So…D and I found ourselves in much the same position.  Widow and widower…single parents…and all that goes with that.  We started texting encouragement to each other here and there and would talk occasionally.  There was so much that we could relate to with each other that it was just a natural thing to want to communicate.  Because we didn’t really have to worry about accidentally stepping on each others toes or saying the wrong thing, we could joke around and laugh and we could have serious conversations too.  I started out just wanting to be a good friend to him because I knew I could relate in a way that no one else could, but I was surprised by how refreshing it was for me to talk with someone who could relate to me.  We were careful not to step over any line but were very honest with each other too and gradually…our texting increased.  Eventually, we were texting every day and that increased to sometimes going back and forth for several hours at night.  D left coffee on my doorstep a couple of times (once because he learned I was sick), we sent verses back and forth, and we prayed for one another.

And then…one night we were texting like normal and I get this text from D that said:

“Can I ask you a question?”

and I said “yes” because he had asked this before and then just asked me a silly question so I didn’t think anything of it.  He started off with a pretty innocent question:

“we’re friends right?”

to which I was like of course we are friends…we’ve been friends for a long time.  Then D says:

“Do you ever see us being more than friends?”

[long pause]…I took a deep breath and told him I didn’t know.  I said I wasn’t going to say either way because I didn’t know what God’s plan was but I trusted Him whatever He had in store.  D agreed with that 100% and then asked if maybe sometime we could happen to be at the same place at the same time so we could talk face to face.  Now, you have to understand, until this point I really had been clueless that he was thinking this way at all and the last thing I had wanted to do was lead him on, so I made up something clever to dodge answering any further questions by telling him that I had a rule that I didn’t make decisions after midnight…which it was after midnight so that worked out well for me 🙂  He let me get away with that and we quite texting for the night…but my brain was starting to spin a little.  What on earth was God doing here?

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To be continued…

Yep, I’m still here 🙂

Life has been crazy…and I feel like a broken record saying that.  But, I do have a really really good story to tell you!  It may take me a couple posts to do this story justice but that’s ok 🙂  Here it goes…

Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl….just kidding 🙂  It’s not that kind of story.  This is a real life story.  A God story.  With no happily ever afters or glass slippers or magic pumpkins.  Just grace and mercy and a perfect plan worked out by a Holy God.  Because while God’s ways are beyond our comprehension…I stand in awe that He is in every detail and He places every piece of the puzzle of this crazy life.  I’m so very thankful that He’s in charge and not me…because I would totally mess this up!

So, about 10 years ago I was a freshman in college.  I went to a little Bible college and I only went for one year but while I was there I became friends with this boy.  We appeared to be very different people with very different personalities and backgrounds, but we conversed very easily and enjoyed a good friendship.  I never thought of him as anything other than a friend because he was dating someone else at the time and then during my second semester at school I started dating Josiah.  At school I think everyone either assumed we were related or dating, even though I would emphatically respond that we were neither.  We would play Yahtzee on his palm-pilot during certain…ahem…boring events we were required to go to.  I never said we had a very mature friendship 🙂

He…let’s call him “D” for now…eventually married the lady he was dating and just a few months later Josiah and I got married.  D and his wife had their first daughter about nine months before Ava was born.  When I was very pregnant with Ava we bought our house that was literally just down the block from D.  D had a second daughter and a year later Lincoln was born.  When D’s second daughter was just a baby his wife started having health problems and later was diagnosed with cancer…and about a year later Josiah was diagnosed with cancer as well.  D and I would occasionally talk and try to encourage one another.  We went to the same church so we watched each other as our stories unfolded.  We prayed.  I brought them meals and D would mow my lawn.  And you already know that Josiah eventually passed into Glory…and about a year and a half later…D’s wife joined him.  In times like those you just really have to wonder what God’s purpose is in all of it.  But God’s ways are beyond comprehension.  For His glory, He took a young husband and daddy and a young wife and mommy Home to be with Him…and we rejoice for them!  But what about those left behind?  God’s plans are still at work for them…His work in us is not yet finished!

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I know I’m just getting started but that’s all for tonight.  To be continued…