Behind the Scenes at Deeply Rooted.

It's easy to type, "I've been busy" and leave it at that but busy doesn't quite sum up all that I've been doing. Several of you have asked me what goes into making this magazine and so I figured I would share a little bit of the "behind the scenes."For starters, I have been doing a TON of e-mailing. I'm not even kidding when I say that I probably send and receive 20 emails a day. There is a lot of coordinating with each of our 40 contributors/staff and if I don't stay on top of my e-mails, I will suffer the consequences later. The planning stage is also huge. I need to make sure that everything fits together within our issue-specific theme and Excel spreadsheets have saved my life. Keep in mind that since we are a quarterly publication, we plan issues by season and all written pieces and matching photography/illustrations need to match that season accordingly. It is a bit difficult to assign spring pictures to photographers who live up North and so that must be taken into consideration. Some articles/art pieces are assigned, others are not.  Another large chunk of my time is spent reviewing concepts, finished articles, submissions and approving the art that is sent to me.  In addition to that, I've been trying to sustain momentum with our funding campaign. I don't want to sound like a broken record and say the same thing every time so I try to find unique ways to encourage people to support. In all our IG posts, I share words of encouragement through things God has been teaching me and work those words back to focus on our campaign. There was also a lot of initial work in drawing up our statement of faith, contractual agreements and building the website, but thankfully those things don't need much modification from here on out. I'm also very grateful for the various staff members and willing contributors that I have been able to assign jobs to help take a load off of me.So, what happens if we don't reach our goal? Unfortunately, we will not receive any of the pledged money and everyone who gave will be refunded. Will I be sad about this? Not really. From the very beginning of this campaign, I told God that this is His project and I want His will to be done. I was so torn about how to proceed with this campaign (go to print or just do digital) and after seeking council and praying over the matter, I decided to boldly take a step of faith, knowing that God has the power to make this happen but also knowing that He would close the door if this wasn't where He wanted me going. Regardless of the outcome, this campaign has helped us reach hundreds and hundreds of women who had no idea about what we are trying to do, and that makes me very happy. (I am pretty excited about the fact that we are only $55 away from being 50% funded!)Thank you to all who have been encouraging me and supporting this project. Several people have asked how I do all of this and my response is, "It's not me, it's all God. If it were up to me, I would've quit a long time ago." And it's true. This is hard work and I have to balance it with my role as a wife and mother to make sure I am not letting it overtake my first callings. But God has been using this entire process to teach, challenge me and grow my faith. I am both humbled and honored that He would use me for such a task. All honor and glory and praise to Him and Him alone. ^Please consider supporting financially by ordering our very first issue here.