Anna M. Aquino

Yesterday after church I’ll admit all I wanted to do was to take a nap. However my youngest had other ideas in her mind. She let me sleep for a bit, and then kept waking me up because she was bored. She really wanted to play a game with her, and alas eventually I relented to her cuteness over ‘checking my eyelids for holes.’ However the game she really wanted to play was Battleship. This surprised me because quite frankly my youngest, who will soon be turning six, is not the type of kiddo with a long attention span and the kind of mind that would think complex strategies. The game is a tad over her age span. So I did my best continuing to repeat myself on how one plays the game and I was thinking she had the general idea. So we began. It was obvious this kiddo hadn’t quite understood the game when she started asking me the same coordinates over and over again. Then she’d hit one of mine and not really attempt to sink it. Finally I began to realize that 99% of all ...

Yes, I usually write blogs Monday and Wed, but this story is fresh in my mind so I guess you’re getting my biweekly blog back to back this week.  Dan and I have been working out together when we can at the gym that the company he works for has for their employees. While I’m usually an elliptical girl for my cardio, yesterday I decided to take the treadmill next to him and go for a jog with him. About at minute 13 I decided to close my eyes. I want to be very clear here that in my head I only closed my eyes for a minute. I was getting into the zone. Really I was, but the next thing I knew I hear Dan yelling at me! “Ann! Ann!” I opened my eyes in a jerk long enough to fall off the side of the treadmill, in a rolling heap, jump back on in a full stumble trip landing, and start laughing so hard I could barely walk. Really, if I’d had a fake side panel of judges judging my dismount and reentry I had to have scored an 8 for recovery alone. “You fell asleep jogging!...

I’m five weeks into my Southern Book Tour now. Standing at book signings and talking to people has been an exciting and fun thing. As I’ve mentioned before going into a secular book store with a Christian book is and can be like a sea of going into a shark’s lair but as a whole the questions, stares and conversations don’t bother me. Many people actually want to shake my hand whether they’re in the church or not. When they hear what the book is about, I’ve had the most tattooed dark haired Goth looking people get excited at the message. Sadly the concept of Christians being hypocritical is something people agree on, and their just glad someone who is a Christian is saying it. Truthfully I think: the guy who tried to start an argument with me on Healthcare reform, or the lady who had missed my point and later I discovered was of the B’aih faith, or the Christian Science lady - just makes for good stories. Yesterday I sat in front of the Hunger Games books and got to talk to a wo...

Years ago while still in high school, I can remember struggling with something in my Christian walk. It really annoyed me when someone started to talk about “having to praise God, or tell Him how good He was.” The way it was coming across was doing that just so you the person could get blessed and I didn’t get it. It sounded rather manipulative to me. Also I kept asking God, “Why do I have to tell you how awesome you are? Surely you know because you’re God! Really God, do you have an ego problem that you have to be reminded of all of this?” I suppose that me being this honest about struggling with this is making some of you laugh, but follow me for a moment here. Then one day as I was setting in World Harvest Church in Columbus, OH, I can remember I felt as if the Holy Spirit whooshed over me and suddenly my issues with this seemed to fizzle away and disintegrate before my very eyes. It was as if I could feel the Holy Spirit drop deep down within me, “It’s just like a parent...

Greetings all my super fabulous people! It was a very busy past several days, and I am excited to get to share with you! On Wednesday I got to preach at Freedom Life Church in Kissimmee ( www.freedom-life.org ), which was an awesome treat for me. On Thursday I sat on a Roundtable for God Day ( www.GodDay.com ) if you haven’t heard of it, God Day is going to take place on 12/12/12 in Orlando, FL. I’m very excited about it and I recommend you check out the website. On Friday I had a book signing and radio interview in Ormond Beach, and on Saturday I had a book signing at the Books-A-Million in Sanford. My book signing on Saturday didn’t sell as many as I’m used to, but there must have been an anointing that day for starry eyed young girls who got to meet a writer. I think the purpose of me going there was filled. I had three different young women come up to me with admiration in their eyes asking me, “Are you really really really a writer?” “Yes,” I nodded to reassure them. ...

Last Saturday while I went to my book signing in Leesburg, Dan took the kids to Calvary Assembly for an Easter Egg hunt and other events that were happening on the grounds. When I came home I heard all about the pony rides, the hanging donut my youngest kept trying to eat, and waiting in line for face painting. Dan relayed to me that he’d forgotten to bring the girls’ Easter baskets. I would have done the same thing. I guess at first he thought the girls wouldn’t be able to get eggs because they didn’t have any container to hold them in. So he tried to explain to them, “Guys I’m sorry, maybe another time.” The girls were disappointed and he felt bad. He told me that as he began walking back to the car, he happen to look in a bush, and someone had left a plastic grocery bag there. It was perfect to give to the youngest and let her hunt Easter eggs. Sure some may call it a coincidence, or maybe littering, but that bag allowed my youngest to get eggs. There was a need and it w...

I hope you all had an amazing Resurrection Weekend. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed. On Friday my family and I had the awesome privilege to view the “Savior” an original modern passion musical about Jesus, His life, fulfillment of prophesy, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. It was performed at Calvary Assembly in downtown Orlando. My daughters sat transfixed to the stage. They loved it. My youngest who is 5 kept turning to me with questions, and statements that as an adult I thought were the cutest things in the world. I’ll admit I might be a little bias, but her passion and enthusiasm made me think. When Jesus was being beaten she looked at me with almost tears in her eyes. When the narrator said they spit at him, compassionately she said, “Oh mommy, that’s not nice. If I would have been there I would have given him a hug.” I was grateful that throughout these scenes the action and beating was taking place behind a scrim and only shadows could be seen, so...

While I was at the book signing on Saturday in St. Petersburg, Dan took the girls to the beach at Treasure Island. I had packed them a lunch of peanut butter / jelly sandwiches and other snacks. The way I saw it was a good excuse for some quality time with the girls and their dad. The story that I’m about to relate is what Dan told me. But I couldn’t resist telling this story, because there is a good lesson in it. Dan was telling me that when he and the girls stopped to have their picnic on the beach, he took out the food and they began to settle down and eat. He had his sandwich and he wasn’t paying attention. He would take a bite and look the other direction. Suddenly he felt something jar him quickly and he turned to his sandwich and it was still in his hand. He thought “huh, that’s odd.” So he took another bite and turned his head. Like a shock wave, he felt it again. This time either the bird was too slow, or Dan was too fast because he saw the seagull. It had spotted ...

On Saturday Dan, myself, and the girls drove to St. Petersburg, FL. I had a book signing and Dan took the girls to the beach. The book store was cute, and the owner was very nice but my first reaction wasn’t one of excitement. I began to get a tad worried. After Dan took the girls, I realized there weren’t a whole lot of people coming in and out of this store. As I mentioned last week going into a Books-A-Million store, those are fun because you get a lot of traffic at your table and it’s a real chance to be in the marketplace ministering, but in this situation that wasn’t the case. So I walked around the store praying, I sat praying, and I kept thinking “Did I miss it God?” I was there for an hour and I don’t think I shared with anyone about my book, and I began to tell myself this wasn’t wasted time but a lesson well learned. That maybe I should have prayed more before putting my book tour together. I reasoned within myself that at least my family was having a fun afternoon...