*Giveaway* Follow Your Dreams Part 3

 This is the third and final post on how to achieve your dreams.

A True Story of Faith and Dreams (with GMC)

I promised I would share my personal story of following my dreams for finding love, having a family, and becoming a full time writer.  Let’s start where all good novels begin, setting up the goals, motivation, and conflict (known as GMC in the writing world). 

Goal and Motivation: I am the oldest of nine children. I grew up in a big, loving family. We didn’t always have a lot financially, but we always had love and support through many trials.  My parents will be celebrating their 60^th wedding anniversary next year.  My life goal was simple, be like my parents.  My career goals were not as defined. In High School I decided I wanted a career in the creative arts: writing, music, or theater. All three were my favorite things in the world.  In my late twenties I realized I wanted to be a novelist.

Conflict: Faith and dreams are tested by real life.

60 years of marriage. My first marriage lasted for five years.  After college graduation, I married my high school sweetheart. Neither of us knew ourselves enough to understand or to effectively communicate the commitments needed for marriage. My second marriage lasted twelve years. I hedged my bets by marrying my best friend, a man who had known me for a decade. But sometimes a best friend does not make the best marriage partner. Talk about a crisis of faith, this was it. What was wrong with me? What had I done to deserve not having a happy, long-term marriage?

It wasn’t until age 45 that I found my forever love—the man who would love me, including forgiving my many faults, and who would support my goals as much as he supported his own.  There’s a chance we will make it to a 60^th anniversary—that would would make me 105 years old and him 107.  I think my husband relates the depth of our relationship best. Though we’ve been married for 13 years, when asked he sometimes says 33 years, with a twinkle in his eye and a dimpled cheek. Why the difference? He truly believes if we’d met then we would be celebrating our 33rd anniversary now. That's how sure he is of the commitment.

Big Family, Lots of Children. Given what I shared above without mentioning children, you’ve probably guessed that didn’t happen. The original dream was cut short during my senior year of college due to health issues, and subsequent surgery, that made it impossible to have children. I tried to re-frame it into adoption. But with the difficulties of my early marriages, that didn’t work out either.  Again, changing the details of my dream brings it to reality. I have taken in foster children at different times in my life, and that has blessed me with an extended family. My husband came to our marriage with two teenage boys. Though I had little to do with shaping who they are as individuals, I love them deeply and feel particularly blessed to be a part of their lives. My dream is still unfolding. In the future, I will become a grandmother. Often what appears to be an end to dreams is really a beginning.

A Career as a Novelist. For 30 years I pursued careers that had nothing to do with writing novels. This is not to say that I didn’t love those careers. I did. But dreams are important. Dreams define you and shape you, test you and ask if you are serious enough to keep them alive. For a long time, I let this dream be put on the back burner. As I approached my 50^th birthday, I made a conscious decision to carve out time in my busy life to write novels. After all, if you don’t ever write one you definitely won’t get one published.  In late 2010, I contracted my first novel to be published.  Healing Notes is my fourth published novel. Am I making a decent living with my fiction? Not yet.  But I will. I have faith that I will.  My career as a novelist is just beginning.

Elton Trueblood described faith in a way that speaks to me and my experience. “Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservations.”  I hope you find a faith that propels you forward and helps you achieve your dreams, even if the details must change along the way.  

*** GIVEAWAY ***

I am giving away up to five (5) ebooks to commenters on my guest posts during the GoddessFish Party.  The giveaway is being done via Rafflecopter.  You may increase your chances by also going to my FB, Twitter, and Blog pages.  However, to win one an ebook you MUST comment on my guest blog post.  I WILL check the randomly selected winner against the commenters on at least one of the three posts I make here on November 4th. Good Luck everyone! 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

About Maggie Jaimeson

My educational and career background is in psychology, counseling, computer science, and education. Somehow I found a way to satisfy both my left and right brain and fashioned a career over the past 30+ years that could do that. I am fortunate to now spend the majority of my time journeying into the world of my imagination and writing novels that reflect my passions and my belief that strong women can do anything, that the good guys win in the end, and that love will conquer all. 

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