Weâ€™d been in India for just three days when I had my first major meltdown.

Itâ€™s been an excellent motto for our three years thus far, one I learned shortly after our arrival here in June of 2010. I found very quickly on that if you donâ€™t laugh, youâ€™ll cry. We have monkeys, scooters, plenty of dirt, and mountains. Raising two boys in India is quite nice, really. Mother Ship (N.) – a ship that serves or carries one or more smaller ships. Who knows? Your child’s summer diary may someday end up in the hands of a New York publisher. Here’s a dreams-come-true publishing story worth sharing with your kids. The hardcover book, Isabelle and Isabella’s Little Book of Rules, will be due out in October.

En route to an editorial meeting, she brought the story to the attention of her publisher, who worked quickly to contact the authors and offer them a book contract. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Then the story of the Walmart-employee-turned-literary-hero got even bigger, was picked up by news media, and ended up being noticed by an editor from Simon & Schuster publishing house on her morning commute in New York. Using social media, his plea found its way to the mother of one of the cousins, who recognized her daughter’s journal and claimed it. Although there was no name inside it, the employee knew he had discovered something important, and he went on a mission to find the owners. While visiting Walmart earlier in the year, the journal was accidentally dropped in the parking lot and later picked up by a 20-year-old Walmart employee. Their rules included important things like, “Color on paper, not on people” and “Don’t bite the dentist.”

Cousins Isabelle and Isabella, ages 10 and 8, decided to write down a secret notebook of “rules” to help keep their younger siblings in line. Here’s a story of two girls who did just that. Summer is here, and I love encouraging kids to keep a journal, where they’re free to write whatever’s on their mind.

Pastors' Wives by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen