrote wrote nonstop from 7 P.M. until 1 A.M. The words flowed from my pen without any effort on my part and I could not stop. It was a tremendous source of healing for me as I let out my pain.

A short time later, God began to give me poetry, one poem after another. I have been writing ever since and I know it is truly a gift from God. I recently had my first book of inspirational poems, "Golden Nuggets," published and I give God all the glory for it. It is a book written to encourage others whose lives have been broken, tossed and torn.

This book was birthed because of the loss, pain and rejection that I have faced through my own life and I share with others that God's grace is sufficient for anything they face in theirs.

He taught me through all of my pain and loss that He is a God of restoration, a God of forgiveness, and a God that can pick up the broken pieces of our lives and put them together in wonderful new ways.

Ginny S.

Summerville, PA