What do you want to become when you grow up?

 What would you like to be in the future?

As I sat across my desk and took a glance at my shelf and saw my name splattered across these books, it finally dawned on me that I have written and published 8 children's fiction books (many are yet to be published). Most of which sold out and have been reprinted. My best selling book (31 mornings) not in the picture because it's almost always sold out has been to 5 continents of the world.

Yet, as an SS3 student, when I was asked the question as to what I would want to be in the future, I had no answer.

In my school, all SS1 students were made to take Arts and Science subjects and the school did the placement themselves. I passed both in equal measure and I was sent to Science class. I declined and opted for Art class. While I wasn't sure of what I wanted to become, I was sure of what I didn't want to become.

I was lucky to have been offered two spots in the University- Linguistics and Theatre Arts. I definitely didn't want to be an actress and I so I stepped into the uncertain waters of the former.

During all of these phases of my life, I have always written stories. It took me travelling to London and interning with an NGO called "Children of the Mekong" to realise my true passion was a consolidation of Telling stories and Education. About 7 years later.

I was writing stories for the NGO to showcase the out-of-school.children in Asia and get funding for them and it worked. I thought to myself; I can do this to for my people.

The problem with asking children what they want to becomenis that:
1) You limit them to their current exposure and experience. They cannot think fatther than what they know at the time.

2) You unknowingly make them think what they must become is a particular stop, a final destination. The path to their future is a culmination of all the paths they go through.

3) You force them to limit their options. It is their right to be offered enough choices to choose from. You can only show them many options by showing them the world through different mediums. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that the poorer you are, the more disadvantage your children are because the less opportunities you will have to give them. What can you do? Invest in school clubs, buy books on different subjects for them

4) They inherently are unconsciously compelled to follow in their parent's path. This is not altogether a bad thing. The problem comes when they lack passion and it begins to feel like coercion. There is no fulfillment.

So what questions should Educators and Parents be asking?

"What do you enjoy doing?"
"What are your interests?"
"What problems would you like to solve?"

 Your favourite writer girl, 

Love

Reliable God pt 2

 In my last letter to you on the 27th of January, 2023; I mentioned how 2 events birthed this new song. Now here's the part 2:

I knew in my gut something was wrong with my daughter's leg when she was 8 months old. Everyone around told me it was "normal bowlegs. E go straight as she dey grow".

Our journey began when she was 3 years old. Xrays confirmed she had Blounts. Pharmacy made money from me😄 we bought everything calcium, fish oil. EVERYTHING. Bone broth nko.

It was when she turned 5 years, the journey to Kano began. After consulting EVERY orthopaedic hospital in Kaduna. Yup, name them, we have their card. They could not handle it.
So my mum and I would travel a day before our appointment, arrive the National orthopaedic hospital by 5am and we would still meet people there. Once, we didn't see the doctor till 1pm.

It was there we were told she would have to had surgery. That was the only option but she had to be older. My daughter was in pain and discomfort for years. Let's not even talk about the disgusting stares from people or unsolicited advice from people who knew nothing of what we were dealing with.

My husband came into my life and na two of us begin dey run the Kano trips. Time for surgery finally came but that was when kidnapping was at an all time high especially on the Kano route. We found a hospital here in Kaduna that we didn't know of before. Nifemi had her first surgery time; few days to her birthday. We had taken cute pictures before surgery and I posted on her birthday. So while everyone wished her a happy birthday on social media, she was in excruciatingly pain. I was in pain. I would go outside the room and cry and cry.

Unfortunately, 2 months after surgery, the right leg recurred. Back to almost square one. The pain was something else. A friend connected us to a private hospital in Kano. We went back; trusting God for his protection on the road. After assessing the situation; we were told Nifemi would have to undergo Ilizarov.

In simple terms, illizarov is a treatment in which the bones will be drilled and irons and wires will be passed through the bones to force the bones to straighten out. Nifemi was in tge theatre for about 7 hours. Do you know pain? Multiply it by 100. I kept saying to her "The pain is coming to pass". She still says it till today. She says she can never forget that every pain doesn't stay with us, it comes to pass.

My husband and I with Nifemi stayed 1 month in the hospital. One day while still in the hospital, the xray was not looking good. Nifemi asked me what was going on. I told her the report was great. Then she said "Mummy promise me I will never have to go through this pain". I told she would never. Then I went outside to cry."Please Papa, don't let my baby pass through this again. Please go into her legs and fix what needs to be fixed". Amidst my tears, tge remaining part of this song came to me. The next day, the doctors were excited about the xray result. There was a quick turnaround. And somebody will tell me there is no God?

We came home with the irons still on her leg for another 2 months. Dorathy and I were cleaning the irons twice a day everyday. She resumed school. We sewed baggy uniforms and clothes to cover her leg. One thing I was sure about, we were not going to hide. My daughter is a walking miracle.

Then we went back to Kano again. Yay! The irons and wires had given all they were to give. Then her leg was casted for another 6 weeks.

Then she learnt how to walk again. Then we were back to Kano again for implantation of clips surgery to prevent the bones having a mind of their own. Nifemi will continue to have regular checkups until she is an adult.

God proved himself to be:
Good
Kind
Dependable
Reliable
A promise keeper

I would love to hear your own stories of how God came through big time for you.

May you be carried in the arms of Abba.

Please download #ReliableGod by me on the link below and SHARE thus sound with EVERYBODY.

https://kingdomboiz.com/download-mp3-love-ebunlola-samuel-reliable-god/

Credits
Producer: Lakesbeat
Director: Emmanuel Ahiome
Male vocals: Ehigocho Samuel, Emmanuel Ahiome
Female vocals: Love Ebunlola Samuel, Bamidele Victor, Sandra Udoh



Love, light and sunshine,

Your favourite writer girl,
Love

Reliable God pt 1

 Two major events birthed this song:

The day we moved in into our home, I waited till everyone was asleep before I came into the living room.

I couldn't believe we were finally 'here'. I sat in the dark but all the lights in the compound shone through the window pane as we hadn't fixed the curtains. It was a beautiful sight and I started to cry.

One Friday, a year before we moved in, my husband came to my office and told me we had to leave. I told him I still had a lot of work. Then he dropped a bombshell "They said they are on the way to demolish our house" 😭 Building that was already standing. The news was shocking. How? Why?

We gathered our children. We got to the site and all sat on bare ground. Crying, praying. 'They' came and apparently someone (a person we know) had reported us for an infringement. A miracle happened that day. Although we were made to stop work for a year, our house was not demolished.

I kept prophesying that "We will build houses and INHABIT them". I burst out in worship in our first day and the words below came to me.


You keep your promises
You never fail me God
You are the promise keeper

I recorded it. I sang these 3 line for weeks.

Another event brought the remaining lyrics of the song 🙏

Your favourite writer girl,
Love.