Julie Huggins has a genuine love for children and desires that each child would learn to see themselves the way God does: unique and valuable! Born and raised in West Texas, Julie knew from an early age that she would be a teacher. In fact, her first job at age 15 was coaching and giving swimming lessons to younger kids.

Upon graduating from high school, Julie received an athletic swimming scholarship to William Woods University in Fulton, MO. She was competitive at a national level in the NAIA division. While at WWU Julie earned a BA in Elementary Education. 

Three years after a devastating, failed marriage at the age of 21, Julie met and married Dan Huggins. She put her whole heart into being a minister’s wife and step mother to three beautiful young girls. After teaching school for five years Julie chose to become a full time homemaker. Soon after, Julie and Dan had their only son, who was followed two years later by a baby girl, Elizabeth. 

Having learned from her experiences working with kids and raising five of her own, Julie was inspired to write Elizabeth’s Gift—loosely based on her real life daughter. She believes that everyone has days when they feel insecure with the person God created them to be, and even young children can struggle with confidence issues. Julie was encouraged to do her own illustrations for the book after discovering she had an untapped gift herself. Julie has always enjoyed drawing and painting, but has never had any formal art lessons.

As a family they love to go camping. Julie loves all outdoor activities, painting and reading. Her family went through Hurricane Katrina and helped with the relief effort on the coast of Mississippi.
Over the past ten years Julie has been actively involved in church work and children’s ministry. Being the wife of a minister, Julie has had opportunities to do pubic speaking for ladies ministry events and college retreats. She and her husband are current trained facilitators of the “Dynamic Marriage” seminar (by Family Dynamics). She is currently a substitute teacher in the public school system and has plans to return to teaching full time. As a teacher, coach, mother, and step-mother Julie has had years of experience working with children.

Elizabeth is a little girl with a vivid imagination for play and creativity. She likes to wear hats and her days are filled with all sorts of made up adventures created from her curiosity and zest for life. Her parents have told her that someday she would receive a gift, but she always imagined it would come in a box wrapped in pretty paper with colorful ribbon. Her mother, who is sometimes challenged by the energy Elizabeth’s creativity requires, knows Elizabeth’s gift isn’t in a box, but is her creativity and imagination. It’s a gift from God and she wants to help her daughter see how special her gift is and help her gain confidence in herself. 

Some of the school children label Elizabeth as “weird” because of her imagination, but God uses a new friend to help her discover that the gift her parents told her about was not in a box wrapped in pretty paper, but rather a gift that only God can provide.

• Helping kids that feel out of place
• Proper self esteem in Jesus
• Encouraging talents in children they may be unaware of
• Overing "labels" that restrict children and adults