It was almost Christmas. Amid the slight bustle of a smaller craft fair, in the dim and sometimes flickering neon lighting a grandmother was milling around my primitive craft booth with her three grandchildren. They were making nice comments about my group of dolls and the grandmother asked her oldest, a girl, which ones were her favorite. The girl picked out three or so that she said she particularly liked, all of them a darker shade of skin than her own light peach. Grandma asked her why she liked those ones and the girl said simply, "because they are brown."

This story always brings joy to my heart and I share it whenever I can. That little girl saw it, she saw the beauty in the rainbow that is represented in humankind. It's why I do this, to share that love and that joy in God's creation.

It took me a while to find my niche as a doll maker. I have always been drawn to beautiful and unique dolls, and I have realized that there are a lot out there. However, to me there is too great a distance between the way the world really is and the way it is represented in toy form.

My children have blonde hair and blue eyes, but I don't want them to think that theirs is the only brand of beauty. God created us all with an amazing variety of skin and eye colors and they are all truly beautiful. Likewise for freckled and bespectacled children, or those with other characteristics that may not be represented in mainstream toys. I want all children to be able to see themselves reflected back at them, to feel lovely and cherished. In my shop and in my home I will always have God's rainbow represented.