Life and Legacy by Sharon E. Espeseth

To say God has been good to me seems an understatement, but let me try to count the ways. First I am thankful for the Christian heritage and upbringing I received from my parents, grandparents, and a host of aunts and uncles. I am thankful for my education and the opportunity to teach young children. I was blessed to find Hank or have him find me. I wanted a good man committed to his faith. Hank worshipped God in the Roman Catholic Church and I joined him there.

After a year and a half of marriage and no children, we applied to adopt a child. Six months later, we got notice of a baby boy awaiting us in Calgary. Can you imagine our joy! A young woman had carried a baby nine months and given him the gift of life, but she was young and felt she wasn't ready for parenting. What a gift our Michael was to us! Thirteen months later we were blessed with a baby girl, Christie. Fourteen months passed and we received another infant girl, Jenny . Three young women had each asked for a Catholic home for their children. We thank God for his goodness and for the teens who chose a life-giving solution to their situations.

I have written stories about my birth family, my extended family, and the family my husband and I raised together. I plan to write more stories about our backgrounds and our own family, which has now

Family Holiday in the Mountains

grown to include six grandchildren and two sons-in-law. Like other families, we've had our struggles, our mountain-top and valley experiences, but through it all we've grown in our faith and in our love for one another and of God.

In total, I've written about 150 stories, articles, poems, and blogs. Most of these writings would fit under categories of family, faith, and life in general. I lean strongly toward non-fiction and I try to tell "it" like it is. Honesty can include humour.

Like Jesus' disciples, I am aware of my ordinariness, my weaknesses, and my human foibles, but still God seems to use my writing to meet the needs of others. Often throughout my journey, I have taken over the steering wheel and driven myself through narrow passages and dark tunnels. Gradually I have learned that life goes better when I let the Lord do the driving. Sometimes that recognition comes only in hindsight.

If writing is a gift, I must use it. Although I've always struggled with finding time to write, I now ask God for help in this area of my life. If God has given me a talent for writing, if God gives me something to write about, then he will help me carve out time to write and he will help me with the details of publishing. Then, if God is working through my writing, he will grant that my words, like Samuel's, do not "fall to the ground." (I Samuel 3:19 NIV)

As for writing being a special calling, Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest says, "Our

Lord calls us to no special work--He calls us to Himself. 'Pray the Lord of the harvest,' and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer."

Although I want to write and I intend to write, some days God may require me to work in another part of the vineyard. Jesus says, "Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. (John 13:16 NIV)

I pray for God's guidance in my writing, my time management, and my sphere of influence so that I may be where he wants me to be, doing what he wants me to do. This would be the legacy I would like to leave.