We met while working in a small town carpet mill. You know the one…the one where everybody goes to work after highschool Well, not everybody, just the ones that didn’t go off to college. It was good job and it was a good place to pick up chicks. I was a chick and yes, I got picked up.

Neither of us really knew how to love anyone but ourself. We were very selfish, needy and a little bit wild, so we did the most logical thing..we married after 3 months of dating. He asked me out….he said he loved me first…and he proposed. I agreed on all accounts.

We married on my 21st birthday in his parents front yard. It was 1990 but I still wore my eighties hair! He wore a blue suit that matched his eyes. In January, I presented him with evidence of our love.. an early pregnancy test that apparently I had passed. We had a bright pink plus sign staring back at our young faces. The pregnancy went well and I slowly realized as I began to feel the life growing inside me, that I needed to change some things. In my heart I wanted nothing but the best for this baby. I had a distorted view of what a home should be. I knew what I had wanted as a child growing up in two homes as I dealt with divorced parents. I craved love, protection and security. All these ideas swelled along with my belly. They became like poison in my heart. Nothing he did would please me. I turned from him emotionally and physically-driving a wedge that would take a very long time to remove.

To place blame would be unfair to either of us. We were immature, absorbed with making our own self happy, and our souls were lost.

Our divorce was signed in a tiny attorney’s office on the square of a city known now for it’s magical Christmas village. However, it was a sad, non-magical day in the story of our family.

Our story gets complicated after that day. We moved on from each other…with only a thread holding us together over the years that followed. That thread was our baby girl. She grew up and he and I grew apart.

We made new families, new loves, new lives. But as God worked, hearts softened, lives were changed, and mercies renewed. We found ourself in a familiar place. Alone, hungry for love and searching for peace and security. But this time…we looked to God for these needs first. We wanted to follow HIS will for us alone. We prayed…we waited…and we prayed some more.

In God’s time, we went on our 2nd first date 28 years later. We went out to eat and then shopping (my two favorite things). He bought me a pillow for my front porch with the word “HOME” on it . That became our theme.

On the surface, he is the life of the party, friend to everyone but only trusts a few. I am a self proclaimed nerd, non-adventerous, and trust everybody. But our souls are joined by our love for working hard, our need to be outdoors and our sometimes weird sense of humor. We compliment each others weaknesses and bring out each other’s strengths. We truly are each others best friend.

Our story has been given a sequel. It wasn’t the end for us… but a new beginning. God’s mercies became our story. His ability to work our mistakes out to our good. He took us… two kids who made a mess of life and gave us a second chance.

A new place to call home.

A new place to finish our story.