Victoria was the "Storytime" leader for the children's program at the Denver Public Library

As a Brownie leader, Victoria got the girls involved with her Adopt a Grandparent Program at an assisted living center.

My service to the community grew with my daughters – straight from the womb! I became pregnant myself and had both my children while working there at the CPC. My next ventures seemed to parallel the incremental points of my daughters’ young lives. I became the dramatic “Story Time” reader in the children’s program at the library after innumerable hours of practice in my own home! I worked at the Children’s Hospital after seeing the devastating need for volunteer “stand-in-moms” when I was there with my own daughter. This particular avenue of volunteering taught me a huge lesson in personal purpose and also planted a seed to where I am at today (read story below). I volunteered at the elementary school where my daughters attended, and became a Brownie leader in their troop when the time came. Along with the consistent work with my titles presented in this website, I also made appearances and spoke at elementary school D.A.R.E. programs with the local police, at teen rallies, and even to college audiences. All of these many different experiences broadened my perspective of the countless opportunities every single person has to make a huge difference in the lives of others - as well as build a new purpose in their own life that maybe they never thought was there waiting for them. 

In closing, may all the parents reading this discover what I also did: there is no greater privilege, peace, or “powerful purpose” than being an enthusiastic parent involved in our children’s lives. Our biggest impact on the world is impacting the children we bring into the world. When our time is done, their time is come, and we will still be impacting the world through them- by the time we spent with them. 

A Story of Powerful Purpose

Not all “powerful purpose” needs to be found by going out and setting the world on fire. You can be used in providential moments if you listen to your “heart voice” and take the courage to obey it. I learned this lesson in the most remarkable experience that illustrates the point perfectly:

In my first months of working at the Children’s hospital, I had come to the room of a tall, thin girl named Lindsay Tall. I knew immediately in my heart that she was anorexic though she didn’t show it so much physically. Being an older girl who didn’t need the coddling and attention, I tucked away my children’s books, gave a couple magazines and a smile was on my way. I got on the elevator to go down to the burn unit and I was arrested in my steps. As much as I wanted to avoid it, my “heart voice” (God) was telling me I was suppose to meet that girl and I needed to go talk to her. I was so resistant for I had never talked to an anorexic girl now that I am on the outside of that dark world I once lived in. I never wanted to. I used to pray that God would not someday require of me to minister to anorexics. I acted out my resistance and pressed the button for the 3rd floor. But, as I descended, there was an almost tangible presence in that elevator with me that seemed to guard the door of the elevator, not letting me get off. I sighed deeply and pressed the button again to go back up stairs. I prayed under my breath, “Lord, I don’t know what you want me to say or do when I walk through that girl’s door. You are going to have to fill my mouth with words – and my heart with love. I feel empty.”

Victoria took her "story time" experience to Children's Hospital for 3 years.

I simply obeyed and trusted God to use an empty vessel. I realize now, that is all that is really required. I entered the room, she smiled broadly and admitted to me she had this feeling inside that she was suppose to talk to me when I had left. I opened my mouth and, little did I know, the words that flowed for the next 15 minutes were then etched permanently on her heart. I briefly visited her one more time after that, giving her my Mrs. Denver-America picture so she would have it as a focal point of hope that someone “who has been there” is now on the “other side” rooting for her. The next week she had been released from the hospital. I didn’t think anything of it, wondered why it seemed God put such a mandate on me that one day, and then a couple months later the most amazing gift came my way that changed me forever: I hear my name paged over the hospital intercom and when I arrived in the department, the director notifies me that there is a woman from California on the phone for me who claims she has been desperate to find me for quite some time. I discover it is the mother of Lindsay Tall. She wanted me to know her daughter has kept my picture in her room, talks about me all the time, and she wanted to meet this stranger that came into her daughters life. I started to feel that she thought I had been intrusive but then Lindsay’s mom started crying. I’ll never forget what she said to me: “Victoria, I don’t know what you said to Lindsay when you visited her but (sobbing)….you saved my daughter’s life!” (I couldn’t believe my ears) “I had given up hope….I knew the doctors really couldn’t change her. But after meeting you she is a different person- she finally has a will to live and really try- she is doing great!” She then proceeded to tell me she was making a trip to CO and “had to meet this woman who saved her daughter”.
I drove home that day feeling like I was in a dream. I had been redeemed by 12 years of my own dark past being used to save another life, my mother was redeemed from her pain in those years when I called and told her my story that day, and, of course, the life of a precious young lady was now free to blossom... All because I reluctantly pressed the “up” button on the elevator.

Just imagine the opportunities we all give up to be a “powerful purpose” in someone’s life by not acting on what our heart is telling us. A simple touch, a prayer, a few words spoken, can be the exact remedy for a certain person in the exact moment they are about to fall off the cliff of life. We may not always be privileged to see the result of all our daily actions, but if we are looking to have a “powerful purpose” in the world, maybe all we need to do is simply obey our “heart voice”. You may be changing the world without even knowing it!