Gratitude and Crista Cowan

Silly Crista (with Lorilee Wagner who is also a dear lady)

In this month of thankfulness, I'm feeling the need to express my gratitude for my dearest friend Crista Cowan (Ancestry.com/The Barefoot Genealogist).  I honestly think Crista and I are like Anne Shirley and Diana Berry-bosom friends and kindred spirits "to whom I can confide my inmost soul."  It is hard to put into words how much my friendship with Crista has meant to me.  She is one of the greatest blessings of my life. 

I'm not sure how I got so lucky as to be able to be close friends with her.  Well I am a little--I stalked her one year at SLIG and I love making healthy dinners for her (we've both been recently diagnosed as diabetic). But in return it is hard to quantify how much that has changed my life. But from the first night we had dinner together at SLIG, we clicked.  We have the same world view.  We care about the same things.  We usually have the same opinions on people and situations. We both want to save the world in the same way.  It's like we've known each other for much longer than just this lifetime.

I am privileged every time I get to spend time with her.  There are so many who clamor for Crista's attention.  I once called her "she who gets 10,000 likes with every sneeze and 12,000 comments with every cough." or something along those lines.  There are so many who clamor for her talents and skills.  She changes lives right and left with her storytelling skills and unbelievable research talents.  She uncovers family stories and finds adoptees' lineages like the rest of us blink.  She changes lives daily. She makes it look easy.  And what I love about Crista the most is that she understands the power that this family history holds.  She knows what we are doing in genealogy and finds it a sacred duty.  She is truly a woman of light and power like no one else on earth.



Crista has made an immeasurable difference in my life and in our business.  I couldn't begin to list all of the things I have learned from her.  I bask in her passion for family history.  Even though we often talk late into the night, I often can't sleep afterward because I am so excited about the ideas she's brought me.  I am so grateful for how Crista's breadth of experience enriches my professional life, but I'm even more grateful for her influence in my personal life.  She is truly a great treasure and I honored to call her my friend.