Celebrating Three Years

Dear Readers,

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since I sat and wrote Celebrating Two Years. It has been a year of tremendous growth and development with over 300 new articles added from about 100 new authors. Our community of readers has close to doubled in this past year as well! My greatest pleasure, and the greatest pleasure of every woman who contributes to the site, is in seeing the impact this site has on our lives. I travel around the world speaking and everywhere I go, I am stopped by someone who has a story to share about how she has learned from, gained from, or been helped by an article.

And it is not only you, the readers, who are moved. But also the writers. I can't tell you how many emails and calls I get from authors who felt that sharing their experience and getting such tremendous feedback helped them with their struggle or situation. We truly are a growing family of women throughout the world, and I look forward as we celebrate our 3^rd birthday to continuing to expand exponentially!

It is not only you, the readers, who are movedAlong with the good news, we also unfortunately lost two of our wonderful writers this past year. They are women I never met in person but whom I connected to deeply through our email correspondence. They opened their hearts and souls through their writing and will be sorely missed.

Gwendolyn Davis was retired from the Air Force, and lived in Birmingham, Alabama, teaching high school students with learning differences. She was the mother of two. Gwendolyn passed away on March 18, 2008 after an illness which she bravely and openly wrote about on TheJewishWoman.org. To read her writings, please click here

Jampa Williams was a single mother, poet and writer in Connecticut, who inspired us with her stories of overcoming personal challenge. She passed away on Dec. 23, 2008. To read her writings, please click here

Gwendolyn and Jampa used their hardships to motivate change and growth, both in themselves and others. They did not allow their challenges to stop them and through the most difficult of times they kept moving forward.

May we use the lessons that Gwendolyn, Jampa, and so many others have taught us to strengthen ourselves and others as we move forward in our individual lives and as a community of Jewish women. We can't wait to share this new year with you together!

Sara Esther Crispe,

Editor, TheJewishWoman.org