When I was about 12 or 13 years old, my all time favorite music artist was a woman by the name of Karen Wheaten!  She was my Christian “idol” in a way…although I didn’t worship her…I DID however want to be like her in every way possible!!  I wanted her southern accent, I wanted to wear pretty dresses like her, I wanted beautiful hair like hers, and I wanted to sing to thousands of people just like her and have God touch people through the powerful songs she sang.  I wanted God to use me in the same way He used her!  She would travel the world and minister to millions…and I wanted to do that too!!!

So when she came to Oakland, California for a big Christian conference being held at some major hotel, you can guess how excited I was!  My Mom and I went together, even staying in the hotel together which was incredibly fun!  The conference was even more exciting and wonderful than I had ever imagined!  AND there was Karen…singing her heart out for Jesus and I was in awe!  I should mention here, that I had been taking voice lessons for several years at that time and was already singing mostly her songs to old people in convalescent homes!! 😉  They are a good audience to practice on because it’s hard for them to hear very well, and they also can’t escape very fast! 😉

Then it happened.  It was after one of the afternoon sessions at the conference that my Mom and I decided to head up to our room in the hotel.  We got in the elevator and do you know who got in after us?  Yep…Karen Wheaton!  Oh my gosh?!?!  I was so excited!!!  This was God blessing me…I mean, how else could this have happened?! The doors shut and my head started swimming fast with things I wanted to say…but the most AWFUL thing suddenly happened…my mouth would NOT open!  I think the shock of it all hit me so hard, I suddenly became very shy and star struck at being in the elevator with Karen Wheaton. Oh no!!!   I began to panic in my mind!  BUT…cue the superhero music as my mom suddenly rescued the day!!  She is VERY quick when it comes to me acting weird (no comment, please) so she figured out quick what was happening! After only a few seconds of painful silence, she did something I will forever love her for.  She began to speak to Karen Wheaton FOR me. 🙂  I’m so not kidding!

“Hi Karen, this is my daughter, Tami.”  She gestured to me, as if prompting me to say something. As Karen said hi to me, all I could do was smile weirdly back.  I was still speechless!  So my mom continued.  “She loves your music and sings many of your songs.”  I was hypnotized by how much Karen just sparkled with her sparkly jewelry, sparkly make-up and her sparkly dress.  She was even more beautiful up close!!! She said some nice things to me while I simply smiled dumbly back.  But my mom was on a roll!!  “She’s even won some trophy’s singing your songs, Karen!”  I felt like I was going numb and thought I might just pass out there in the elevator right in front of Karen Wheaton!!  They chatted on very naturally for a while longer while I just smiled on like a weird elevator statue (at least I THINK my face was smiling…I had sort of blanked out at that point and don’t remember much). The elevator finally came to our floor, we got out, said goodbye, the doors shut and that was that.

Did I feel bad that I was so shy in the elevator?  Nope!  I squealed when we got to our room!!!  I was BEYOND excited!!! All I could think was that I got to meet Karen Wheaton in an elevator ride!!!  Who cares that I didn’t speak a peep to her…she knows I exist and that I sing her music…that was enough for me!  For the rest of that conference and for that month really, I was floating on a very “sparkly” cloud!   Do you know that later on I wrote her a letter and she actually wrote me back?!?!  She still ministers in song to this day…and although I don’t follow her as closely as I did back then, I still remember that special  day that I met Karen Wheaton in the elevator. 🙂

With God, all things are possible!! 🙂  I knew He loved me.

Oh!  By the way, that last picture of me was at my first singing recital in about 7th or 8th grade…I was so nervous my sweaty hands sort of wet crinkled the front of my skirt!! 😉  I hit this huge long note that was way off key…it sounded horrible but everyone smiled just the same!  Oh, and Karen, if you ever read this…thank you for inspiring me to always trust God and to simply fall in love with Jesus!