Wow. I did NOT intend to be gone for so long! I’m not apologizing though because I have been living in the moment with my wonderful husband and baby girl! I am loving being a mom and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! But all that said, I am so happy to be getting back on the writing train!

Right off the bat, I’m gonna ask how you are doing! Please let me know in the comments below so we can catch up on all the things!

Okay, I know you don’t actually want to read more of this intro. We all know you are here for the baby 😉

April 11th, 2022 will go down in annals of my life as one of the best days of my life. Our 7 pound 15 ounce baby girl made her debut at 5:44 pm via induction after 7 hours of active labor. God was so merciful to me. I did have to have an episiotomy and she needed suctioned once but we both came through just fine!

Many have asked about her name, so here’s the story!

I have always loved the name Dixie. Y’all know that, haha! But I wasn’t sure how Jacob would feel about it. But when a friend said they almost named their child Dixie, but chose Carolina instead, I decided to mention it.

Jacob loved it. He picked Cross for her middle name. It’s his mother’s middle name and his grandmother’s maiden name! So a nice family tie in!

Now Burke on the other hand, that was a last minute decision that I am so glad we made. Pastor Travis Burke, a dear friend of my husband’s and a mentor to us both through his sermons, jokingly told Jacob Burke was a wonderful name. I was in the bed, dealing with contractions. Jacob looked at me, and asked what I thought of Dixie Cross Burke and instantly, that little piece that I felt was missing fell into place. It was perfect. I fell in love.

Then she was born and I knew we made the right choice.

Dixie is four and a half months old now and growing like a weed! She’s almost ready to start baby food and today, she rolled over for the first time on her own, while awake, lol! She’s been doing it in her sleep since she was two weeks old!

She loves bright colors, her first word was Hey! and her favorite person is Pop-Pop (Jacob’s dad!). She tries to sing with us in the car and is really working on saying I Love You, which is melting my heart. Jacob and I have been saying that to her since she was in the womb and hearing her try to match the syllables? It’s a moment I’ve lived for.

Life has been good! We’ve continued our work with our Junior church and are currently running a donut promotion for the kiddos! They are LOVING it and have been encouraging each other to be consistent in their attendance!

I’ve been working on organizing our office and I am trying to make the house cozier. After watching Little Women (2019), I knew that feel is what I want for my home. I want it to be cozy and inviting. A place we can relax and enjoy each other after a long day. If you have any suggestions, I’m open to ideas!

I will admit, I haven’t been writing much. Dixie keeps me on my toes, but since I am falling into a routine, I hope to be writing much more in the near future! To Save a Life is with my formatter, and The Battlefield is Silent is in the outlining stage! If you are one of my older readers, I would be pleased if you gave my Instagram, @lifeofheritage a follow! For my younger audience and those who chose not to use IG, I will be giving you peeks at my IG content in my subscriber emails! So you won’t be missing out! What are you writing?

I’ve been doing a lot of reading of late! My current binge is The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy by Kellyn Roth! They are so good and I am so excited to start book four! I am also beta reading Titan by Brian McBride and review reading Victory’s Voice by Erika Mathews! All indie titles! What are you reading?
 
Please comment below and tell me how you’ve been and what you’re up to! I’ve missed you all and can’t wait to get back in the writing saddle with you!

God Bless and God Bless America!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22

Hello everyone! It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone already! I’ve been married for a whole year! I’m six month pregnant! I’M HAVING A BABY THIS YEAR!!! *insert happy squeals* I am beyond excited to meet my baby girl and start my relationship outside the womb with her! If her current disposition is any indication, I’m gonna have my hands full! She loves to kick and punch me at the same time, trying to trick me into thinking she has turned into twins! Little stinker 😊

But y’all didn’t click on this post to hear me gush about my little Southern Belle. Not yet anyway 😉 Don’t worry, I’m sure its coming *wink* (Pst! Subscribe, I’ll share more in my newsletters in weeks to come!) Y’all clicked on this post to see what’s gonna happen with the blog, or if I will even keep it going now that I’m fast approaching motherhood outside the womb. (Yes, I will keep referring to it that way, because I’m already experiencing motherhood inside the womb and its wonderful even if she has been causing me to be sick pretty much the whole time, lol!)

So! Without further ado, lets jump into today’s post!

Things are changing around here. I am cutting my schedule back to one post a week (I’m batch posting, Lord willing!) instead of two and I will be attempting to send out a newsletter to subscribers once a month.

With the Lord’s help, there will be a devotional as usual, a reading related post, a writing or history related post, and on the fourth Monday of every month with five Mondays (confusing I know, sorry!) I will attempt to bring you an author interview! I also intend to make the final Monday of the month a wrap-up of goals accomplished that month and setting new ones. Book Reviews will be posted at random as I write them.

I am due to give birth on April 6th, but as we all know, babies come on their schedule, not ours. Regardless, I am taking a hiatus the month of April. I can’t promise I’ll bounce right back in May, because I’m gonna be soaking up all those baby snuggles. I appreciate your patience and understanding as I undergo this new stage of my life. I love creating content for y’all and knowing you understand when I’ve had to put on the breaks has been a huge blessing to me! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I’ll give you the short answer: I got sick again. Then school amped up (I teach electives for a Christian School. No, I’m not telling you where 😉), midterms were approaching and I just didn’t get the book edited in time.

I have not put To Save A Life on the back burner however. I will give more details in an upcoming writing update, but know this is my current WIP and I am enjoying polishing this rough cut story into something I hope God can use to touch lives and save some babies and their families from the destruction of abortion.

I am so excited to share this year’s word of the year. God has been stirring my heart about so many different things related to this topic and my dear friend, Katja, helped me find the word I was looking for.

So, without further ado, the word of the year 2022 is…

As Christians, there are many things God has called us to do. Yes, the Great Commission is the main one and it is not to be tossed aside lightly. But God has commanded us, as our Supreme Commander, to do many great things for His honor and Glory! This year, I hope to scratch the surface as I attempt to grow in these areas myself. Will you join me?

I do have a few goals to share with you today and I encourage you to make a list yourself!
 
Writing||
            Complete edits on To Save A Life
            Batch Posts for February

Reading||
            Read 10 books minimum
            Complete one of my devotional books from last year 😉

Life||
            Stay on top of grading for school (A huge struggle!)
            Make our baby registry (Yeah, I’m way behind!)
            Eat more veggies (gotta keep me, hubby and baby healthy!)
            Journal daily (Something I’ve been wanting to get back to!)
 
So that’s about all I have for you today! Now it’s your turn! Do you have a word of the year? Do you have any special goals for this month? Please comment below and let us cheer you on!

Have a blessed day and God Bless America!
Ryana Lynn (and Baby Peterson 😉)
Jude 22

Y'all, I am just so excited to share this news with y'all! Today is the cover reveal for my book, To Save a Life, releasing on October 22nd! I was blessed to work with the lovely Kaitlyn Krispense as my designer and let me say, y'all, she nailed it! And I'm too excited to keep the suspense up any longer so here we go!

Just look at those precious baby toes!!!! Isn't it just so precious??? I am so excited for this book to release!

And speaking of which... This book is up for pre-order on Amazon! (Click here!) I've never had one of my books on Amazon and I am so excited to be able to readch a larger audience with this story! The pre-order says it's releasing in November. That's just because I'm allowing for me getting sick or something and you can't miss your release date, haha! But once everything is finalized, I'll adjust it to the actual release date, so have no fear!

But why am I allowing to get sick? Well...

Yep! Baby Peterson is on the way! This is part of the reason I haven't been around much the last few months because I have been. so. sick. But I'm breaking out of the morning sickness and hope that nothing else will happen to give me a relapse XD  We just hit 14 weeks (approx. 3 months) and finally got to hear the heartbeat! (160bpm for those who want to know *halo*) Next month we find out what we're having and I am so excited!

Needless to say, writing hasn't really been my priority of late, but now that I'm getting my strength back, I am waist deep in final edits and I can't wait to share some snippets with you in the future! And yes, I will be giving more details about how we found out we were expecting because it's a fun one XD

Anywho! Don't forget to run over to Amazon to pre-order To Save a Life and I'll try and get on here again real soon!

Praising God for His Marvelous Gift!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22

Hello everyone! So today, I’m back with more of my ramblings and a much-requested blog post… How I met my Husband! So this rambling will fall under the Life category! Without further ado, let’s hop in!

Life ||

I always prayed that my relationship would move quickly... I didn't exactly mean 12 hours from Hello to Can I Write You...

So it all started a year ago today! On March 10th, 2020, my dad took two of my sisters and me with him to the Capitol Connection in Washington, D.C. One of my sisters wasn’t feeling well (not the virus that shall not be named *halo*), my other sister decided to stay with her at the hotel, so I was the chosen one who went with Dad that day. We walked toward the Capitol Building for our group photo on the steps when a tall, blondish/reddish-haired man with a beard walked up and struck up a conversation with us. I was a little gun shy… he was obviously from up north, though he didn’t come off like a yankee, and his accent wasn’t irritating to me. And for being from Maryland, he sure knew his conservative politics!

He talked with my dad and me and offered to meet up with us at the Supreme Court to get pictures later if his group didn’t go straight to lunch. Which they did. I figured I would never see him again.

And I was surprised that this bothered me. I realized I found him interesting and attractive, and I immediately prayed and asked God to help me NOT think about him. I wasn’t there to meet guys. I was there to be a witness and encouragement! I didn’t need a distraction. So could You please help me not think about him? Thank You!

Only… He didn’t.

Seemed like every time I turned around, I thought about our talk and wished he would just show up. I prayed hard for God to take it away from me. But He just wouldn’t! And who just happened to be there when we were waiting for our bus to pick us up?

During the rest of that day, he just kept popping up! He even went on the midnight tour with us that evening. And I figured he wanted to talk to my dad about our ministry! I didn’t know he was interested in me until he asked my dad if he could contact me to “see where God might lead this”!

Long story short, my parents and I prayed about it, and about a week later, I got my first email! Dad and Mom read it first, then my mom got me off to the side and handed me dad’s phone. I was elated!

Then the virus that shall not be named struck and quarantine happened.

My mom still hadn’t met Jacob, and I hadn’t met his parents. I knew there was no way our relationship could move forward until we had. But God had plans!

In May, I was allowed to receive one chaperoned phone call a week. And in June, God worked it all out for our families to meet! We spent the first day at their house, and the next, we went to Gettysburg for the first time since 2011! We crawled all over Devil’s Den, and Jacob and I got plenty of time to talk and get to know each other better. The next day, Sunday, June 28th, we were given our parents’ blessing to officially begin courting.

He came down in July to visit, and we came up in August, where I got to meet his extended family! Then in September, he came down for Labor Day weekend.

Mom suggested we finally get some pictures since we forgot the last time we saw each other. I put on a little makeup and curled my hair.

He left to freshen up, and I went out with my sisters to pick a good spot in our wooded area. Jacob came out and surprised me with a dozen roses. Then he told me he would only give roses to someone he really liked… someone he loved.

Now in our family, you can’t say I Love You until you are getting engaged.

I busted out crying, then finally told him yes, I would marry him!

The next few months were a blur as we wrestled with the perfect date, location, and attendants. We were married on December 19th, just nine months and 9 days after we met!

Is that how things typically go in our family? Do I recommend people just getting married willy-nilly?

No.

But this wasn’t anyone else’s story. This was our story. This was God’s plan for us. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world! God makes no mistakes!

A few more fun facts, though…

About two weeks before I met Jacob, I prayed and at last gave up the struggle over being single at 23. It was hard. I referred to it as my Jacob wrestling with the Angel moment. I had no idea I would marry a Jacob 😉. One week before I met Jacob, a close family friend encouraged me to pray that I would meet my future spouse this year. Not get in a relationship per se, just meet them. It was a week to the day before God had our paths cross! Then I found out on my wedding day that my sister had explicitly prayed that I would meet my Husband at Capital Connection. God is so good!
 
Liberty ||

I’ve been thinking about the Founding Fathers a lot of late. What a statesman John Adams was; How much I despise Alexander Hamilton (is he even a Founding Father??); Wishing George Washington had stood up to the Muslim Corsairs; How grateful I am that Thomas Jefferson did stand up to them; How inspiring Patrick Henry’s speeches were. And it got me to thinking… what other stories don’t we know about the Founding Fathers just because they aren’t as famous as Benjamin Franklin? I have no idea who Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, and John Penn are, and they signed for North Carolina! Have you ever heard of John Jay? How about William Floyd? May I encourage you, reader, in this day and age who wants to erase even the famous from history, that you take a little time to read about the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? To research the ones who ratified the Constitution? To read up on the men who lead our people on the field of battle? Who stirred up the people to see what was happening right in front of them? Who are the Sons of Liberty? Was the Boston Massacre really a Massacre? Where they all honorable men? Well, no. Did they make mistakes? Yep, they were human, just like us. But how will you even know who these people are if you don’t take the time to care? How can we lose our history if, in our ignorance, we never had it?

Pick up a book on the Founding Fathers today.
 
Literature ||

So y’all know I love to read! Today, I want to share about a book I finished last month! A full review is coming, but people! The Color Red by Katja L. was. So. Good. If you ever get the opportunity to read it, you really need to! The style is charming and full of words to expand your vocabulary, and it’s written in such a way that it just sucks you right into the main character’s head! Like I said, a full review is coming, but please, add this book to your Goodreads TBR!
 
Well, I need to wrap this up! I hope you are all having a lovely day in the Lord!

What’s going on in your life? Share about your favorite Founding Father! Read any good books of late? Comment below and fill us in!

God bless you, and God bless America!

Ryana Lynn
Jude 22

I am so excited to share a review with you about a new game! It’s not yet on the market, but Lord Willing it will be soon!

Wet a Hook is a fast passed card game created by David and Alisha Robinson of ARRCOM Games and FBN Radio! Think about combining Old Maid, Uno, Phase Ten and Dutch Blitz into one game. That’s Wet a Hook! It took us a few goes to get the hang of the game, but once we did, we all enjoyed it! The artwork is charming for young players and pun-filled as you see the play on names the artist created! And with all the cards this deck comes with, I can easily see kids inventing their own games! The possibilities are endless!

(Pictures to come! I miss laid my set while moving 😉)

If you are interested, please use the photos to help spread the word!
*I received a complementary deck of cards for promotional purposes. All thoughts were my own!*

What is one of your favorite games? Do you enjoy game reviews?

Have a blessed day and God Bless America!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22