Family

hello, monday

Published on by Krista Noorman

Hello, all! I’m determined to make this a happy Monday because … well, I had a reeeeally bad Friday. Not that anything horrible happened, but I woke feeling a little off, went for a walk with my mom, then spent an hour bagging up junk from our garage to finish filling the big ol’ 10 yard dumpster we rented for our house/basement/garage cleanup. It was very hot out, and I was exhausted, and let’s just say that I don’t do well when you combine extreme heat and cleaning up other people’s messes. Everything annoyed me. Everyone annoyed me. And when I went out later in the day, it seemed every driver on the road decided that was the day they would pull out in front of me or some other dumb driving move, and then I became so annoyed that I was the jerk driver who pulled out in front of someone else. Needless to say, I did not like the person I was that day. LOL!

It has been a long time since I had a day where I felt that grumpy. I think maybe 2020 is getting to me a little bit too. 😉

Thankfully, I woke the next day feeling a little better. It was also my parents’ 49th anniversary and my cousin Tyler’s wedding in Indiana. So those were things that made it a happier day.

Besides my grumpy day, the rest of the week was good. I wrote a new Chapter One for my novel because I wasn’t really happy with the first draft, and I like it so much more. I also decided to watch the last two seasons of Jane the Virgin on Netflix. I had gotten behind at one point and was happy to see the final season was on there. Binged that over the course of a week and love how it all turned out in the end. It’s such a silly, soap-y show (on purpose), but the relationships between the characters, especially Jane and her mom and grandma, are just so wonderful and often bring me to tears. And Jane is a romance novel writer, so I relate to her in that way. 🙂

As I mentioned, my cousin Tyler’s wedding was Saturday. My mom and I traveled to Indiana and spent the evening with my dad’s side of the family, celebrating Tyler and Lily’s special day. They were supposed to get married in late May, but because of COVID, they decided to postpone. And they ended up choosing the same day my parents got married so that was fun. It was a small, beautiful wedding at a lovely farm with the reception in a big old barn all decorated up with strings of lights. The best part was just being with family and catching up. I don’t get to see my cousins very often, and some I have not seen in quite a while, so it was wonderful to see them again. My grandpa even came for a bit too, and it’s always good to see him.

It’s so strange to attend an event like that and wear masks and social distance, but it was handled really well, and we did our part and wore masks when close to others inside and sanitized our hands and such. It was nice to have most of it be outside and in the barn with the doors wide open, so not really in an enclosed space. And what a lovely location for a wedding. I shared several pictures and a couple videos over on MY INSTAGRAM if you’d like to see more than the ones I’m sharing in this post.

It was a lovely end to the week, and we’re so happy God brought Lily into Tyler’s life, and so excited to welcome her into our family. They are the sweetest couple. 🙂

Have a wonderful week!

bykrista.com

Published on by Krista Noorman

I’m so excited you’ve found me here in my little corner of the web. The MY BOOKS tab above will take you to my online shop, where you can learn about and purchase all of my novels. If you aren’t already subscribed to my NEWSLETTER, join along to be among the first to be notified of new releases, cover reveals, behind-the-scenes, etc. And there might just be some free stuff for subscribers as well. 😉

THANK YOU for stopping by. Happy reading!

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a prayer breakfast for my dad

Published on by Krista Noorman

This weekend was very emotional for our family as we had a special prayer breakfast for Dad, surrounded by his close friends, pastors from his church, and my grandfather, who is a retired pastor as well. It was a most amazing thing to witness as those men laid hands on my dad, anointed him with oil, and prayed over him for his health, for God’s will and timing in all of this. The presence of God could definitely be felt in that room.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Matthew 18:20

Dad is trying to go about his days as normally as possible while he waits for a new liver. His options are basically what they call a CADAVER LIVER, which is when someone is on life support but has been diagnosed as brain dead and the family chooses to turn off the machines and donate organs, or a LIVING DONOR, which is when someone gifts a portion of their liver to save a person’s life.

In order for my dad to get a part of someone’s liver, there are many tests that have to be done — the person donating has to be similar in body size (make sure the liver will be the right size for my dad) and their blood type must be O (my dad is O+). They also must be 55 years of age or younger.

The coolest thing to me about living donors is that after they gift that portion of their liver to a person in need, their own liver will regenerate in a couple weeks, fully regenerating over a couple months (I believe) to a normal size liver. And the portion that would replace my dad’s failing liver will regrow to a full liver in a couple month’s time as well. That is the most amazing thing I have ever heard. The way God created our bodies to function is just mind-blowing.

If you feel led to gift a portion of your liver – a gift that could save my dad’s life – please let me know and I will put you in touch with them so you can get more information. There are many tests and things to consider.

And feel free to share about my dad’s condition. There just might be someone out there among your family/friends who God has chosen already to be a part of all of this, someone who is a perfect match who could get my dad the liver he so desperately needs.

Here is some information about being a living donor on the UNOS site:
https://transplantliving.org/living-donation/being-a-living-donor/

Of course, the very BEST option of all would be if God just healed the liver he has. 🙂 What an amazing miracle that would be.

We know God has a very specific reason for all of this, and we trust Him and His timing in Dad getting a new liver or one from a Living Donor. Please pray for us through all of this. We need as many prayer warriors as we can get.

Thank you, my dear friends.

Merry Christmas!

Published on by Krista Noorman

As I sat down to write this to you, I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. That’s how I feel about 2016. It’s been a year of change for our family. In so many ways. There were happy moments and sad ones, too. Busy times and times of rest. Cherished traditions and new experiences. Endings and beginnings. New job. Drivers ed. Middle school drama. It’s been interesting and tough at times, but we’ve seen God work through it all.

This year really stretched me as far as my writing goes, too. I released two books – one in May, the other in November. I’ve been a one-book-a-year girl until now, so writing, editing, formatting, releasing, and marketing two books required me to push myself more than I ever have before. I came out of all that a little stressed but happy to have two more books in my series, stories that I absolutely loved writing and felt God wanted me to tell.

Until Then, the second book in my Cornerstone series, is Michelle’s story of finding love after a rough upbringing while also searching for God’s purpose for her life, and Hello, Forever is a novella that takes place just after the events of Goodbye, Magnolia and gives more of Maggie & Simon’s love story. You can start reading the series for FREE with the first book, Goodbye, Magnolia today.

I hope 2016 has treated you well. I don’t know where you’re at this Christmas, how you’re feeling, if you’re surrounded by loved ones or on your own, but just know that you are thought about and prayed for. From my heart, I wish you so much happiness and peace this holiday.

Thank you for being a part of my writing journey.
Merry Christmas!

roller skating flashback

Published on by Krista Noorman

Today is flashback time! Going back to Woodland skating rink in December of 2007, because a scene in the new book takes place there. These pictures were from a roller skating party our son, Zach, had through school. Jake, Chloe and I went along, and we had such a fun time.

Look how tiny Chloe is. hehe! She was 4. She pretty much stayed by the wall or along the rail the whole time.

Zach had actually had lessons in his P.E. class, where they taught the kids how to skate, so he did pretty well out there. Well, most of the time.

I always loved to roller skate. My friends and I would go to our little local roller skating rink, Roll-A-Rama, in high school sometimes. I wonder if I was ever there at the same time as my husband, because he told me that he used to go skating on the weekends sometimes, too. So funny to think that we might have been out there skating next to each other and not even known each other yet. 🙂

During college, I went to the Woodland rink, shown in these photos, with a bunch of people from college, which inspired the scene in the book that takes place at this very skating rink. I saw recently that, after many years, the Woodland rink closed for good. So sad. But I’m glad to have happy memories there and some fun pictures of our kids skating at the place I enjoyed so much. And it will live on in my book, Until Then. 😉

the sweetest email

Published on by Krista Noorman

This is my Aunt Rosie. Isn’t she cute? Here she is holding her sweet little grandson, Roehn, at our annual family reunion last year. We only get to see each other a couple times a year, which, in my opinion, is just not enough.

I received the sweetest email from her the other night after she finished reading my book. There is only so much I can say about my own book. I could go on and on about the reasons why I think it’s a good story and why I love it so much, but I think other people’s opinions and experiences reading the book will mean more than the words of the one who wrote it. I asked her if it was OK to share an excerpt from her personal email to me. She said, “Sure … I’ve never been blogged before!” Like I said, cute. 😉

Here is what she had to say:

I couldn’t put your book down!  My nose is all stuffy and my cheeks wet from crying!  I’ve been reading it all night on the living room couch.  I can’t tell you the last time a book moved me to tears.  It is really fantastic how you wove that story around and tied it all up at the end – lots of surprises! And when I thought it couldn’t make me cry anymore, you put another (zinger!) touching part in and I started crying all over again.  I thought it was amazing how well you could take the reader into the world of a 14 year old (but then, I know that you live with a teenager).  It actually took me back to high school days. I love how you portrayed the love and loyalty of friends and family – best friends, brothers, grandparents, Mom and Dad. And the best part was how you integrated the Lord, scripture and prayer throughout the whole story.

Aunt Rosie

Isn’t that sweet? I got teary-eyed reading her email. To me, hearing how my words touched someone’s heart, is the best gift in the world. <3