Are you a crazy home school and mountaineering mom? Perhaps you are a mother, or possibly a grandmother, of one or two preschoolers. Perhaps you are a career woman and wish to be a homemaker. It may even be a young woman facing a bright and unexplored future. Are you a parent grieving over a sick child or an empty place at your table?
Serenity from Serena will surprise you! This is a sharp modern novel for all understanding age groups. You will feel for Serena as she sobs over her daughter’s grave. Maybe you cheer her on while working with a difficult boss. If you’ve ever been in financial trouble, this easy-to-read format will catch your eye as you “watch” Serena improvise to make ends meet and reunite with her twin daughters. How distressing it is for Serena, as a homeschooling parent, to be prevented from that special task of creating new memories every day with her children.
We all have dreams. Join Serena in the suspenseful piano competition in New York City and applaud the duo’s announcements. Will your precious lifestyle rebound? If you’re not a homeschooler, you’ll discover some of the behind-the-scenes technicalities in a fun way. Serena is also not alone as the chapters progress. There are several lives of other key characters that you will also be engrossed in.
How excited I will be if my heartfelt book encourages you as much as I have been through the years with the Janette Oke and Laura Ingalls Wilder series. Laura and her sisters were often homeschooled, although it was not worded that way in their day. Isabella Macdonald Alden, Grace Livingston Hill’s early career development aunt, also had a positive influence on me during my teens. Ms. Alden’s pseudonym was “Pansy.” The story I like the most about her is that she was born in Rochester, New York … where I grew up … and was often homeschooled by her father. His mother was Myra Spafford Macdonald, daughter of Horatio Gates Spafford. Ms. Alden’s grandfather is best known for writing the hymn “It’s okay with my soul” after all four of his daughters drowned in the sea, only his wife survived.
Belle married Pastor Alden in New York and continued to write about characters who were firmly committed to following Christ. Also a teacher in the Chautauqua assemblies, this author served as a role model for me. May this information edify you to treat the “rocks” on your “path” of goals as “stepping stones.” II Corinthians 4: 7 says: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the excellence of the power may be from God, and not from us.”
As another author / preacher whom I respect said, “God does not want special people with special powers. He only wants common and saved sinners who God loves and who are willing to minister, not full of pride because we are so spiritual! We should glorify Christ, not us. ” May Serenity de Serena serve to do just that. Often we as human beings are too absorbed in our own lives to think of others in a positive way. I trust that you will feel refreshed to move on.
I am grateful to be a homeschooling mother as pioneer women have been throughout the centuries. Have you ever studied how famous presidents were taught at home? What a way for Christian parents to develop wonder in the lives of children!
For Christ
Ms. Lisa Moravek, author
(Graduated from the Institute of Children’s Literature)
