I want to start by saying to everybody who sent in emails for this contest, Thank You.  Thank you for sharing your stories with me.  I wish I could do this for every one of you, but it’s just not possible.  Choosing this year’s winner proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be.  I’m a firm believer that we don’t know what were capable of until were tested and your emails prove me right.

This year’s winner was nominated by her dear friend, Lesya.  I asked our winner to write down her story in her own words for me to share.  This is her story.

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“Teaching school is something I feel I was meant to do, after all, working in the public school system runs in my blood.  My great grandparents, grandparents, and father all did.  My sister does also.  I really love teaching Kindergarten which is what I have done for the past 6 years at Farmington.  I find fulfillment being around children and they teach me as much as I teach them, if not more!

God has blessed me with 2 beautiful and intelligent children of my own.  Jonah, my son is 8 and my daughter Jadyn is 3. They are the light of my life and keep me going everyday.  They keep me very busy, but I am very proud to have them call me mom.

The year 2009 is a year that I will forever mark down in my life as being the saddest, hardest and most challenging year of my life. It also taught me a lot about life in general.  The very last day of 2008 my father, who I admired more than the world, did not wake up. He passed away in his sleep and brought extreme shock and grief to my family.  He was the pillar of faith and love and devotion to my family and in an unexpected instant he was gone.  It was, and is the worst day I have yet to know.  He was a former coach, teacher, and principal who had recently retired to take care of his ailing parents.  Unfortunately his retirement was short.  A few short months later his parents also passed away.

In the middle of my grief over my father,** my husband of 13 years and father of my children walked out** leaving my kids and I to wonder why and to struggle with the sorrow and questions that 2009 brought.  I found myself fatherless and without a husband, forced to be a single parent and to also help my grieving mother.  Thanks to God he was there for me and continues to be.  He held me up when I could not myself and kept me going.  Although I still ask why, I no longer let it control my thoughts, but trust that He will hold me and not let me go.

Thanks to my father, who taught us that faith was the most important thing one can have, I have been able to move forward, not always sure of the future, but trusting that it will be brighter.  I have much to be thankful for and am glad to say that 2009 is over and with it hope is new.

I have a great support system of family and friends and like my great friend Lesya, who nominated me for this opportunity, I am stronger everyday for the love and support I feel from them.

Thank you Melinda for choosing me for your photographs.  I will treasure it always.  I heard a saying not long ago that I am trying to hold fast to since becoming a single parent:  He is happiest, be he King or peasant, who finds peace in his home—John Wolfgang Van Goethe.  I am praying that through all the obstacles of life, that above all I will be one that brings peace and love to my home.”

2010 single parent contest winner, Andrea Lichlyter**

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