Jamie Janosz

[ spoiler alert – I do make some references to season 4 for those who are behind on the series] I am equally fascinated by the upstairs and downstairs ladies of Downton Abbey. I adore Lady Mary and identify with the steadfast, loyal Anna (perhaps because I have a bit of a crush on Mr. Bates). I sigh over Edith’s personal tragedies and cheer for Isobel Crawley’s plucky (if somewhat naive) spirit. I smile at downtrodden Daisy and admire the restless, compassionate spirit of Sybil. And where would the show be without the Dowager Countess – the delightfully grumpy matriarch with her sharp, witty tongue? The writers of the PBS series Downton Abbey have created an array of fascinating and complex female characters, perhaps the best array of female characters I have seen for a long time on television. They face personal trials and a changing world. They fight and stick together.  They challenge and change and grow and stretch. They make mistakes and pick themselves back up. The

I was a voracious reader as a little girl. I remember visiting the Thornton Public Library each week and working my way through first the young reader and then young adult sections. Finally, the librarian gave up and let me start checking out adult books, guiding me to some great choices. Characters, specifically female characters, became my best friends. I immersed myself in their lives. I loved their courage, their feisty personalities, and their dramatic situations. They could do anything! Through books, I was able to do have adventures that were just not possible in real life. Cracking open a "new" library book, with that oh-so-distinct library smell, was one of my favorite things to do. Here are my favorite childhood heroines - maybe you can add your own? Laura Ingalls Wilder The books were classics, with the television series beginning in March 1974. I found out recently that the books, based on the true stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder, were actually

“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21 This plaintive message, without explanation, was left by a popular Christian radio host on her Facebook page. The next day, I learned that Janet Parshall and her husband were grieving the loss of their son due to complications from cancer. Later that same week, I received another heartbreaking social media message from one of my former students. Misty had been struggling for years with several miscarriages and then the death of her little Charlie. Now came another cruel life blow. She and her husband were losing their home and every single one of their earthly possessions due to an infestation of black toxic mold. To a young family, this felt like the final blow. Misty was sick. She was tired. She was grieving deep gut-wrenching loss. “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away”...it is so hard to say the second part. Sometimes Christians can seem too perfectly happy. We create an ill

Today is my friend Amy's birthday. She is no longer here with us - she is celebrating today in heaven.  Last year, I received the stunning news that one of my long-lost college friends had died of a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer this past summer. At age 48, only a year older than me, she was far too young. Amy and I attended Bible college together in the mid-1980s. We both loved writing and met in a fiction class. Together, we discovered and then adored Flannery O'Connor and her quirky dark depiction of the south. We attempted to write short stories of our own- and shared a fear of standing and reading them aloud in front of class. When one of our creepier classmates stood and read his story that bordered on obscenity, we both averted our eyes - our shoulders shaking as we struggled to contain our nervous laughter. Amy had dark, short, cropped hair and warm brown eyes. She had a pale complexion and a ready smile. She laughed easily - one of those people

This week, I talked to two women facing unclear futures. One was a student in her senior year of college. She asked for prayer on Twitter. When we talked in person the next day, she confessed that her unknown future was spiraling her into panic.  “I’ve always known what lies ahead,” she explained. “Now I don’t.” My other friend confessed over lunch that she had too many different options ahead of her – equally compelling and frightening. She had returned to college as an adult and pursued her degree while raising children, commuting, and even helping arrange her daughter’s wedding. She had been crazy busy. Now that she had finally graduated, she was looking ahead to what was next. More school? Work? The choices were bewildering. I can relate so well because I have been there. I always preferred to have a plan, a road map for my future. I liked being in school and knowing what my next assignment would be. I like looking forward to specific events, the planning. I’m motiva

My mom, me, and my sister Julie in our favorite vacation spot, Door County, Wisconsin. It is my mom's birthday today. She is in sunny Florida, and I am in snowy Chicago. But, no matter how many miles may be between us, she is near to my heart. And that is not just a cliche. I have always been adored my mom. Growing up, my mom seemed invincible. She and my dad were both school teachers. I loved to visit her classroom to help decorate or stamp papers or cut out construction paper letters, and watch her bustle around the empty classroom. Her students adored her. She would set up her classroom in such an inviting way that they loved coming to special education class. Some of them would even try to fake a learning disability just to be with Mrs. Storms. She had creative reward systems that motivated them. She cared about each one personally. For many years of her career, she taught at a private school, Glenwood School for Boys. Many of the boys came from difficult backgrounds an

On this snowy, Chicago, Saturday morning, sitting at my kitchen table and still wearing my fuzzy bathrobe, my heart is filled with gratitude for all of the people who made publishing my first book a reality. On this day of my book release, I just want to say that I am tremendously thankful for all of you who helped make this little dream of mine a reality. First, to each of these eight women – Fanny, Emma, Evangeline, Amanda, Nettie, Sarah, Virginia, and Mary - this book is about them and because of them. I want the honor to land firmly at their feet, for they are the ones who walked the long and difficult road of faithful service. They have my utmost admiration. I hope, some day, to be just a bit like them.   Second, I am thankful for my Moody Publishers editor, Holly Kisly. She believed in this project from the start and understood how important it was to tell the next genreation of women these stories. My editor, Karen Waddles, made sure my ideas were clearly communicat