Born in Lexington, Kentucky, the fifth of seven children of Ruth and Charles Shaw, Deborah Shaw Lewis grew up in Georgia. She attended <a title="Asbury_University" href="http://asbury.edu" target="_blank">Asbury College</a> where she met her husband <a title="Gregg_Lewis_books" href="http://gregglewisbooks.com" target="_blank">Gregg</a>. She taught preschool, wrote preschool curriculum for <a title="David_C_Cook" href="http://www.davidccook.com/" target="_blank">David C. Cook Publishing</a>, and directed a daycare center, Winkie Bear Child Development Center.

Two fertility specialists told Debi and Gregg that they would not be able to have children. Their first child Andrew (now 32) was declared a "miracle." Then he was followed by <a title="Matthew_blog" href="http://alethinologia.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Matthew</a> (now 30 and married to <a title="Emily_Brown_Lewis_blog" href="http://greensandjeans.com/" target="_blank">Emily Brown Lewis</a>), then Lisette (now 28), then Benjamin (now 27), then Jonathan (now 23 and married to Jessica Young Lewis).  They were ALL miracles.

Debi earned her master's degree from the <a href="http://www.erikson.edu/" target="_blank">Erikson Institute</a> in Chicago. She is currently the director of <a title="PALS_at_Trinity" href="http://www.trinityumcrome.org/content/what-makes-pals-unique" target="_blank">PALS</a>, the mothers' morning out program at <a title="Trinity_United_Methodist__Church_Rome_Georgia" href="http://trinityumcrome.org/" target="_blank">Trinity United Methodist Church</a> in Rome, Georgia. She loves to speak to groups of mothers and to tell stories to young children.