TanyaDennis.com

BIO

Hello! Welcome to my site. I am so glad you've come. My name is Tanya Dennis and I am a child of God, a writer and a mom. My greatest desire is to help others recognize the extraordinary God in ordinary life. He is truly awesome and in every detail. We just need to seek Him. To know where I'm going and what I’m doing, you may want to know where I began.

Life Beginnings

I'm a country girl at heart; a native Hoosier. (For those unfamiliar with America's Midwest...and basketball, that's what we call someone from Indiana.) I was born in 1976 to a family of farmers. My dad showed Arabian horses and drove semi while my mom raised four kids and ran 140 acres of fields and livestock. The farm is in my blood, but not my memory. My parents divorced when I was seven. They sold the farm and we moved to town - that is, a map-dot in the middle of farms. The big city had two stop lights.

Since then I have lived in a ghetto of Philadelphia, a basement in Bosnia, the mountains of Switzerland, an apartment in New York and now a house in Jersey. I attended Philadelphia College of Bible (now Philadelphia Biblical University) where I earned a B.S. in Bible. There I studied intercultural missions and met a man far too good for me. Rick (yes, the same man) and I were married in 1999. My careers have included humanitarian work, church-planting and finance coordination. My current role as a mother of two toddlers is proving to be most challenging.

Challenging, definitely, but oh so entertaining! You'd love my kids. Isabel (a.k.a "Ellie") is the sweetest three-year-old I've ever known. Her big blue eyes and sandy-blonde curls charm everyone she meets. She's total girl; a little drama queen who loves princesses, dancing and weddings. Then there's Zach, our rough-and-tumble boy. Just seventeen months younger than his sister, Zach is sensitive, but assertive. He's going to make a wonderfully strong man of God one day, if we can point him in the right direction. He loves trucks, soccer and dogs. He's being trained (by Dad and Grandad) to be a pitcher for the Yankees. God uses Ellie and Zach, two wonder-packed creatures, constantly to point me to Him. It is these daily encounters with God that fuel my writing.

Faith Beginnings

I met God when I was fifteen. Okay, I had met God many times in the years before then, but not happily. According to my mom, I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was five. It was after VBS. She and I prayed together on my bunk bed.

The problem was this God allowed my life to be torn apart. A god who would allow a divorce and the intertwined nastiness to interrupt my life was not one I wanted to serve. But I couldn't escape it. My mom clung to her faith. She dragged us to church every time the doors were open.

This only strengthened my rebellion. By age fourteen I was skipping school and sneaking around with boys far too old for me. It wasn't long before I got caught. Mom grounded me for a year. A lot of parents say you're grounded for that long, but few stick to it. My mom did. During that year my only permitted extra-curricular activity was church. This led to me meeting God again, happily this time.

I was doing "homework" for youth group when God brought me to Romans 8:38-39 - "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." It was like being struck in the face. If none of those things can separate me from God's love, who am I to even try? God loves me - in spite of all I have done and all I have not done. He loves you, too – just as you are.

That day I dedicated my life to God. Wherever He wanted me, I would go. Whatever He wanted me to do, I would complete enthusiastically. This has taken many different forms. I once thought I could only fulfill my promise by working overseas as a lifetime missionary, but God has taught me that, as His child, I am already a missionary wherever I am. In the city, in the country, in America or elsewhere, I only need to follow Him. I am a living sacrifice...working in an office, scrapbooking with friends, making meals for shut-ins, raising my kids...writing. It is all for Him; for others to see Him in me.

Writer beginnings

I have always written. My mom recently gave me a book I wrote in fifth grade. Thankfully, I have improved since then. I never shared my writing publicly. It was something just for me. It was way to clarify my thoughts and feelings; a way to express what my middle-child syndrome wouldn't allow me to verbalize.

God didn't want it left there. After Rick and I were married, I felt Him nudging me to write for others as well. There were two problems: I didn't believe I had anything worth saying and I didn't know where to start. I shared with Him what I thought were valid excuses. He let me talk, but didn't let me get away with it. He kept nudging and whispering. Finally, after enduring six years of nagging, I gave in.

I found a writing challenge through a quick search online. It gave me one week to put together an article on "purpose." I wrote something, deleted it and wrote something else. After praying one more time, I submitted my entry. It looked like obedience, but really it was me trying to prove God wrong. By trying and losing, I would finally stop those irritating nudges. Well, I won. A couple months later, I was contacted by an editor who wanted to publish my article. My piece, the first piece I ever shared publicly, was featured in FaithWriters Magazine, September 2006. And that was a whole new beginning.

If you've read this far, you deserve some Random Tidbits

Tanya's childhood hometown is affectionately nicknamed "Turtle Town, U.S.A." It is rumored a Jeep-sized turtle was found there in the 40s. Every summer the whole town celebrates a week of "Turtle Days" complete with a parade, carnival and turtle races.

Until she reached her teens, Tanya's eyes and birthmark (a small mole on her right cheek) changed colors with her mood. Green was good. Blue was not.

Before she and Rick were engaged, Tanya wanted to have eleven children, five natural and six adopted. Now she's content with just two.

At different stages of life she has been told she resembles Drew Barrymore, Uma Thurman and Reese Witherspoon.

Tanya has worked as an interpreter for ASL (American Sign Language) in college and churches. Out of practice now, she is no longer fluent, but does teach an ASL class for parents and infants each summer.