Mama always said a good family has one heartbeat. No one knows you like the people you live with, and no one will take up your cause to the outside world quite like your blood relatives.

All the things I thought I was - simple and plain and sometime funny - are very small words. They do not begin to describe me. They do not begin to express what is inside of me. I have value, and I have worth. I cannot be replaced like old shoes or taken for granted like tap water.

Sometimes we get our hearts broken, only to have the right person come along to mend them.

But a child's joy is doubled for the mother, and the sound of her son's laughter began to her heart, a feat she had never believed possible

I will probably always cry myself to sleep, but knowing this, someday the tears won't be sad, or filled with regret. Maybe they will be joyful

If there is one thing I hope my books do always and forever, its that they honor working people.

I am in total silence when I write - I don't even like the sound of the dryer going - I like the quiet.