Even when I was far from God I never imagined that my name would ever be associated with swingers, mail order brides or anything in the adult entertainment industry but that’s apparently what’s happened and, to my shame, it seems to be my fault.
Last year I started this blog. I created a few social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), all under my married name.
It may sound ambitious, I admit it was, but I knew it was possible. He didn’t rescue me just for my sake but for His name’s sake! I was on my way until 12 months into this process, something happened, the unimaginable.
THE $10 MISTAKE
I was careless when it came time to renew my domain name. I updated my banking information with one company but forgot to update it on a second account. Within a few weeks of my one year writing anniversary my blog was down and another site was up…UNDER MY NAME. The landing page is in a foreign language but ultimately, it’s a site that offers adult “dating” services, none of which has anything to do with anything I stand for or write about.
What I tried to do to fix it
I initially thought my blog was hacked so I spent countless hours on the phone with the company I bought my domain name from and some wonderful people from Google. Unfortunately, once they realized it was an accounting error they told me there was nothing anyone could do.
When my account wasn’t renewed it was resold to someone else and the new owners are now using the popularity of my blog to redirect traffic to their site. I sent the new owners a heartfelt plea, I shared my testimony and begged them to remove my name from their site. I asked them to sell it back to me but they didn’t even respond (they’ve at least removed my picture from the favicon).
How could I have been so careless? I failed God, I failed this community and I failed my husband.
When we first got married I wanted to hold onto my individual identity so I didn’t change my last name. However, after a brief separation from my husband, the Lord did something miraculous in our marriage. He gave us a fresh start. We renewed our vows and our commitment to eachother. I changed my name and finally took his. It was a really big deal for us.
What’s in a name?
- In Catholicism a child takes a Biblical name at Confirmation, this name is meant to inform the young persons journey into adulthood as they align themselves with a biblical figure (usually a Saint),
- In Judaism ideally a name defines an individual,
- And, throughout the Bible we see several instances where God changes names…Simon became Peter, Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel.
When God assigned names they had significance. He wasn’t giving random people trendy names. He was telling those He set apart for His purpose, something new about themselves about what He was doing in them. Their names were intertwined with their new identities and with God’s promises.
I’m so glad to say I know that the same is true for me. When I finally took my husband’s name it was an act of obedience. I was intentionally aligning myself with him. I was surrendering to God and accepting His gift to me–a restored marriage and a new understanding of His design for us (as ONE).
Here’s the problem….FOR ME AND FOR YOU
Over the past year I’ve had an average of over 1000 hits to my blog each month. There were hundreds of Facebook “likes” for individual posts and for my website in general. When you “like” a blog or an individual blog post it forever lives in your Facebook feeds. Most of the traffic to my blog was coming from your likes on my posts (you were reading AND your friends were reading too). My blog posts linked to other bloggers sites (e.g. Five Minute Friday posts) drove a lot of you back to my blog too. Those links now drive traffic back to their website.
I believe this is why they bought my name. They saw your traffic and the value you added to my name and they wanted to capitalize on it.
Deep sigh. I’m not throwing in the towel, although I was tempted to. I’m starting from scratch. I bought the rights to my name with a few different extensions (dianadenis.org, .net, .info, etc.) but that doesn’t erase the fact that my original site is now home to a raunchy international business registered to someone in PA and managed out of the Ukraine. My hands are tied and that makes my heart sink.
I lost all of your Facebook likes (they’re now directed toward that other site) and even worse, I lost all of your comments on my blog. Your words of encouragement, your stories, your prayers…all gone.
The clean up process on my blog took several days. I had to delete all of the links across all of my platforms and I had to rewrite the links on this site. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything to clean up the old links or likes on your blogs and Facebook pages. And for that I am truly sorry. If you see an old link on your sites you might want to make sure they don‘t direct anyone back to that other site. If they do please try to “unlike” or delete it. Again, I’m sorry!
A $10 fee, paid on time, would have prevented this disaster. I can’t undo what has been done. At this point I have no control. I can’t defend my name. I have to leave it all in God’s hands. All I can do now is hold onto God’s promises and keep moving forward. As I contemplated deleting my blog altogether God reminded me of my mission. Packing up and going away isn’t an option. I’ve been called so I have decided to be obedient and continue writing even though it still hurts. It really hurts. Here’s the truth, they can take my name but they can’t take my identify. My true identity is hidden…IN CHRIST.
PS I’m going to be bold enough to ask for your help today. Would you help me spread the word about my new address? You can either hit “like” on the Facebook button on the left of your screen or reshare this post with your friends via Facebook or Twitter just so everyone knows I’m back but at a new place (dianadenis.org). And please, DON’T visit my old address…those links are horrifying.
Thank you!