After prayerful contemplation and consideration, I am writing to wish a fond goodbye to our show, To Be Real.  Being part of the Des Moines Local Live family has been a wonderful opportunity and a fabulous journey.  I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with my fabulous and gorgeous co-hosts, Amy Main and Mona Lillard.  I am grateful to Mac, Rooster and Brett for giving me the chance to follow my passion – helping people build healthy and strong relationships.  I will miss our Wednesday afternoon time together.

I am fortunate to go to work every day, doing something that I feel is my calling.  The men, women and children walking through my office door bless my life daily.  As I have always said, if we have a heartbeat, we have baggage – we just need to learn how to carry it gracefully.  These wonderful people are brave enough to seek assistance in sorting through the baggage of their lives and sharing their stories.  I not only am meeting great people, but I am also blessed with the opportunity of watching God work in their lives.  I am humbled and honored to walk next to them on their personal journeys.  I love my work!

With that said, I am also unfortunate.  When my schedule becomes overflowing with people who are hurting, it is good for business but a sad commentary on the hurt of our families, friends and neighbors.  When measuring my clients’ needs against the time commitment required of the show, my clients must come first.  Because of the increased needs at New Hope (www.grownewhope.com) I need to open more time for my clients which leaves less time to learn how to run DMLL computers/programming/and networking.  Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day!

I will continue to blog on relationship topics as I am able (www.jackiejoens.com) and quarterly I will facilitate a class (Holistic Self-Identity) at Lutheran Church of Hope.  My love of people and their longing for healthy relationships has not changed and I will continue as I have the opportunity to bring these topics to the discussion table.

I believe that for every door that closes, another opens.  I am not sure what the future holds, but am confident that God will direct me in his time and in the direction that he desires.

My prayers are with you all today as you continue your journey of living and loving.  Thank you for your listenership and your involvement with To Be Real.  Thank you to all of our guests for sharing their limited time and their wealth of good insight and knowledge.  Thank you to my wonderful co-hosts, Mona Lillard and Amy Main.  Working with them has been a most wonderful addition to my life! 

Blessings!
Jackie