A Wonderful Christmas Surprise

My name is Victoria Bylin. I write westerns for Love Inspired Historicals. Christmas is just a few days away, so I thought I'd share a special gift the Lord gave me this month.

Some of you know this year has been rough. Among other things, my mom passed away after a long illness. I've spent a lot of time going down memory lane while looking at childhood pictures, etc.. I used to spend hours with my books, especially Walter Farley's Black Stallion series. All of this has been coming back at me big time.

To add to the craziness, my husband and I decided to make a big change. With the kids grown up and on their own, we sold our house in northern Virginia and moved to Lexington, Kentucky, "the Thoroughbred Capital of the World." The Lord gave me an wonderful surprise here in Lexington. The house we bought--a tract home in the suburbs--backs to a farm for retired racehorses. Every few days or so, the horses show up at our fence. This morning my husband and I fed them carrots and peppermint.

If someone had told me a year ago I'd be feeding carrots to racehorses in my backyard, I'd have thought they were nuts. You never know what God's going to do! No matter your circumstances, be encouraged! We worship an awesome God. Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

I Believe

Pamela Tracy here.
Okay, so it's dark outside and I'm sitting in front of my computer after a three day Internet absence. Christmas is sooooo fun.

Friday night we loaded up Grandpa, Grandma, hubby, four-year-old, me, and headed for Williams, Arizona, and the Polar Express. It's great fun. They take the Grand Canyon Railroad train, stick a wreath on the nose of the engine, and make magic for kids. We were on car J.

Our train was supposed to leave at 8:00, but for some reason, there was delay. I overheard one of the elves (train employee dressed up) on his walkie talkie: Clean up on car M. The mom in me thought, "Oh, no. Some kid drank too much hot chocolate." The worrier in me thought, "Oh, no. Someone is hurt." The suspense writer in me thought "There's been a murder!"

In real life, the engine broke. Nothing magical like Caribu on the track. After an hour wait (we spent it freezing, getting Mikey's picture taken with Santa, and freezing some more), we got on the train. It's about a fourty minute ride to the North Pole. The waiter and elve serve cookies and hot chocolate, and over the loud speaker they read the book (we brought ours so Mikey had the pictures). Then, it's the North Pole! It's about a block long and Santa is outside on his sleigh waving. The train then heads back to the station and Santa is on board. He gives all the kids a hug and a bell and asks them to believe.

Lyn Cote's Christmas Miracle

Wednesday afternoon my daughter passed out at the wheel and totaled our faithful van.

That wasn't the miracle. The miracle was that our van was totaled but our daughter is suffering only sore limbs--not even a scratch or bruise.

In case you're wondering, my daughter wasn't on illegal drugs or alcohol but in the ER, they couldn't find out what had caused her to pass out. The impact into a slender maple tree which stopped the van didn't even wake her. The First Responders had a time rousing her. And she was disoriented and remembered nothing.

We have an appointment with her primary doctor on Tuesday. She can't drive until we figure out what caused this.

She went off the road on a state highway and fortunately stayed on her own side. Not far down from where she went off the road is a lake on both sides of the road. She would have drowned if she had gone off the road there.

Some kind person called 911 from their phone reporting the accident. God bless them even if they couldn't stop.

So as you might expect, we are praising God for this miracle.

God bless all of you and keep you safe.


On Sale Now! The 2nd in the Gabriel Sisters series-Her Patchwork Family


Last year's December Love Inspired Historical, 1st in the Gabriel Sisters series
To purchase either, drop by http://www.booksbylyncote.com or for a chance to win one http://strongwomenbravestories.blogspot.com

The Christmas Card

Okay, I admit it. I'm a Christmas story junkie. I love Christmas stories. So when my editor at Steeple Hill asked me to write Yuletide Protector as a Christmas book, I jumped at the chance! Yuletide Protecter is available from Love Inspired Suspense right now on http://www.eharlequin.com/ and at Amazon.com. So if you're looking for a stocking stuffer sure to give you that warm holiday spirit, why don't you check out Yuletide Protector.

Okay, back to the title of my post. If you like me (a self proclaimed Christmas story junkie) then you probably have your DVR or TIVO set to record every show on the Hallmark Channel. I know I do. And in the few weeks since Thanksgiving, I've watched some wonderful stories. One that I've watched over and over again is The Christmas Card. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do. I'm sure the Hallmark Channel will be repeating some of these great stories. Anyway, the movie is about a woman who sends Christmas cards to "any" soldier before Thanksgiving. The soldier who receives this special card is so moved by the photo and the woman's letter that he seeks her out when he comes stateside. It's a beautiful romance and one that captures the holiday spirit.

I hope you all enjoy your Christmas this year and that it is filled with love and warm memories.

Until next time, many blessings...Lisa Mondello

Holiday Traditions

Okay, I have to confess, I don't like to cook. Do not enjoy it whatsoever! About eight years ago I join a group of ladies from the church were attending in a club called...The Gourmet Dinner Club. Yep. Go figure. I joined for the fellowship and because I love to eat--just not cook. But as part of the club I had to cook. And I actually enjoyed myself. I really enjoyed planning and shopping and decorating more than the actual cooking but since we were in teams of three, it was fun. And I came away from the club with some awesome recipes. One recipe, in fact has become a tradition at Christmas (sometimes Thanksgiving too!)

I wish I could say I made this recipe up but alas, I didn't. But I can share it with you.

This comes from The Pebble Beach Lodge by Gregg Denter, Sous Chef

Italian Sausage Stuffing

1/2 pound butter

1 pound Italian sausage

1 yellow onion, diced

4 stalks celery, diced

5 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 tsp marjoram

1 tsp fresh sage

1/4 cup Sherry wine ( I sometimes use Marsala wine)

2 tsps salt

1 tsp pepper

1 loaf bread cubed (really good with sourdough)

2 cups chicken stock

2 eggs

Heat the butter in a saute pan. Add the sausage and brown. Add vegetables, garlic and spices, saute until tender. Add the wine, salt and pepper. Put into a bowl and add cubed bread, chicken stock, and eggs. Mix thoroughly and stuff into a turkey (or cook seperately--which is what I usually do). Cook in oven at 375 degrees until turkey reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees (or if cooking seperately, for about 30 mins so its nice and hot and the eggs are cooked)

Enjoy!!

Friends at Christmas

Christmas has been so busy I can't believe December is halfway over. It seems you get together with friends more at Christmas. Last night I went to our bridge group's Christmas party (picture above--I'm in front second from the right in a black sweatshirt and jeans). The food was delicious and the company even better. Next week I will meet with my critique group for our Christmas party we have every year. I also got together with some teachers I taught with for many years last weekend. It was so nice to see them. What are some special parties you've gone to this month?

In the middle of all this madness, I hope you'll have time to stop by tomorrow, December 16th at eHarlequin for the Steeple Hill open house (all day). Check out the authors who will be participating in it from Steeple Hill Love Inspired lines at:
http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/cafe-social/2009-open-house-author-list

Have a blessed and safe Christmas and New Year.

Merry Christmas from Sunny Arizona

Pamela Tracy here, and yes we do get cold in Sunny Arizona, but it's a calm kind of cold. hehehe. Anyhoo, this past Friday I went to a Christmas party and we sang all the old songs. It was great fun. There was one song that was meant just for us. It was called Winter Wonderland - Arizona style. I'm thinking that you non-zonies have been deprived of this tune and I need to make amends. So, here it goes.

Feel free to sing while you read.

Palm trees wave, are you listening'?
In the pool, water's glistenin',
A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight
Livin' in a Phoenix Wonderland.

Gone away is the blizzard,
Here to stay is the lizard,
A warm sunny day; we like it that way,
Livin' in a Phoenix wonderland.

In the desert we will have a picnic,
Cactus, sand, rattlesnakes, and sun.
Christmas dinner is an old tradition,
It's pinto beans and tacos by the ton.

Later on we'll perspire,
Temperatures will rise even higher,
A warm sunny day, we like it that way,
Livin' in a Phoenix Wonderland.

Keep humming those Christmas tunes and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Memories

Merry Christmas from Carrie.

I wanted to share a special Christmas memory with you.

My husband never "officially" proposed to me. Our conversations about getting married just evolved and then one day we went shopping, looked at rings and bought one. I knew I loved him, and I was sure he was the one for me, but I always felt a little disappointed that he didn't plan a romantic proposal, especially when other couples shared their proposal stories. So one Christmas morning, with all the family gathered around the Christmas tree, he knelt in front of me, declared his love, and asked me to be his wife for the rest of my life. He also gave me a beautiful diamond ring to replace my wedding ring since I had lost the diamond out of my original ring a few months earlier. I was so touched and surprised I could hardly speak. Of course, I finally found my voice, said yes, and kissed him to the cheering of our kids who were then ages 15 - 21. So now I have a proposal story to share and a beautiful Christmas memory.

I hope you will have a wonderful Christmas with those you love!

A slightly different Christmas

Barbara here, reporting on her Christmas preparations.

I have this feeling my Christmas will be different this year. First up, my Aussie brother is coming with his daughters, all the way from Sydney, and for their enjoyment, I have been praying for snow.

Word of warning -- Be careful what you pray for.

We got snow, and in order to keep it on the ground, the Good Lord has also provided cold temperatures. Which shoots up the heating bill.

Okay, I'm not complaining. I know our heating bill will be higher with my brother wandering around the house telling me how hot Christmas is in Australia. I'm actually thinking of turning down the thermostat and telling him we're tougher than he is. And as a woman who has reached that special age, cooler climes are feeling rather nice right now.

But this isn't only why this Christmas is feeling special. We have a real tree, our first. Years ago, it was touted to be more environmentally sound to buy a fake tree, so we did. But this year, my visitors deserve a real tree.

Now, remember that snow I prayed for? It arrived hours after we dragged the tree home. (Actually, we shoved it into the back of our SUV and I need to clean the needles out, but haven't yet.)

Well, back to the snow. It piled high on our tree, which needed to be brought in and thawed out before being put up.

I'm not complaining. I even got to wash the kitchen floor after. Lucky me.

But the tree is up! And each ornament is special to us. The tiny Bible, the Baby's first Christmas ones, the special ones the kids made. The fragile glass ones that have survived since I was a child.

And as I sit back, completelyl exhausted, sniffling because I believe I have an allergy to real trees, I am happy this Christmas will be special. Family, friends, even snow to make it all nice. All this besides the joy of the season given to us by God's arrival on earth.

Here's hoping that you each can see the blessings of your own Christmas.

New Home at Christmas

Merry Christmas from Merrillee. I just noticed that my name is kind of merry. I'm not going to talk about my name, but I had to make that observation. I'm visiting with my daughter and her husband because they have just moved from Chicago to Tucson. I'm here to help them move in and be here for my granddaughter's first birthday.

Moving into a new house at Christmas can be a challenge. We did it once when our kids were in high school. We bought a tree on Christmas eve for very little because they were trying to get rid of them. Organizing a house after a move is a job in itself, but adding the Christmas decorating along with that can make the job even more difficult. We could have skipped the decorating, but what would Christmas be without a tree and at least a few decorations. So today I went shopping with my son-in-law. We bought a tree. It looked like the perfect tree, but when we got it home, I decided that it wasn't as wonderful as it looked at the store. However, once we get it decorated, it will be wonderful. We bought garland for the bannister on their stairway, and we put up some of the decorations that they already owned. We are hanging pictures and finding places for all of their belongings. When I return home in a few days, hopefully, they will be somewhat settled.

I would have included some photos, but they still don't have internet access. That will be installed on Friday--too late for this post. I'm having to use a borrowed computer. I went to the public library to use the computer the other day. I'm so used to having internet access that I'm having to get used to living without it.

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

Preparations

I used to love Christmas shopping. But as I get older and crankier, I have found it's become harder to get excited about driving two hours to get to the nearest mall then schlep around the mall and end up buying something, anything, just so I wouldn't feel like I wasted the four hour round trip. And this year, when I found myself with too much book to write and not enough month to write it my panic over Christmas shopping grew. I caught myself hyperventilating and worrying and stressing. I know Christmas is not about presents, but at the same time I know that I would feel like Scrooge if Christmas came and there was nothing under the tree. Especially with two granddaughters coming up to Nana and Papa's place for Christmas. But how? And when? And then, as I was sending an e-mail to my sister, laying out my dilemma, the dusty cogs in my brain began turning. Hmm....... Laptop. Internet access. PayPal. It all came together in a moment of clarity. I realized I was thinking too small. Why limit myself to shopping in The City, when I had the entire world, literally in my lap.I had choices, I had options and I had credit cards!Google searches became my friends. Shopping carts, easy to load up and pay for. I could browse at my leisure, discover items I would never have found driving around the city. And, even better, I didn't need to dress up. I could shop in my p.j.'s drinking tea and eating cookies. Does it get any better than that? I could work on my book and when I needed a break, go shopping. I got done my shopping in record time and as long as Canada Post does it's part, I'm set! And, even better, I love Christmas shopping again. Carolyne Aarsen.

Greetings from Lenora. It's here. Christmas is coming! It snowed in Louisiana last week. Here it was just a pretty scattering of snowflakes but I'd had a bad week. I didn't have much Christmas Spirit. The minute I looked out the window and saw that silent snow falling to the earth, my attitude changed and I begin decorating for the holidays. Our minister talked about not letting anyone steal your Christmas joy. And that's exactly what I'd been doing--allowing others to steal my joy. But not anymore. I will guard my joy with praise and thanks for the reason for this wonderful season. I won't let the stress of trying to find the perfect tree, or trying to prepare the perfect meal steal my joy. After all, I'm not Martha Stewart. I will try to bake sugar cookies and eat too many of them while watching Christmas movies on Lifetime and the Hallmark channel. I won't let deadlines take away my lifeline. I will try to balance work with my joy and tell myself how blessed I am to have the kind of job that allows me to play make-believe all day long and actually get paid for it! What a marvelous, glorious, wonderful time of year it is!

And I'm just getting started, people. C'mon, tell me what you love about Christmas!

Advent Can Be An Unsettling Time

Hi, Janet Tronstad here, just back from church. I thought I'd share a thought from the sermon I heard on how Advent can be an unsettling time for people. And think of the first Advent -- the wise men didn't know really where they were going, they were following a star, but they didn't know how long it would take or where they would end up; Mary and Joseph were being asked to take a trip when they probably wondered why God wasn't allowing them to stay home for the birth of the child; when Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem they couldn't even get a room -- they would be justified in wondering if God had forgotten all about them. I was reminded recently how the Advent season can make people feel something is wrong because they are experiencing the kind of unsettled feeling Mary and Joseph might have felt. What reminded me was a letter from a reader thanking me for including one character in my 'Silent Night in Dry Creek,' who didn't have a lot of happy Christmas memories and who felt leftout rather than included in the Advent season. I must admit I've had some Advent seasons when I felt leftout for one reason or another and it has made me more sensitive to others who feel that way. How about you?

The Fabulous Barrymores

Hi. I’m Renee Ryan. Like most writers of historical romance, I love researching the past. I adore getting lost in former days and learning what life was like “back then.” I am consistently amazed at the unusual tidbits I come across, things I never learned in my high school or college history classes. It’s these small factoids and glimpses into times-gone-by that make the past come alive for me.

Having said that, while in the early plotting stages of HANNAH’S BEAU, the second book in my CHARITY HOUSE series, I knew I wanted to focus on characters with unique backgrounds. In other words, I didn’t want to focus on the typical outlaw or cowboy or even rancher. I wanted something different. Thankfully, I fell across an article on the Golden Age of Theater and the ideas quickly burst forth.

During my research I became fascinated with the premiere acting family of the American Theater: The Barrymores. You’ve probably heard of Drew Barrymore, an accomplished actor in her own right who has garnered a lot of popularity and success, despite a few setbacks in her youth.

Maybe you’ve even heard of Drew’s famous grandfather and his equally talented siblings: Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore. There is no question that these three Barrymores dominated early American cinema. But, contrary to what I had thought prior to my research, Lionel, Ethel and John weren’t the first to “tread the boards” in their family. They literally grew up in the theater. Their parents, Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew (AKA Georgie Drew Barrymore), were famous stage actors during the Golden Era of American Theater – 1880-1920.

The patriarch of the family, Maurice Barrymore, was born Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe in India. His father was a surveyor for the British East India Company. Young Herbert was sent back to England for his education. He attended Harrow School and then went on to study law at Oxford University. Much to his father’s chagrin, Herbert fell in with a group of actors and never became a barrister. In order to spare his father the shame of his chosen profession, Herbert changed his name to Maurice Barrymore.

After some success on the British stage, Maurice left for America in 1874. He made his Broadway debut in December 1875 in the play Pique. In the cast was a young actress, Georgiana Drew. After a short courtship the two married and proceeded to have three children, the above mentioned, Lionel, Ethel and John.

Maurice eventually started his own theater company and toured to cities in Arkansas, Louisiana and even Texas. He was a true pioneer of the stage.

So you see. There's nothing quite like discovering new stories behind the story. I will never look at Drew Barrymore the same. And that's a good thing.

PRETTY WALLS FOR CHRISTMAS

Hi there! Dana Corbit here. In our family, the day after Thanksgiving is the signal for the Christmas season to begin. That means no decorations will be brought out, no Christmas music will be played and no wish lists will be slipped into my possession until that Friday morning. But on that day, we leap into the season with both feet.

Usually my husband and daughters begin by wrestling together the pieces of our reluctant artificial Christmas tree. When that and the ordeal of the lights is over, we play holiday music - mostly Elvis and Amy Grant, sip eggnog and hang pieces from my precious collection of handmade, dated and inherited ornaments.

So what did I do this year instead of following all of our fun traditions?

I painted the family room.

Why, you ask, did I want to mess up the house just before Christmas? They seemed like good reasons at the time. I'd just finished a book, so I had a little time. Also, if we didn't start this job on the "To-Do List" before we decorated, then it would be on the list yet another month.

I figured I would paint the walls this buttery tan "Lair de Lune" color, and we would have the decorations up by Sunday night.

Wrong.

A few days and a case of the flu later and here I sit on Tuesday, literally in the middle of the family room where the furniture remains, since the walls still need a second coat. This will teach me for messing with holiday traditions.

How important are Christmas traditions in your family? In my December book, His Christmas Bride, the second title in the Wedding Bell Blessings trilogy, Jenna Scott and Dylan Warren join their families as they attempt to form joint holiday traditions, but they find true Christmas blessings only when they try to make the season brighter for someone else.

Well, it's back to painting. Maybe I'll have that wreath above the mantel by New Year's.

A New Home Town

Anyone who is familiar with the Nashville area knows that Robertson and Sumner counties slam up against each other like long lost sisters at a dinner-on-the-grounds reunion. In my new series, however, which starts with December’s Field of Danger, I’ve squeezed the fictional Bell County between them. It’s a tiny place, with only three small towns—White Hills, Bell’s Springs, and the crossroads community of Caralinda.

Caralinda, while my own fictional creation, is based on the quite real town of Orlinda, Tennessee. And my heroine’s cottage homeplace is based on the home of friend (and my daughter’s caregiver/nurse) Phyllis. In fact, if you look in the upper right corner of the field road photo, you can see Phyllis' house.

While I’d always enjoyed going to Orlinda, writing Field made me fall in love with it. My family is from an equally tiny town in Alabama, so it brought back some grand memories of my childhood and buoyant reunions, including a few dinners-on-the-grounds at the home churches.

I’m often envious of the relationships that Phyllis has with her neighbors. They support and encourage her in a way that’s not often waiting for me in town. She has a home in an amazingly lovely location, complete with an oak tree in the front, a huge willow in the back - and a dog that waits for her return (that's her pup Sarah).


All of that may be one of the reasons I usually write about small towns. While I’m now a city girl, I hope I never forget the joy and beauty of living in a community where everyone knows your name.

Photograph Your Novel Settings

Thanksgiving blessings from Gail Gaymer Martin. A holiday is a strange day for me to blog, but I was assigned the date so I thought I would share one of my ideas with you. One thing that I love to do is write about real places. My seven book Loving Series was set in a fictitious town of Loving, Michigan but it was close to the real town of Grand Haven on Lake Michigan and the characters from those books often went into Grand Haven for a variety of reasons.. Since I enjoy the area so much, I spent a few days there researching for the Loving Series, and while there, I took photos. When the books were so popular, I decided to make the photos available on my website so readers could see the real places that my characters worked and visited during the seven novels.


Recently I had the pleasure of doing the same thing for a three book series set in the Monterey area of California on the central coast. The three titles were And Baby Makes Five, Garlic and Roses, and Butterfly Trees. Now Barbour Publishing has put these three novels into an anthology titled, Monterey Memories and it’s presently in stores now.

Since my nieces live in Salinas, I had visited this area many times, and while visiting there, I was inspired to write this series. But after I had written the three novels, I decided to visit again with the intention of taking photographs to put on my website for readers to enjoy the real places the characters live and visit. I had a great time putting these photos up with a sketch of the stories. Though you may not have this anthology, you might enjoy seeing the photos and hearing a little about the locations in the anthology. The link to the photos are found on my website at http://www.gailmartin.com/ or you can go directly to the photo page by clicking this link: http://www.gailmartin.com/The%20Real%20Monterey.htm.

When your favorite authors use real life settings, let them know you’d love to see photographs of the real locations. Maybe you’ll see some of your favorite novels come to life in photographs.

Coffee - French press or coffee maker?

Camy here! My husband loooooooooves his coffee, and this weekend he did an experiment.

He normally uses his espresso maker to make himself lattes, but sometimes in the afternoon, he doesn’t want to fire up the machine and instead, he’s been using a French press to make plain coffee.

However, he’s been unhappy with how his coffee tastes. He’s not using the same beans he uses for his espresso—he actually roasts his own espresso beans, believe it or not. Apparently, coffee beans are different than espresso beans, so instead of using his espresso beans to make coffee, he bought some coffee beans.

He wondered if it was the way he was making his coffee, so he brought out his single cup coffee maker from Brookstone and made a cup side by side with a cup of coffee in his French press.

Verdict: the coffee actually did taste different, but they both didn’t taste very good. He says it’s because the beans are old, and I had to argue for a few minutes to convince him that life is too short to waste on bad coffee!

He finally threw out the beans, thanks to some proactive nagging on my part.

About the French press versus coffee maker—even though it was the beans’ fault, he also thinks that the coffee maker does not produce as good a cup as the French press. Mostly because he can control how long he steeps the grains in a French press, whereas he can’t control that in the coffee maker.

He also read that when the hot water hits the coffee grains in a coffee maker, it’s actually a few degrees lower temperature than ideal. The water is supposed to be 208 or 205, but in a coffee maker, it’s often at about 200 instead. Which supposedly contributes to an “inferior” cup.

Me? I can’t tell the difference.

How about you? Do you care about a French press cup or one from a coffee maker?

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Her novels Single Sashimi and Deadly Intent are out now. She runs the Story Sensei critique service, is a staff worker for her church youth group, and leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every week and ponders frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter YahooGroup for monthly giveaways!

Attitude of Gratitude

Hi! I'm Victoria Bylin. I write westerns for Love Inspired Historicals. My next book is "Kansas Courtship" in March 2010. It's #3 in the historical part of the "After the Storm" series.

Speaking of storms . . .

My husband and I adopted a puppy about 18 months ago. Hartley is a Jack Russell beagle mix aka a “JackaBee.” He’s a rescue dog. After we brought him home, we discovered that “Rescue Dog” is code for “As is.” He’s the sweetest dog I’ve ever had, but he’s also just plain strange.

For one thing, he’s terrified of little girls. No problem with little boys, but little girls send him trembling to the end of the leash. I’m sure he had a bad experience at an adoption. Also, for the first month or so we had him, he ran under the couch whenever someone came by the house. I’m guessing he thought he’d be taken away.

Poor Hartley was scared all the time.

Sound familiar to anyone? I think we all have moments where we’re in over our heads, where we want to hide under the couch until the scary stuff goes away. Like Hartley, we eventually come out because we know we’re loved, and we muster the faith to believe in Someone greater than ourselves.

Today my husband and I are smack in the middle of a move that’s taken an awkward turn. The builder is on the brink of missing the closing deadline for the third time. This is on top of me having had Lyme disease over the summer, my mom’s death in July, a massive job change for my husband, and a son living overseas in a country that regularly makes headlines on CNN.

I’m ready to dive under the couch, but I also worship a God who is greater than all of the headaches, the delays and the worries. My husband and I won Hartley over with Mighty Dog and patience. We just kept loving him and accepting him “as is,” and now he’s pretty much a normal dog. Still odd, but in a good way.

I’m glad God loves us the same understanding. There are good things in store, I'm sure of it. Like Hartley, my husband and I will trust and wait for Someone greater than ourselves to meet our needs. No thanks to the Mighty Dog, though. I’m looking forward to a Thanksgiving turkey!