Back From Cruise

Hey y'all--

Well, I'm back from my anniversary cruise, and ready to go back to work (that's a lie) -- all right, so I'm back, but who wants to go back to work? It's like that line, "I love my job, it's the work I hate!" Naw, seriousy, I do love my job, and I'll tell you why, cuz I'll tell you what happened one day on the ship:

I was sitting up on deck with Bill (hubby), and we were talking with another couple we'd just met. I was talking with the woman about bipolarcentral.com, cuz she was wondering if she was bipolar or not, etc. Well, this man comes up to me sitting at the table and says, "Excuse me, but I didn't mean to overhear you, but I was listening to you talk about that website and I wanted you to know that 3 years ago I found that website and got help for my son because of it, and I just wanted to thank you and to tell you that he's doing real good now." Then he told me that he knew who I was, and that he had read all my articles and it was good to meet me, because he always wondered if the website was just all writers or if we (me and Dave) were real people.

It was so exciting for me to have met this man and for him to have said such nice things. I felt like a celebrity! I saw him one more time on the cruise, and asked him where he was from, and a little more about his son, and he said he was from Ohio, and that his son was 17 when he first found the website, and that he is 20 now, on meds and therapy, and in college!!!! and doing very, very well. Wow, that made me feel good. Because we very rarely in real life get to find out that we are really and truly helping people. Dave gets emails and testimonials from people, but I don't, and I hardly ever even get responses to my blog, so I don't ever know if I'm helping people or not -- I just have to take it in faith that I am. So this man was a real shot to my arm, telling me that I helped him and his son, that he had read all my articles, etc. Wow! I'll have to remember that on days when I'm a little down and don't feel like writing! :)

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, this whole conversation with this stranger took place in the Bahamas! So that's part of what made it so exciting -- I've typed up testimonials for Dave from people from all over the world, but this is the first time it really hit home for me that our website is truly helping people from all over the world. How exciting! I would love to hear from more people on my blog to tell me that I'm helping them. That's the reason for it all -- for everything I do -- the articles, the interviews, the blog, the forum posts, the newsletter, the devotional -- everything. I always think, if I can just help one person, then it's worth it. Because 2 years ago, when I started with Dave and this website, *I* was that one person.

Well, if you are that one person today, and if you are being helped, I sure would love to hear from you. In the meantime, I hope y'all are having a blessed day!

Remember, God loves you and so do I!
Michele