Wish Bigger

As a pre-teen, our youngest child Elizabeth was diagnosed with two incurable autoimmune blood diseases. When she was 16, she was offered the opportunity to have a wish granted by Wisconsin Make-A-Wish. The day came for her to choose her wish and two volunteer wish granters arrived on our doorstep.

“What is your wish?” they asked.
“To go on a shopping spree,” Elizabeth replied.
“Wish bigger.”
“To go on a shopping spree to the Mall of America.”
“Wish bigger.”
“To go on a shopping spree to New York City.”
“Wish bigger.”
“To go to London with my family!” she exclaimed.

While we had talked about a shopping spree, Elizabeth had never expressed a desire to me or my husband to travel to Europe. Yet, when the wish granters kept encouraging her to wish bigger, she stated her ultimate wish. And you know what? Her wish was granted. All six members of our family, including her brother and sister in college, and her oldest sister who’d graduated from college, made the trip of a lifetime to London on Boxing Day 2008. Our trip included a memorable visit to the Tower of London, the Jack the Ripper tour, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, touring the grounds of Kensington Palace, seeing Wicked live on stage, crossing Abbey Road to the hallowed grounds of the Beatles’ Abbey Road Studios, celebrating Elizabeth’s 17th birthday at the original Hard Rock Café in London, and seeing the fireworks display over Big Ben on December 31, 2008, to welcome in 2009.

Elizabeth is now married and in stable health. I never had to endure what she did to have a wish granted, but I had a similar situation this past year. At the encouragement of my friend Jane Lang, the mayor of Neenah, Wisconsin—the most Christmas-friendly city you’ll ever find, I wrote my first contemporary romcom, A Very Chapel Falls Christmas, based on events that happen every holiday season in her fair city.

As I looked at the options for publishing this book, my prayer to God was, “Show me the way to see this project to fruition.” My husband John, who retired in May of 2024 after 40 years with a global packaging company, wanted to assist me in the process. This past spring and early summer he asked something along this line, “What is your prayer for A Very Chapel Falls Christmas?” My response, “That you and I self-publish this book so it will come out for the 2024 Christmas season.”

“Wish bigger,” he responded, thinking back to our daughter Elizabeth’s experience. “That I secure an agent to get this book in the hands of a large publisher.” Lo and behold, in July of 2024, I signed a contract with literary agent Joseph Durepos. Now it was time to pray bigger. We prayed that Joe would find a secular or Christian publisher who could publish this book for the 2024 Christmas season.

Lots of leads, but no contracts, so John and I prayed bigger—that one of the largest Catholic publishers in the world would publish this book. During a casual conversation, Joe mentioned our book project to a former client of his, Matthew Kelly, founder of Dynamic Catholic. Matthew showed interest in the book. That inspired John and I to pray bigger. We prayed that Matthew would not only publish A Very Chapel Falls Christmas, but would publish it by December.

And you know what? Our biggest prayer was answered. Matthew Kelly offered me a contract to have my book printed through Dynamic Catholic’s Viident Publishing under their new women’s fiction imprint, Feminine Genius, for its debut on December 1, 2024. Even with the abbreviated launch time, A Very Chapel Falls, my 10th book, is the most successful novel I’ve ever written.

What about you? Do you have a prayer for 2025? Maybe instead of praying small you can pray bigger. Who knows what will happen? From my own experience, I discovered that God wants more for us than we can even imagine.

My prayer for this year? That, if it’s God’s will, A Very Chapel Falls will be green-lit for production as a movie. Or bigger yet… that it will be made into a movie and available on a streaming service. Or, even bigger, that it will be a feature film premiering in movie theaters across the country and then go to streaming services. God has a plan for this project. My job is to keeping praying bigger, and watch the miracle unfold before my eyes.