I was 28. I did not have a grasp on what I was doing, but I was apparently very serious about it! (Still wish I smiled) In 04 I wrote a letter to my local paper titled “To whom it may concern.” I wrote an actual letter! I said something about being the 7th generation in my family to do woodworking. Which is true. I needed to make money to raise our first son though and was grasping at straws. Anyway, I wrote a letter. :) A nice lady #Taris Savell called me one day and asked if she could do an interview over the phone with me. She said she saw my letter sitting on the top of the trash can and thought she’d take a chance on a story about me. I didn’t know her and she didn’t know me. I found out soon that she did a lot of interviews in her life! She interviewed Bette Davis, Ronald Reagan, played golf with Bob Hope, Lawrence Welk. Hung out with Eva Gabor, Doris Day, and too many more to list here! That day launched a whirlwind to come of people I’d never met suddenly showing up at my door who “knew” me. Southern Living wanted to interview me next! It was weird. I had a taste of something I wasn’t sure I wanted. This happened to me before when I was 5 and had a #1 song on the local Christian radio station. I soon found myself hiding in the baptism closet at church to avoid adults asking me when I was going to sing again... I felt like a jerk avoiding people and I felt like I was letting everyone down too. I wasn’t ready.. and I was really still just a kid here in this picture and I still wasn’t ready. God knew when I would be though! What I want to say is, thank you Papa Don Schroeder for hearing something in me and for putting me on the air. Thank you Taris, for digging my letter out of the trash and interviewing the least and never will be famous person you’ve ever interviewed. Fast forward 11 years to 2015. I was giving up.. I held a cross in the air crying and took a picture that went viral. And, here I am today, blessed beyond measure to be making crosses 7 days a week! I have something I want to say to all of you and it’s the last thing Papa Don said to me. God Loves you, and so do I. Thank you all for taking a chance on me now. 🙏