One of the most beautiful, most joyful and most loving women I know is my dear niece. Her 100-watt smile lights up my life and gives me hope! She shared with me the trauma of growing up in a house with adults who were “ALWAYS arguing” and how that rubbed off on her and how she finds herself sounding like the woman of that house when she gets upset with her kids. Her brokenness led her to be a wild teenage girl that got into trouble living the street life smoking and drinking. She spent her 16th birthday in a psyche ward and her 18th birthday party in a bar when the legal age was 21 to drink. To look at her now, you would never know her brokenness and she says, “I’m glad I had the childhood I had growing up because it helped me grow into the woman I am now and taught me what NOT to do with my children.”

Today my scars are turned into stars by a loving and powerful God who is working everything out for my good!