What if nothing you've walked through was wasted?
A spiritual memoir for anyone who has survived something — and suspects their story isn't over.
Welcome.
I'm Liz Harris.
I wrote Following God's Breadcrumbs because writing it saved my sanity. It is the story of my mother, who passed away in May 2024 — and who, it turns out, had been the co-author of the very theology I'd been living for forty-six years without knowing it.
It is a book about grief. About calling. About the quiet ways God prepares us for things we didn't know were coming.
But most of all, it is a book about the breadcrumbs — the small, ordinary moments that looked like detours but were actually the trail.
If you've ever been called "strong" when you felt exhausted — if you've ever wondered whether the hard seasons were punishment or preparation — you are exactly who this book was written for.
I'm glad you're here.
Following God's Breadcrumbs: Out of Darkness and Into Purpose
What if nothing you've walked through was wasted?
Following God's Breadcrumbs is a spiritual memoir about grief, calling, and the quiet ways God prepares us for things we didn't know were coming.
When Elizabeth J. Harris lost her mother in May 2024, she found something unexpected in the grief: her mother's writings — essays, journals, and a letter in which Cynthia Elaine Davenport had coined the very word that would become the title of her daughter's book.
This is the story of following the breadcrumbs. Of a woman who braced through life for decades and finally learned to build. Of a calling that was being prepared long before it was recognized.
For anyone who has survived something and suspects their story isn't over — this book is your next step.
About The Author
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I am Elizabeth JoAnne Davenport Harris — known to most as Liz.
I am a builder of systems, a restorer of legacies, and a woman of integrated faith. Currently, I serve as Registrar at the Fifth Grade Center of the Ladue School District in St. Louis, Missouri — a role that has added to my twenty years of experience in education, administration, and community. By calling I am the founder of Cynthy's Kids, Inc., a nonprofit seeking to award scholarships, offering tutoring and financial literacy programs named in honor of my mother, Cynthia Elaine Davenport. I am a wife and mother of two teenagers.
I am also, as of this moment, an author.
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My mother died in May 2024. She had lived with lupus for thirty years, and she left this world the way she lived in it — on her own terms, surrounded by people who loved her, in the home we shared.
In the months that followed, I did what I had always done. I kept moving. I showed up. I managed. What I didn't know was that God was doing something in the grief I didn't have language for yet.
Then I found her writings.
My mother had been writing for years — essays on faith, affirmations on the power of the mind, a letter to her granddaughters, and an unfinished book about living with lupus. In those pages I found the theology I had been living without knowing it. She had written about breadcrumbs — about how God uses alchemy and serendipity to lead us toward our destiny, one small step at a time — eight years before I ever used that word.
This book is the story of that discovery. And it is an invitation for you to trace the breadcrumbs in your own life.
"Before the theology, there was impact. And before the impact, there was a woman who decided she was going to live until she died."
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Master of Social Work — Washington University in St. Louis, George Warren Brown School of Social Work. Practicum of the Year recipient, Children, Youth & Families sector.
Nearly twenty years in education administration, including four years as Registrar at the Ladue School District's Fifth Grade Center.
Founder of Cynthy's Kids, Inc. — incorporated February 17, 2026 — federally recognized tax-exempt nonprofit dedicated to generational financial empowerment.
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I believe that nothing God allows is wasted. I believe that the seasons we call detours are often the preparation. I believe that healing is gradual — that it happens the way a thaw happens, slowly and then all at once. And I believe that the woman on the other side of her grief, her hidden season, and her reckoning is exactly the woman the world needs her to be.
That is what this book is about. And it is what I carry into every room I speak in.
Ready to have Liz at your event? → See Speaking
About The Book
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There are moments that divide life into before and after.
A car accident that should have taken everything. A quiet room where a mother takes her final breath. A life that looks stable on the outside — but is shifting underneath.
In Following God's Breadcrumbs, Elizabeth J. Harris traces forty-six years of small, quiet moments — the breadcrumbs — that looked like mistakes, detours, and hidden seasons but were actually the preparation for a calling she didn't yet know she had.
It is a memoir of grief and awakening. Of a woman who braced against life for decades and finally learned to build. Of a mother who left her daughter not just a legacy — but the theology that made it possible.
And it is an invitation for anyone who has ever asked: What now?
"This is not a story about having all the answers. It is a story about learning to trust the One who does."
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→ Eleven chapters across four parts — from the origin wound to the nonprofit that rose from grief
→ The writings of Cynthia Elaine Davenport — essays, letters, and journal entries from the woman who coined the breadcrumb metaphor
→ A 7-Day Breadcrumb Challenge with scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day
→ A Breadcrumb Map Exercise — trace the trail God has already laid in your own life
→ A 6-Week Small Group Discussion Guide for churches, ministries, and book clubs
→ My Divine Extension Declaration — a personal statement of readiness for the reader to speak over herself
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Anyone who has survived something and suspects their story isn't over. Women of faith in midlife transition. Anyone navigating grief, calling, or the gap between who they are and who God made them to be. Small groups, women's ministries, and book clubs looking for a resource that goes deeper than inspiration.
Join the FGB Community
Be the first to know about the book launch, Cynthy's Kids programming, speaking events, and resources for women who are ready to build. No spam. Just breadcrumbs.
Bring Liz to Your Event
Elizabeth J. Harris speaks to the woman who has been called "strong" when she felt exhausted — and who is finally ready to stop bracing and start building.
Her message is grounded in the same theology that runs through Following God's Breadcrumbs: nothing you've walked through was wasted. Every detour was preparation. And the calling on the other side of grief, loss, and hidden seasons is real.
Liz brings warmth, honesty, and spiritual conviction to every room she enters. She speaks like she writes — with rhythm, realness, and the earned wisdom of a woman who has lived the message.
Signature Talks
✨ Following God's Breadcrumbs
Out of Darkness and Into Purpose
What if nothing you've walked through was wasted?
In this anchor talk, Elizabeth shares the journey behind her memoir, Following God's Breadcrumbs, revealing how life's defining moments are not random but intentional markers guiding us toward purpose. Through storytelling and reflection, she walks audiences through a simple, repeatable framework for recognizing those markers in their own lives.
Audiences will learn how to:
• Recognize the breadcrumbs already present in their own story
• Understand how even difficult seasons carry meaning
• Move from confusion toward a clear next step
• Trust that purpose is being formed, even now
Ideal for: Faith-based events, conferences, and transformational gatherings
❄️ The Ice Block
On the Walls We Build to Survive, and What It Takes to Let Them Thaw
What if the very thing that once kept you safe is now the thing keeping you alone?
Elizabeth explores the walls people build after pain — often without realizing it — and why those walls, while protective, can quietly cost connection and belonging. This talk offers a compassionate, honest look at what it takes to thaw without falling apart in the process.
Audiences will:
• Recognize the walls they've built without realizing it
• Understand the real cost of staying frozen
• Learn what it takes to let connection back in, one degree at a time
• Feel less alone in wanting to change
Ideal for: Community events, wellness spaces, and corporate environments
🕯️ Legacy as a Verb
Redefining Legacy as Something You Build Every Day
What if legacy isn't something you leave behind, but something you're already doing?
Elizabeth challenges audiences to stop treating legacy as a future-tense project and start recognizing it as a daily practice — built in ordinary moments, not grand gestures. This talk reframes impact as something available right now, regardless of title, platform, or life stage.
Audiences will:
• Reframe legacy from a distant goal to a daily practice
• Recognize the impact they're already making
• Identify one small, ordinary action to be more intentional about
• Leave with a renewed sense of purpose in the everyday
Ideal for: Schools, workplaces, and service-oriented organizations
🌊 Strength Without Hardness
How to Stay Strong Without Closing Yourself Off
What if the strongest people aren't the ones who never bend?
Elizabeth unpacks the difference between hardness and true strength, showing audiences how flexibility — not rigidity — is what allows strength to last. This talk gives people permission to be both strong and reachable, without treating the two as opposites.
Audiences will:
• Distinguish real strength from self-protective hardness
• Understand what softness actually costs, and why it's worth it
• Learn to hold boundaries and openness at the same time
• Feel permission to be strong and still reachable
Ideal for: Caregivers, first responders, leadership audiences, and community groups
Small Groups
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Book Clubs
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Read Together. Go Deeper.
Following God's Breadcrumbs was written from a place of solitude. But it was never meant to stay there.
The questions inside this book — about grief, about calling, about what we carry and what we release — are the kind that get richer when you wrestle with them in community. That is why the book includes a complete Reflection & Integration Suite, including a 6-Week Small Group Discussion Guide designed specifically for churches, women's ministries, and book clubs.
This is an experience. Not just a read.
"Some people are seasonal appointments. You are a lifetime assignment." — Following God's Breadcrumbs, Chapter 7
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What's Included in Every Book
→ The complete memoir — eleven chapters across four parts
→ 7-Day Breadcrumb Challenge with scripture, context, reflection, and prayer
→ Breadcrumb Map Exercise — personal reflection tool for tracing your own trail
→ 6-Week Small Group Discussion Guide with questions for each section
→ My Divine Extension Declaration — a personal statement of readiness to read aloud together as a group
The Six-Week Arc
Week 1 — Impact and Survival — Introduction + Chapters 1–3
Week 2 — Grief and Time — Chapters 4–5
Week 3 — Preparation and Silence — Chapters 5–7
Week 4 — Reckoning and Alignment — Chapters 8–9
Week 5 — Care and Legacy — Chapter 10
Week 6 — Cynthy's Kids and the Conclusion — closing the journey together
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Books Only — Group Bulk Order
10–19 copies $15.00 per copy — discounted from retail; includes Discussion Guide
20–49 copies $14.00 per copy
50+ copies $13.00 per copy — contact for custom pricing
Virtual sessions are held via Zoom. Ideal group size is 8–25 participants. Sessions run 60 minutes and include an open Q&A with the author.
In-person facilitation is available for women's retreats, church events, and community gatherings.
Contact Liz to discuss your event's specific needs and pricing.
Schedule Events with the Author
Speaking Engagement Opportunities
Local & Community Events — churches, nonprofits, community organizations
Regional Conferences — women's conferences, faith events, education sector
Virtual Keynote — Zoom or livestream format
Corporate & Workplace Events — employee wellness, leadership development
All bookings include a book table where attendees may purchase signed copies of Following God's Breadcrumbs. Travel and accommodation are additional for events more than 50 miles from St. Louis, Missouri.
Custom rates available for grief support organizations, hospice networks, and mission-aligned nonprofits. Please inquire.
Cynthy's Kids, Inc.
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Cynthy's Kids, Inc. is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, incorporated in St. Louis, Missouri on February 17, 2026. EIN: 41-4324529. Our mission is to reduce educational inequities by providing scholarships and supportive resources to students from low-income families and historically underserved communities, by empowering them to pursue and complete higher education.
We are named in honor of Cynthia Elaine Davenport — Mommy C — a woman who loved fiercely, lived faithfully, and never quite had the financial tools she deserved. She worked hard her entire life. She left behind love, wisdom, and a daughter determined to make sure the next generation doesn't have to figure out money alone.
Cynthy's Kids exists to turn generational vulnerabilities into structural strengths — one family at a time.
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Equity
We believe access to education should not be determined by income, race, or background, and we actively work to dismantle barriers that limit opportunity.
Access
We prioritize removing financial and systemic obstacles that prevent students from pursuing and completing higher education.
Dignity
We honor the lived experiences, strengths, and aspirations of the students and families we serve, recognizing them as whole people—not just recipients of aid.
Community
We invest in students as part of a broader commitment to strengthening families and communities through education.
Accountability
We steward resources responsibly, operate transparently, and measure our impact to ensure meaningful and ethical use of funds.
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→ Provides need-based scholarships to students who are pursuing postsecondary education
→ Financial literacy workshops covering budgeting, saving, investing, stock options, and generational wealth
→ Community programming designed for accessibility — sliding scale fees, in-person and virtual formats
→ Educational resources rooted in the belief that financial empowerment is a spiritual act of stewardship
→ A founding community of women and families committed to doing better and leaving more
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Cynthy's Kids serves individuals and families who are ready to change their financial story — regardless of where they are starting from. We particularly center the experiences of Black women and families navigating financial empowerment for the first time, caregivers managing financial complexity alongside life transition, and anyone who has ever felt that wealth-building was not designed for them.
Join the Founding Community
We are in our founding season — which means the people who show up now help shape what we become. If you believe in this mission, we hope that you will join to support us.