By Marilyn Miller
April was nationally recognized as “Child Abuse Awareness Prevention” month.
“As part of our prevention education efforts, the Gingerbread House premiered a new event recently – the Ladies Who L.U.N.C.H. – Learning United to Nurture Community & Hope,” said Jessica Milan Miller, CEO of the organization that serves Northwest Louisiana.
Tickets to the event featured an inspirational message from Sara McDaniel of Simply Southern Cottage, lunch, a small bouquet of flowers, a special gift, and access to local boutique pop-up shops. And the 214 guests were treated to a Lemonade Bar, because “When life gives you lemons, choose to make lemonade.”
The boutique pop-up shops were “Art by Sarah-Katherine Semon,” “Give Me 3,” “Purvey Minden,” and “Simply Chic Boutique Bossier.”
The Gingerbread House Board of Directors president, Michael Angelo and Jessica introduced guest speaker Sara McDaniel, who captured the attention of the audience with a slide-enhanced telling of the “Really, God?” moments leading up to her current life.
After taking the stage, Sara asked if anyone had ever said the words, “I’ll never do that.” Getting the obvious response, she admitted that the first time she said them was after high school graduation, when she enrolled at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR. “I said, I’m never going back to Louisiana again,” she admitted. Yeah?
After marrying her college sweetheart and getting a degree in Education, she ended up teaching in Plain Dealing, ah, Louisiana. “Everything was wonderful. We graduated from OBU, moved back down to Louisiana…we were traveling, we were teaching Sunday School together, we were doing mission trips together…We tried desperately to start a family, and it didn’t happen. That was absolutely devastating to me!”
Sara and her husband eventually moved to Salt Lake City. “We doubled our salary, we were on our way, and everything was really, really good. Until it actually wasn’t.” But it wasn’t Sara’s “first inclination to run.” So, despite the downturn in their marriage, the couple relocated to Corpus Christi. THAT is where the divorce happened. “Really, God?”
After getting divorced, Sara found herself at a crossroads. Was she going to stay in Corpus Christi, or take some steps to get out of the state she was in. “I read and prayed so much. I read so many books…how to heal from an affair, how to heal from a divorce. I got to know the new me.” In fact, Sara did not date for three years after her divorce.
“I poured myself into playing tennis, poured myself into work, I got highly involved in service work in Corpus Christi. We did a mission called ‘Feed the Need’ where we went out into our community two Saturdays a month and fed our homeless population.”
Sara traveled to Guatemala “about five times” and worked with the families at the city dump. She sought support from counseling. She got involved in a ladies-only Bible Study. This was important to Sara because it involved ladies who were single, married, widowed, retired, working. “And all these ladies poured into me,” she said.
Then she hired a life coach, Dr. Laurel Emory, because she had to have help planning out “the best part of my life.” She was being given a do-over and she needed help, and because maybe “my plan A was really God’s Plan B.” So, Sara thought her divorce was the worst thing that could happen to her. But things went from bad to worse. By 2011, her divorce final, she was an educational sales rep for McGraw-Hill. The best salesman in Texas by statistics. And when wind of layoffs began, “because I was very prideful, I said they are not going to cut me.” Right? Wrong! “Really, God? How could you let this happen to me?”
“So, absolute devastation. I’m in Corpus Christi, calling my parents and they’re telling me to just come home. And I tell them ‘NO’ twice. I am not coming home to Louisiana.” As fate would have it (because Sara believes our steps are ordered by God), she got a phone call at 4 p.m. the same afternoon that she got laid off, she got a job offer from “Teacher Created Materials,” where she landed. With that job she was ultimately able to get the finances to buy “that house in Minden.”
While she was at Teacher Created Materials, God told her that it was time to move home to Louisiana. She moved to Minden and she got the cottage. She’s been divorced. She’s lost her job. Is there anything else, Lord?
“You know I tried for six years to get pregnant, and it did not happen.” The doctors had told her that she had a “touch” of endometriosis. Not bad enough for a procedure. Well, it had probably been eight years since trying to get pregnant “and I tell you, endometriosis had taken over my life.” Her doctor wanted to put her on a medication with a very long list of side effects. She refused. Instead, she went to Google and sought out the best doctor for endometriosis in the U.S. She found him in Atlanta. So, she went. She was told she’d be in the hospital maybe a week. She went into surgery, with the specialist telling her it was one of the worst cases he had ever seen. And it was. After surgery, she did not get better, if fact, she almost died. “We should have been in Atlanta for five days…we were in Atlanta for 22 days.” She is now endometriosis-free.
Sara ended with a verse, Ephesians 3:20. “All glory to God, who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can ask or imagine.” God opened up door after door after door for me. What might be the absolute worst thing in your life, God can turn around and He can use it for his greatest glory.”
The event took place at The Simple Church Event Space at the Louisiana Boardwalk in Bossier City. The afternoon ended with drawings for three door prizes.
Below: Sara McDaniel (center) was happy to have her mother, Diane Carroll, and a cousin, Angela Sedberry (right) present at her talk for the Gingerbread House last Wednesday. (Photo by Marilyn Miller)
