Denise, there you are...

"Denise, there you are..."

These are the words that dance through my head these days.  Sometimes I think of framing these words and hanging them on my wall.  Why?  Because these words have opened up a whole new world for me that I could've never imagined.  Let me explain..

Back in June, I posted a comment on the 'Following Atticus' book Facebook page in response to someone else's comment regarding their divorce.  Their comment resonated with me and what I was going through and I had found great inspiration from the "Following Atticus' page and so I shared a small paragraph's worth of my thoughts and what the page meant to me.  Well, much to my surprise, the author, Tom Ryan, left a personal comment to me expressing how my comment had touched him.  Then he made another comment and asked me to email him.  Now, I should tell you that he responds to his fan's comments all the time.  That is not a rare thing.  However, I hardly ever commented on the page and never thought my comment would be noticed so it surprised me greatly.  So, I emailed as requested but had no idea why I was emailing so I didn't know what to say.  I think I said something like, "You asked me to email you, so here I am."  It almost sounds rude, doesn't it?  I didn't mean for it to but I had no clue why I was emailing and so I had no idea what to say.  So then Tom emailed back and said he hoped his request to email didn't make me feel awkward.  Truth be told...it did a little, but I was also super excited to get an email from him.  I mean...he's the author of my favorite book!  So he said he just wanted to let me know I wasn't alone and that there were many others going through similar things.  He was just being kind and supportive to someone in need.  That's how Tom is...very caring.   So I emailed back and thanked him for his kind words and that was the end of that....or so I thought.

On July 30th, it was announced on the Following Atticus page that 12 out of the near 16,000 facebook fans were going to be chosen to go on a hike with Tom and Atticus in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  This hike was going to take place on October 5, 2013.  I read this post at work as I glanced at my phone while walking down a school hallway.  My heart immediately started pounding and I began excitedly telling all my coworkers about the hike.  They had heard me talking about this book before so they knew exactly what I was referring to but since they hadn't read the book or followed the page, they didn't really understand why I was so excited about this hike.  They were trying to figure out why I would want to go hiking in New Hampshire with a stranger and his dog.  Nevertheless, I couldn't stop talking about it.

Coincidentally...or maybe not, I don't know.  I believe in everything happening for a reason so I tend to think it wasn't coincidence.  My mother and I had been planning a trip to Jackson, NH for the past year and had talked about it even longer.  But we were seriously planning this time and had chosen that very weekend as the weekend we would go.  So when I saw this post about the hike, it felt like destiny.  I just kept saying to myself, "What are the odds that they would have this hike on the very weekend I was going to be there anyway."  But of course, I am one of 16,000 fans who would love to go on that hike so the real life chances of going were very slim.  I shared the post about the hike with my mom and asked her if she had seen it?  Before she responded, I made this comment, "This makes me want to cry.  I mean..what are the odds of him doing this at the very time we planned to be there?  I have to go!"  I really can't describe it but I felt such a strong pull about this hike.  Mom's response was, "I saw it.  Did you want to hike with him?"  Ok, really mom?  I just got done saying it makes me want to cry and I have to go and you ask if I want to?  That made me laugh.  But YES I want to go!

So the requirements to enter for this chance to hike was to simply send in an email with your reasons that you wish to be chosen.  So as soon as I had a second to type up an email, I did.  It ended up being 9pm before I had that second so I submitted my email kind of late that night and figured they probably already chose their hikers earlier in the day while I was still working.  One thing I had decided though, before I even sent the email, was that if I wasn't chosen, I was going to climb a mountain anyway that weekend while I was there.  It would probably be a smaller climb since I wouldn't know what I was doing by myself but I felt like I needed to be on a mountaintop, with or without Tom and Atticus...but preferably with.  My divorce was set to be final very soon and I couldn't think of a more perfect way to start my new life than on a mountaintop.

And then it happened.  

Within five minutes of submitting my email, I received one back from "Tom Ryan."  The email notification flashed on my computer screen with the first few words of the email which read, "Denise, there you are..."  My heart started thumping so hard I thought it might burst right out of my chest.  I took a deep breath and then I opened the email to read the rest.  I was chosen!!!  Tom said he was hoping I would submit an email and he was holding a spot for me.  What??  Why??  I didn't care...not at that moment.  I leapt off my bed and ran to my son's room and told him, "I won, I won!!  I was chosen for the hike!"  My daughter, Alexia, came rushing out of her room to see what the commotion was all about and we end up in the hallway together as I'm repeating over and over again how I won and I'm going to hike with Tom and Atticus.  I had the biggest smile on my face, bigger than I've ever had.  I actually tried to stop smiling and I couldn't.  Alexia had never seen me so excited about something and so she said she had to record "this" and with iphone already in hand, she started recording.

Eventually, I settled down and responded to the email profusely thanking Tom for choosing me for the hike.  I then told him about the video that Alexia had taken and said I'll have to show him sometime so he can see how happy I was to be chosen.  He said he would love to see it and if I wanted, I could try texting it to him if the file wasn't too big.  So I did.  I sent my favorite author a video of me acting like a complete fool, laughing and crying with makeup worn off, hair a mess, and house a mess, but at that moment I didn't care about any of that.  I was going to hike with Tom and Atticus and I was the happiest person in the world.  And guess what?  I'm still the happiest person in the world.

The hike is this coming Saturday.  I still can't believe I was really chosen and that I really get to hike with Tom and Atticus.  And for icing on the cake.....Tom is picking me up from the airport in Boston and I get to visit with him while holding and petting Atticus and Will for the 3 hour car ride back to Jackson, NH.  I am one lucky girl!  I hope no one wakes me up from this incredible dream.  

More to come after the hike...

The Video:  Reaction to being chosen for the hike with Tom and Atticus.