Dear Readers,

Hi. I’m Heidi Barry, the new editor of Christiana Magazine. Even though I’ve been involved with Christiana since the second issue, and I run the website, I’m afraid ya’ll don’t know me very well. So I thought I’d introduce myself properly.

I’m eighteen years old (I’ll be nineteen in June; goodness that’s coming up! Time flies so quickly!) and I live in Peoria, Arizona. As you’d expect, I have a mom and dad. They are great parents; I love them a lot. Also, as you’d expect, I have siblings. Anna, my older sister, is 22 and my best friend. We’re roommates, we go to school together, we work together, we stamp and scrapbook together, and have crazy nicknames for each other. She is a classic first born; outgoing, loves people, just a tad bossy. My younger brother, David, is 16, almost 17. We laugh together. He is such a clown; a classic third born. (I, by the way, am a classic second born.)

This is probably a bit unexpected, but we don’t have any dogs or cats or birds or guinea pigs, or even monkeys or sugar gliders! Nope. No furry or feathered friends. We have two iguanas. Surprised? Most people are. Anna’s allergic to fur and feathers so we went for something a bit more prehistoric. T-Rex and Kallie are our little babies and we dote on them something awful.
As for my life...well, it seems like one day I woke up and some cruel joker had replaced our nice 24 hour day with something much shorter, and now I never seem to have enough time to get everything done! This is my first semester at junior college...if you could call it a real semester; I’m only taking two classes. That’s what worries me; if I don’t have enough time to get everything done now, how am I going to do it when I have a full load of classes? (“Do not worry about tomorrow.” Sigh. Okay.)

I also volunteer at the Crisis Pregnancy Center. This was a giant step for me; I am an incredibly shy person and I don’t like talking to strangers on the phone, let alone in person! And here I am counseling!

Oh yes, I’m also the family chauffeur. Anna and David call me “James.” You know, “Home, James!” I knew this would happen when I got my driver’s license, which is why I put off getting it until last September. And now I am “James.” I drive David to work. I drive Anna to work. I drive Anna to school.  I do errands. (My dad still drives himself around, though. I think I scare him ?.)

And that, in a nutshell, is me. My life may not be big, but it’s a nice life. Things got a little wild after my grandma died last April (see the Nov/Dec 1998 issue), but things have calmed down a bit since then. But life has a way of getting really exciting really fast. If anything weird happens, I’ll let you know.

In the mean time, I hope you feel that you know me a little bit better.  Now that I’ve been brave and have taken the first step of opening myself up to you, I hope that you’ll open yourself up to me. Who are you? Why do you read this magazine? What is God doing in your life? Please write and tell me (you can send me an e-mail at abatis@juno.com). I can’t wait to get to know you.
 

                          In Christ,