United by Hope and Love

           
This is todays article in the Logan Daily News (10/10/13)


It has always amazed me how God orchestrates our lives to intertwine with others at just the right moments in time. My husband Robert and I grew up in very different circumstances, but with one very unique and tragic element in common. Both of our parents suffered from mental illness. Drug addiction and suicide took his mother and my father far too soon. Rob and I grew up faster than any child should ever have to and we experienced things throughout our childhood and into our adulthood that some people go an entire lifetime without experiencing.

            I entered my first quarter at Hocking College at the age of 28. Having been widowed for two years, I was determined to get through college and make a new life for myself on my own; but God had other plans. Sure enough, in my first quarter math class, I met the man who would ultimately teach me everything I know about what it means to live life and to love again. He had been through so much in his life and had wisdom far beyond his years. The more I got to know him, the more respect I had for this man and the life that he had survived.

            I was resistant to our growing relationship at first and tried everything I could to push him away. There was just something about him though that drew me in and captured my heart.  I was simply in awe of the way that he was able to trust and love despite everything he had gone through. He was so open with me and simply laid his heart out on the table. He was vulnerable in such a beautiful way and allowed me to be the same in return.

            It takes a very, very strong and confident man to date a widow, let alone marry her. Robert took on this role with such grace. Not only does he walk by my side through every emotional up and down that comes from being a widow, but he’s held me through the tough times and tears that he knows are for someone else.

            It has been almost four years since Robert came into my life and not a day goes by that I do not thank God for him. We have built an amazing life together and I have been blessed beyond what I could have ever imagined. When I look at our two children I see the miracle of two broken lives that were united by hope and love. Rob and I were able to see beyond the circumstances of our past and base our future on being the kind of family we have each always longed for. Tragedy may have brought us together, but our faith, our hope and our love will keep us together forever.

            It’s so easy to get caught up in the struggles of everyday life that I sometimes forget to stop and look at where I have been, what I have come through and what I have in front of me right now. I am blessed. It is amazing to have experienced the kind of love that I have. I have an amazing man to share this crazy adventure with and I adore him with everything I have in me. We may go through rough periods in our lives but there’s no mistake in God’s plan. He places people and events and experiences in our lives in just the right order to get us where we are suppose to be. Despite the tragedy that brought us together, there is no other place I can imagine being than in the arms of the amazing man that I am privileged to call my husband.