Ann Voskamp is a bit of a mess.

She won a full-tuition scholarship to university and never finished. She married a Farmer and came home to gravel road and cornfields and had babies. A lot of them. Half a dozen. Her laundry basket is never empty. She loses library books. She homeschools their six beautifully exuberant kids and most days feel just a tad bit overwhelmed and very crazy.

She's the author of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are (Zondervan). And everyday, she's just wild enough to take the dare. Right in the midst of her own messy, gritty, grace-filled life.

When the kids and the washing machine sleep, she washes her real dirt down with words and The Word. Some of her words find themselves in an award-winning series for curious kids, A Child's Geography, of which all profits are donated to Compassion. Other words can be found at Laity Lodge's High Calling where she serves as a contributing editor, and other words advocate for the poor as she is a blogger traveling with Compassion.

The only words that really matter are the ones she lives. This convicts her. She clings to grace.