Local publishing house and bookstore Grateful Steps celebrated its eighth year of business on Sunday, July 1.

According to a pres release, "The company initially started as a dba of Western Carolina Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the medical professional association of the owner, Micki Cabaniss, a recently retired physician. The location was at 1091 Hendersonville Road in Asheville, the very site of the prior medical practice. The company soon matured to its own corporation, Grateful Steps, Inc., an S-Corp (so-called when formed to eventually develop stockholders). Twenty months ago, November 2010, Grateful Steps publishing house moved to downtown Asheville and opened a bookshop at 159 South Lexington Avenue. Eight months ago, November 2011, Grateful Steps became a public charity. The nonprofit publishing house and bookshop was renamed Grateful Steps Foundation and the prior corporation, Grateful Steps, Inc., closed.

"This transition was appropriate since the company had been providing a variety of services to the community for several years, following the motto 'Giving Back for Our Blessings.'"