It’s amazing to me sometimes how I can go days, weeks and sometimes even months without posting anything on Mari’s site and then I will go several days in a row where I have lots to say. For me Mari’s website isn’t about having a specific number of posts or trying to attract hundreds of people. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have hundreds of people visiting her website to learn more about her and where I am with my grief journey as all of this helps her memory continue to live on. But … [Read more...]
Unexpected turns in the road…
Life has a funny way of dictating the path it wants to take you on whether you want to go that way or not. I guess you could say I’ve had my fair share of bumps, bruise, and downright avalanches in my lifetime. You never really know which way your life will go. You just have to follow the road before you and when a fork comes your way, choose the path and take it forward without looking back as there isn’t a way to change anything anyway. Tonight I sat here play on Facebook a couple of … [Read more...]
A slight change to my fundraising
As everyone knows I have been trying to raise funds to not only start the Mariana Tunstall Scholarship Foundation but as of yet I do not have the money to be able to do everything that is needed (like starting a 501c3). I had converted my PayPal account to a nonprofit status even though I did not have everything set up yet. Well, this was a huge mistake as they ended up limiting my account. So I could not long accept money for the foundation as I technically do not have it set up the way it … [Read more...]
A book worth mentioning
I feel blessed the I am a member of the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) group. It has been through this group that I have received the obvious, lots of help improving my writing. But more than that I have start to form some of the most wonderful friendship. The road that it took me to get to this group has been an interesting one but God knew in his timing when the right time would be. On my www.kristenatunstall.com website, I have started to new weekly columns. One is where I … [Read more...]
Starting to work on Mari’s book again
I think many of you know I had put off writing Mari's book for a little while but I may not have gone into why I did so. Through different writing forums I became apart of I found out the book I had completed would be a great one for family and friends as long as that is where it ended. But if I wanted it to be read by more than just people I knew then it needed to be done in a completely different way. One thing I kept being told is I needed to add fiction elements to her book. At first … [Read more...]
The “Softening”
In a month, Mari will have been gone for four years. I have talked several times over the last four years in how the day she died is not an anniversary as this signifies happiness to me. My eighteen year wedding anniversary was this past February. That is a happy time. Mari’s death, anything but. However, I have come to call it the mark. When Mari died I became wrapped up in the utter sorrow and sadness of it all. My heart felt like it had been ripped open and a gaping would left in its … [Read more...]
Pursuing true happiness, I mean joy
When I look at those around us and the hustle and bustle that is constantly going on around us, it seems like everyone is in the pursuit of true happiness. Some think their pursuit of money will bring them their desired happiness. Yet, at the end of the day, it never brings anyone happiness. In fact, it only seems to make people more miserable and unhappy as the inanimate object of money can do nothing for them. Some think their pursuit of making and finding new friends will bring them … [Read more...]
Being Thankful
You know the old saying, “God works in mysterious ways?” Well, I so believe that can happen in so many different ways. I think back on my writing journey and I’m amazed at where it has ended up. I first started looking at how to publish Mari’s book on March 5, 2011. I joined Createspace. It is a subsidiary of Amazon.com. It was really neat to be part of a community of writers for the first time in my life. For me, I had no interest whatsoever in fiction writing. All I was looking for was … [Read more...]
Needing prayer please
It has come to my attention by a close friend that I may need to rewrite some of what I wrote below. My husband is the love of my life and in no way do I want to shed him in a bad light. If I have done that I am truly sorry. I will put *** by the part where I have rewritten this post so you know where to start if you are looking for the update. Thank you. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ I am reaching out right now to all my … [Read more...]
What does it mean to nurture?
When God created women, He knew well beforehand that they would become mothers. I have no doubt in my mind He had a long list of what a mother’s qualities and characteristics not only would be but needed to be. Those included loving and show unconditional love, compassionate, friendly, unselfish, kind, patience, teaching their children right and wrong as well as God and how Jesus died on the cross. For obvious reasons, Jesus dying on the cross is number one as we need to do all we can as … [Read more...]
