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Inspiring Voices - Lillie Johnson

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47 pages

English

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Once in a lifetime, the most beautiful love story you will ever know is the one you're living. From love discovered as teens, to love rekindled as matured adults with grown children, this book takes you on the journey of two people who overcame extraordinary challenges, including a thirty-year separation, intense emotionally-protective barriers, and living over nine hundred miles apart, to ultimately claim an everlasting love. Now married over five years, read not only about the phenomenon of the love that brought them back together, but also of the faith, gratitude, and day to day practices that hold them together. Told in a two-person narrative filled with tender, heartwarming moments, humor, and practical wisdom, their story will make you smile, cry, and realize the beauty and power of love between two people and the mystery some call destiny. It will encourage you to revere God's ability to "make all things new" in His own time. More than anything, it will inspire you to believe in miracles, particularly the miracle of love.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Dating

Memoir

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Publié par	Inspiring Voices
Date de parution	12 février 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781462403974
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0240€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

A Time to Love
Living a Miracle
Lillie Johnson

Copyright © 2013 Lillie Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

Inspiring Voices
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
1-(866) 697-5313

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Cover Design: Lillie Johnson

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0398-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0397-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013901108

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 02/11/13
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement
Chapter 1 The Beginning
Chapter 2 The Romance
Chapter 3 Keeping in Touch
Chapter 4 Mysterious Ways
Chapter 5 It was Love
Chapter 6 After Thirty Years
Chapter 7 The Proposal
Chapter 8 The Wedding
Chapter 9 Major Life Changes Minor Adjustments
Chapter 1 0 Fear, Faith and Happiness
Chapter 1 1 About Michael About Lillie
Chapter 1 2 Living a Miracle

This book is dedicated
To Michael, Frederick and Elizabeth
Of all the lives in which God could have placed you, He chose mine. Words do not exist that can ever fully express my love, joy and gratitude.
And,
To those who dare to believe in miracles.
May you be blessed.
Acknowledgement
IT IS WITH SINCERE GRATITUDE that I acknowledge the following persons who contributed greatly to the realization of this book: Caleb VanDeman, whose insights and inquiry, If you’re going to write about this kind of story, why not start with your own? challenged me to take this adventure; Jessica Jacobs, Jennifer Slaybaugh, and Lisa Murphy, whose valued interest, and continued professional support and editing helped keep me on point; my dear friend, Effie, whose grace, wisdom and kindness has always been an inspiration, and whose loving reminder, You know, you really do need to write a book , remained in my heart; and most of all, my beloved husband, Michael, whose love, patience, endless enthusiasm and encouragement allowed me the time and space to share our story.
Chapter 1 The Beginning

Lillie
I FIRST MET MICHAEL THE summer following my sophomore year of high school. He and my brother, George, attended the same college and had become good friends, and my brother brought him home one day. They were eighteen, almost nineteen, years old, and I was fifteen. I had met nice guys before, but there was something different about Michael; I knew that from the very beginning. Initially, I spent more time observing him than talking to him, but I liked Michael immediately. He was not only handsome and very smart, but also very nice. I loved his manners, his demeanor, and his voice, but there was something else that radiated from him. He was unlike anyone I had ever met. Something about Michael’s character spoke to me. I was not only drawn to him, I could see a lot in him. Although I did not understand where the feeling came from, I knew in my heart that Michael was going to be a great man.
Michael and I soon discovered that we had a lot in common. We both came from relatively large families—mine was a family of five children, and Michael’s was a family of nine. Our siblings were in the same age range, and we had similar family histories. Both of us came from Catholic backgrounds and attended Catholic schools. We had been taught similar value systems, and held the same principles to be important. Education was very important to us, as we both planned to finish college and pursue advanced degrees. We found out that we shared a love of music and movies, and from there we moved on to an even broader range of topics. Our personalities were very much in sync, from the way we looked at life, to our interests, goals, and hobbies.
Michael visited us a lot that summer, and although I tried not to appear obvious, I always looked forward to seeing him. Our home seemed to light up with laughter and conversation whenever he came by. Sometimes Michael visited when my brother wasn’t home and would stay and talk with the rest of us. I didn’t know, until later, that he was actually coming over to see me. I was equally infatuated; his eyes, his smile, his deep voice, and the graceful lines of the back of his neck all captivated me.
By the time I realized how much I liked Michael, it was autumn, and he had to return to campus. As a pre-pharmacy major, Michael’s classes were pretty intense, so he didn’t have much time to visit. I had gotten used to seeing Michael that summer and I really missed him. A few weeks into the semester, I gathered up the nerve and called him at his dorm. I only wanted to say hello and have a light conversation, but from there we kept talking. Sometimes I would call him, and sometimes he would call me. We agreed to call each other only at certain times. That way, with one phone in my home, I could “happen” to be near enough to answer; and, with one phone on his dorm floor, Michael could do the same. Once on the phone together, we’d never want to hang up. We never ran out of things to talk about. We kept our conversations a secret because we didn’t want my brother, George, to find out. We assumed that, because of his friendship with Michael, he might feel uncomfortable with the two of us liking each other. We didn’t know when or how we were going to tell George, so we kept everything quiet.
Michael
I FIRST MET LILLIE THROUGH her brother, George, when he and I were college freshmen. George and I really hit it off. In fact, we practically became brothers. We had been spending time studying and playing ball together, and at some point, George invited me over to his family’s house. I met his mother, brother, and sister; and then, of course, I met Lillie. Something happened at that moment. She had a sparkle. I didn’t understand it, but she was unlike anyone I had ever known. Being the young person that I was, I just knew that she was different, and I felt different in her presence. She was special.
I could tell from the start that Lillie was unique. She was very quiet, and very pretty! Even at that young age, Lillie was polished, well-mannered, and ladylike. She was like a model. I had immediate respect and reverence for the way she carried herself. She embodied absolute quality; she was almost immaculate. In my eyes, Lillie was perfect. There was no one else like her.
I felt a tingling sparkle when she looked at me, and I began to see a similar sparkle in her eyes when she returned my glances. I felt warm, excited, and alive. No one would ever make me feel the way she made me feel.
I began spending a lot of time with Lillie’s family. Her family was open and welcoming, and they made me feel very comfortable in their home. I was far from my home in Pensacola, so their house became my home away from home, and gave me a sense of stability. Although Lillie was quiet at the beginning, we started having wonderful conversations. She wanted to hear about my interests. That quality stood out to me right away. I was interested in her interests too. She read, wrote, and loved cultural things. We both loved movies and music, and I shared my love of sports with her. We were young, but our conversations were worldly, and they were never repetitive. She was so fresh, so positive and intelligent.