Shannon here: Caryl McAdoo shares insight into her fifty-four-year romance and how it inspires her Historical Romance Novels. Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing for an e-book copy of Gone to Texas. Deadline: Oct 22nd, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Caryl:
Romance is Alive after Fifty-four Years!
If anyone followed me around for a day, secretly shadowing my every waking moment from when I first opened my eyes until I went to bed that night, I’m confident he or she would report that romance is still alive in the relationship between my beloved Ron and me.
The reason, I’m also confident about, is that Ron loves me—as closely as he can—like Christ loves the Church. He treats me like a queen. That might be because I try to always treat him like a king. I respect and honor him, but then what wife wouldn’t?
My dearest is kind and patient, humble, gentle. He never demands his own way or is jealous. He always thinks the best. My husband loves Truth and hates evil.
I’m so blessed to be married to a man not easily provoked, as growing up, I was wrongly taught by example that anger is the best defense and quickest path to getting my own way. It’s taken many years of patience and work of the Lord to help me to see the Truth, and I still relapse now and then.
Giveaway
Ron endures whatever life throws at him without needing someone to blame. In every instance, he reacts in a way to honor God. I know he isn’t perfect, but he’s the most Christlike man I have ever known and seems pretty close to me.
Without even asking, when he sees I’m awake of a morning, he gets up and pours me a cup of coffee and brings it to me in bed. Sometimes he’ll refill it two or three times. When daylight comes, after breakfast and a game of Quirkle while we eat, we stroll out to the Coop de Ville and let our flock of chickens (a few more than forty now) out to free-range for the day.
One of us feeds the goats and the other will check everyone’s water to be sure thirsty goats and chickens have access to plenty of water. We usually hold hands walking back to the house.
We go almost everywhere together: doctors, grocery shopping, hardware store, and the like, holding hands in and out of the stores/offices—in the car, too, driving to our next destination.
A reader recently asked if there was anything we didn’t do together. We don’t sing duets as he’s tone deaf! Tee hee hee. He runs a few errands and works on the tractor alone, and I often spend time with lady friends, leisurely shopping thrift and antique shops or having lunch—which he never objects to. He often tells me, “Caryl, you make your own schedule.” That’s true.
I met Ron when we were sixteen, the summer before our junior year in high school. We were engaged the
following summer then married in June (two years to the day since our first date) after graduating in May. We were both eighteen. He’s six months older.
We’ve been married fifty-four years now, and I love him more than yesterday but less than tomorrow. I am my beloved’s, and he is mine. I have a necklace with a pendant that has that precious Scripture verse in Hebrew that I love. It was Mama’s. When she was on her deathbed, I told her, “I don’t want your diamonds or pearls, Mama. I’d love to wear your necklace.”
She wore it all the time. The 34” gold chain it hangs on was her mother’s, so it’s a treasure of my heritage—and Truth!
In the historical romances we write—all of them, we work on together—our hero and heroine are often young like we were when they fall in love. The importance of truth is always lauded, and Scriptural principles to live by are expounded on in a very natural way through our characters.
The last novel to release in September, TEXAS WILDFLOWERS—book eight in the Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga—offers readers a method to hear God when they really need to. (Every day, right?)
The next, WAGONS WEST, book one in New Beginnings Family Saga series coming November was
originally written for and is still available in Kindle Vella. It speaks of obedience to God being our only pathway to show Him how much we love Him.
I pray readers finish any story Ron and I write feeling closer to our awesome heavenly Father and are encouraged to walk the walk.
Question for Readers: How have you been obedient to God then been blessed for it?
About Caryl: Award-winning author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory, and her best-selling stories—over sixty published—delight Christian readers around the world. The prolific writer also enjoys singing the new songs the Lord gives her; you may listen to a few on YouTube. Sharing four children and twenty-four grandsugars (six are greats), Caryl and her high-school-sweetheart-husband of fifty-four years Ron live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in far Northeast Texas. The McAdoos wait expectantly for God to open the next door. Learn more & connect:
Caryl’s Website Caryl’s Newsletter Sign Up
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About the book – Texas Wildflowers:
Raise up your children in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it.
Getting the babies old is the key!
Maisie Lowell and Rayne St. Laurent, each as beautiful as a wild Texas prairie rose, were born to privilege, reared in the fanciest hotel west of the Mississippi, and spoiled almost rotten–used to having their ways. In 1875 Dallas, Texas, the best friends determine to choose their own life paths to peace, joy, and love regardless of what their parents consider right or wrong. Do their choices and what their parents believe have to be so different?
Complete Caryl’s CROSS TIMBERS ROMANCE FAMILY SAGA series
Book 1: GONE TO TEXAS
Book 2: TEXAS MY TEXAS
Book 3: TEXAS TEARS
Book 4: LEAVING TEXAS
Book 5: TEXAS TROUBLES
Book 6: TEXAS TRAILS
Book 7: TEXAS TIMBERS
Book 8: TEXAS WILDFLOWERS
Can’t wait for the drawing? Interested in Caryl’s other titles? Get your copy/copies now!
Come back Oct 14th for Patty Smith Hall!
Hey Caryl. 54 years is a long time. I love y’alls story. I can’t count the ways I’ve been obedient and been blessed. But there have also been times when I’ve been disobedient and got taken to the woodshed.
Ah! ‘Tis true, and that’s no fun! I love getting older and wiser as He taught me more and more through the years, and it became easier and easier to reply “Yes, Lord!” BLESSINGS! <3
My grandpa and grandma were married for 70 years before she passed away suddenly on March 24 2020.my family has been obedient and been blessed but there has been times they have been disobedient . My mom and dad are blessed with having 13 children and 2 granddaughters and 2 grandsons and two grandchildren on the way.
Oh wow, Kendra! HOW sweet! To make 70 years, Ron and I will have to live16 more years–very doable! We’d only be 88! I believe children are the very best blessing God gives and it certainly sounds as if your parents are definitely blessed! I have 24 grandsugars now, but you mama will probably catch up with me in no time! 🙂 BLESSINGS!
Hi Caryl–loved hearing about you and your husband! Your story is a blessing.
Thank you, Becky! A long life together doesn’t mean that there haven’t been difficult times . . .many trips that seemed like to hell and back. What fifty-four years together means is that we were both committed to the relationship, to our love and family, to our vows made before God. It seems nowadays, couples give up at the least little infraction . . . that’s so sad. Thank you for coming by and leaving your kind and encouraging words! BLESSINGS!
I have a winner! Becky Isaac won the drawing. I appreciate Caryl for being my guest and everyone else for stopping by.