I grew up in Erie, PA, the middle child in a family of three girls born to two hard-working, self-employed parents. Besides teaching us traditional family values, my parents wanted us raised in the traditions of their faith, and as such, we attended faith-based schools from preschool through college. With two sisters, a mom, a live-in grandmother, and even the family dog being female, Dad always mentioned how outnumbered he felt. I think God must have an amazing sense of humor since after growing up in a house full of girl power, I now find myself in a male-dominated home, where I reside with my husband Mark and our one and only child, a son, Zach.

Until the time of our wedding, I believed that religion was about living a good life, attempting to follow most of the rules and attending church to earn a spot in heaven, but then came the day we returned from our honeymoon, when life took a drastically unexpected turn. I was awakened early in the morning by the sound of the phone. My mom was calling with news that my dad, just 50 years young, had been rushed to the hospital with a heart attack. Today, I barely remember the ride from Pittsburgh to Erie as we raced up Interstate 79 in hopes of making it on time to my dad's bedside. We made it, but from that point on, life became extremely complicated for us as newlyweds. We fell away from church attendance because of the travel back and forth to Erie every weekend to help keep my parents' business afloat while dad was hospitalized with a bleak prognosis. I considered giving up my teaching job to move back to Erie alone to help my parents maintain the business. I remember driving home from work one day feeling so alone, so sad and just plain angry with God. I started giving God the third degree about why this was happening to my family. I was feeling really sorry for myself, like God had cheated me out of my "happily ever after."

Somehow, (and now I know that it was only by the grace of God), we survived that first year of marriage, despite my dad having another heart attack just weeks after the first. This time, Dad was in Cleveland when it happened and he ended up having quadruple bypass surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, a surgery that gave him another 17 strong years. My dad made a full recovery, the business stayed afloat and the rest of us were able to return to some semblance of normalcy. In time, I became less angry at God, and Mark and I resumed our regular church attendance on the weekends.

Over the next few years, I experienced a few more bumps in my spiritual road. A close friend at the age of 26 became ill on her honeymoon, was diagnosed with colon cancer and died in less than 3 months. My perfectly healthy 35 year old cousin was found dead in his apartment - cause of death unable to be determined. My husband's 40 year old cousin died after a short battle with ovarian cancer. I found myself turning to God, full of questions, asking Him, "Why?" praying for some answers and feeling a growing desire to know Him more deeply than I'd ever wanted to before.

Three years into our marriage came the birth of our son, Zach, an answer to my prayer of wanting to know God more deeply, because soon after his arrival, I realized I wanted my son's childhood church experience to be more meaningful than mine was. That led to my "2002 Church-Shopping Tour" and an invite from a friend to visit Orchard Hill one Sunday for a Christmas service. I didn't know it at the time, but that visit marked the day my life would forever change. It was then and there that I heard what it meant to have a personal relationship with a living God. After attending that first service, I continued to come back week after week, hungry to learn more. Fortunately, Mark was supportive and agreed to join me in worshipping here. I remember being impressed by the magnitude of the Children's Ministry and felt confident sending my own little guy off to participate in it; plus, the messages had huge practical applications for our lives, helping us feel a connection to church, not just on the weekend, but throughout the hectic work week too.

After a few months with an even stronger desire to learn more, I joined a Women's Bible Study, signed up for Women's Mentoring, and met women who were knowledgeable about the Bible, who were committed to living out God's call on their lives, and most importantly, who were always accepting and supportive of me even though I felt like I knew so little about the Bible. These women have become so much more than study partners. I can't imagine doing life without them and will forever cherish their friendship, guidance, love and willingness to help hold me steadfast to God even when life gets a little bit messy. I remember talking to them about my desire for God to grow my husband in his spiritual walk, thinking it would never happen. They shared their own experiences and gave me hope that one day God would work a miracle in my husband's life too. Patience is what they continually told me. Patience.

Through much prayer and waiting, the Lord worked yet another miracle in my life. On Mother's Day 2006, I was headed to the Christian book store, and out of nowhere, Mark asked me to buy a Bible for him. Yes, I nearly choked on my tongue! Well, I did find a Bible for him and picked up the $5 special of the month for myself - a book called Pathway to Purpose for Women. I drove home that day, quietly celebrating the work that God had done in our lives as a family.

A few weeks later, as we prepared to leave for a trip, Mark asked me in the name of "travel ease" not to bring my usual suitcase of books. I obliged and went back into the house for a magazine instead. The closest thing I could quickly find was an old copy of Today's Christian Woman, and I remember thinking to myself, "Oh, why couldn't I grab anything better than this?" To this day, I never figured out how copies of that magazine ever started arriving at my house, but nonetheless, since it was the only piece of reading material I had taken with me, I began to leaf through it and found an article about the author of the $5 book I had just purchased - Pathway to Purpose for Women. I learned that she dreamed of opening 200 Women's Life Purpose Coaching Centers here and abroad and had only just begun offering classes to certify new Life Purpose coaches, women trained to help other women discover their unique God-given talents/passions so that they could use them to reach others and further God's purposes for their life. My interest was really piqued as I read, because the personal mission/vision statements that I'd recently crafted for myself suggested that I wanted to use my talents/passions to help other women discover theirs. Less than two weeks later, I was bound for California, the last student accepted into July's Life Purpose Coach training class.

At the time, I was on a leave of absence from my inner-city Kindergarten teaching position where for years I had been restlessly watching my students showing signs of major neglect, ones that interfered with my ability to teach them and praying that God would show me what His plans for my future would be. My leave gave me the gift of time, to step away from the demands of the job and step into a closer time with God. From May to July, I devoted myself to day-long quiet reflection times, and by mid-July, things began falling into place in a way I never could have fathomed or even attempted to orchestrate on my own. God had connected all of the dots in the dot-to-dot picture of my life, and I was only just beginning to discover and enjoy what had been previously been a mystery to me.

When summer came to a close, I found myself with a new position at work as a Curriculum Coach. It was no coincidence that I had just spent my summer training as a Life Purpose Coach. I would be able to use my new knowledge as a coach working with teachers. God had answered yet another prayer by giving me new direction at work and rescuing me from the pit of my own despair.

Four years later, I am amazed by how much the Lord has helped us to grow spiritually as a family. My husband has completed a two year study with 12 other men through CLC and is now preparing to lead a new group of men. Mark and I are leading a small group together, and for the first time ever, my schedule has been freed up as a result of our latest family decision to give up my teaching career to be open to follow God wherever He is leading me as Life Purpose Coach.

But my story doesn't end there. Flash back to when I talked about my dad having a good 17 years of life after his heart surgery. This summer was part of his year 17. My parents had come to visit and we had spent several good days with friends and family, but what I'll remember most was the night we just sat around the backyard firepit and listened as dad asked questions about heaven. He had wonderings, things he wanted to ask Jesus someday. It seemed his biggest question was would he himself get to heaven? Mark and I shared the salvation message with dad and asked him if he'd accepted Jesus as his Savior. He confirmed that he had and a day later, he lay down to take a nap at our house and never woke up.

As I look back, this isn't the first time that I've come to know God as a God of surprises. For us, it was totally unexpected, but without a doubt we could see that it had been perfectly orchestrated by the Master Planner, Father God himself. Two weeks later, our family celebrated the wedding of my sister, although dad's presence was missed. For sure, it has been a summer of ups and downs, just like the rhythm and flow of each of our lives, but I wouldn't have it any other way because I can rest in the knowledge of God who is always in control, knowing that He has a perfect plan for each and every one of us, plans to prosper us, not to harm us; plans to give us hope and a future. My name is Lori Sammartino and this is my story.