This week I’m hosting Lisa Belcastro with A Shenandoah Family Christmas (print US only, ebook worldwide). If you want to enter the drawing for this book, please leave a comment on your post with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (December 20th) evening.
Interview with the heroine from A Shenandoah Family Christmas by Lisa Belcastro
1. Rebecca, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I’ll tell you, Margaret, but you can’t tell anyone else. I traveled back in time. I was a teacher chaperone aboard the schooner Shenandoah. One night while we were anchored off of Martha’s Vineyard, I fell asleep in my cabin in the twenty-first century, and woke in 1775.
2. What do you do for fun?
I have a fourteen-month old daughter. My days are filled with baby giggles, long walks, knitting while Felicity naps, and evenings reading on the sofa with my husband Ben.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Dusting! It’s a no-win situation, though. I skip a few days, and then I can write my name on the cupboard in the kitchen. I never knew dust could accumulate on a near daily basis. It’s not as bad in the winter months, but the rest of the year dust drifts in through the windows every time Ben or anyone else walks, rides, or drives a carriage past the house.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
At this very moment – losing my daughter. She has contracted smallpox. One in three children die from the disease. I can’t bear to think that my precious little girl could be gone before Christmas.
5. What do you want out of life?
I’ve been given what I’m calling my “new life,” and I want to live it well . . . for God, for my husband, for my daughter and any other children we might be blessed with. I love being a wife and mom, and those roles are the ones I want to fulfill first and foremost. I was a teacher before I married Ben. When the time is right, I’d like to teach again. There are so many children near us, sons and daughters of Shenandoah’s crew as well as of friends. Perhaps I can open a school. I haven’t discussed the matter with Ben yet as I’m a few years away from exploring this dream, but I hope I can give something back to my community and teaching is my gift. I also want my family to be healthy.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
My faith. I’ve never needed it more than now, and I’m learning, however, slowly, that God is always near.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I read daily. We have a gorgeous King James Bible, as well as the Common Book of Prayer. Growing up on Martha’s Vineyard, I was an avid reader of history. Now, when I read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the words come alive in ways I never imagined possible. We also have some of Shakespeare’s plays in our small library. I confess I was never a big Shakespeare fan, but I’m learning to appreciate him as Ben reads aloud to me. Hmmm, maybe I’m appreciating Ben more than Shakespeare.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Patience is the first thing that comes to mind, but I know that is not the real issue. I need to establish a deeper faith. When I can learn to trust God more completely, I’ll be less inclined to “fix” whatever is bothering me or threatening my family.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
We have barn cats, but they are not pets. I’ve never had a pet, but once we’re through this nightmare I’m going to ask Ben for a house cat. Felicity will love having a furry playmate.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
Your question is ironic. I’m battling my fears today, fighting the urge to flee, to take Felicity and climb aboard Shenandoah so we can sleep in Cabin 8, and allow the time portal to transport us back to the 21st century. This, of course, goes back to my need to surrender my fears to God. I’m conflicted, and praying for the God’s wisdom and discernment to override my natural instinct to do it myself.
