Welcome to the Valentines Countdown to Great Giveaways Romance Special!
If you are visiting as part of this special group promotional event, welcome! If you're wondering what this event is about, you can read about it right here ...
My husband and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year. That' s a long time. He's been a loyal spouse, a devoted father, a steady provider. We make a pretty good couple. We have a lot of fun together, and our goals and values are in line. We've successfully raised two great boys. I have no doubt that God had a hand in putting the two of us together.
But ... it's easy to say that in retrospect, thirty-some years later. Obviously we were meant to be together. Right?
It was a Friday night in January, thirty two years ago, in eastern Pennsylvania. I was 25 years old and I shared an apartment with a girlfriend, Lisa. Funds were tight, although not unreasonably so. There was a bar near our office that charged a $5 cover on Fridays, but for that outlay of cash, you got two hours of free drinks, and a buffet full of munchie foods. It was a must-go destination for the young professionals in my office and we went there almost every Friday night. Besides, it played great music and provided a chance to blow off some steam on the dance floor after a long week of work.
Lisa and I were on our second or third free drink, and we'd consumed a plate or two of munchies. Our attention had now turned to the dance floor. And the single guys lingering around the dance floor. Lisa pointed to one standing on the complete other side of the room. "I'm going to ask him to dance." Okay fearless Lisa, you go for it. She did. Soon Lisa and her first choice were dancing.
That left me standing with my other friend, Marta, and it left Lisa's dance partner's friends, two of them, standing and watching as well. I don't remember which, but either Marta and I walked over to introduce ourselves, or they came over to us. But I said hello to a guy named Norm. Lightning didn't exactly strike that night. God didn't shine a light on him and send an unmistakable message from heaven, "This is him, Laurie, your future husband." Norm was just some guy I said hello to in a bar.
At first. But yes, that night, Norm and I began a journey that would eventually lead us down a church aisle, vowing before God, starting a family and ultimately to this day, a few months before our 30th anniversary. It's not a "wholesome" first meeting story. I didn't meet Norm at church, doing volunteer work, or even in an office. I met him at Happy Hour. But that's okay. Because God knew what He was doing and He can work with whatever circumstances your life is in at the time.
Have you met the Love of Your Life? Are you convinced that God put you two together? What was your first meet like and did you know he was the one at the time?
In my book, Sanctuary, Nora and Shaw aren't a perfect match either, at least not at first. She's a Philadelphia attorney, and he's a coastal South Carolina veterinarian. They live hundreds of miles apart. She's never been in love, and he's hiding a secret about his past relationship that will eventually tear them apart. But God knows what He's doing for Nora and Shaw too. The view of Nora and Shaw's love on Day One is not what it will eventually evolve to. What the both of them pray for, and desperately need.
I'm offering the e-book version of Sanctuary for free right now at all e-book retailers. I hope you'll download it and find out how God does His work to bring the two of them together.
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Thanks for visiting and I hope you have fun with the remaining stops along the way. Click here to return.
Laurie