Shannon here: If you’ve hung around this blog for long, you’re probably familiar with Kelly Cordova’s mom, June Foster. It’s always fun when I hear of a mom and daughter writing a book together. Today, Kelly shares how she met her husband. Comment or answer the question in any post dated Feb 8th – 11th to enter the drawing for winner’s choice of print or e-book copy of June & Kelly’s Historical Romance, Eliza’s Hope. Deadline: Feb 19th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Kelly:
The potholed, Mexican roads tossed dust upward onto the missionary’s travel trailer. Behind in the church van, I rode with a group of enthusiastic teenagers, ready for our first short-term mission’s trip.
The van’s driver pulled our vehicle over to the side of the road behind the trailer. From the window, I saw the reason. The truck had a flat.
Memories from the week before flooded my mind. I watched my boyfriend in his driveway struggle to change a tire on his Mustang. Following a meltdown and a few curse words, he eventually got the tire changed. But he hadn’t opted to come on the trip.
Beside the road, the youth leader climbed out of the van and headed toward the truck to survey the
damage. Seconds later, a skinny teenager I’d only just met, Tom Cordova, jumped out of the van and retrieved the jack and spare tire from the trailer.
Shortly, he had the tire changed, and we were back on the road. I don’t know if it was his confidence that caught my eye, his mechanical skill, or that he was really cute. But my boyfriend’s outburst had concerned me.
For the next two weeks, Tom continued to surprise me. He even jumped on the back of a horse and rode it around the field. Whether he tried to impress me, I can’t say. But his heart for God touched me the most. Without shame or embarrassment, he shared the gospel with anyone who’d listen, despite his poor Spanish.
A week after we returned, Tom dropped by my house so we could look at each other’s pictures. Strangely, mine were filled with images of that wild, young man. How would I explain that to my boyfriend? Well, turns out I didn’t have to. He arrived at the same time and found us giggling over photos of the trip. We were just friends, but he assumed Tom had stolen my heart. And with no explanation, I never saw him again.
The mission’s trip led to a beautiful friendship which turned into love. Today, we’ve been married for 35 years. We have six kids and four grandkids. We even returned to Latin American and spent eight years as missionaries in Peru. Life is always an adventure with that crazy man, Tom.
About Kelly: Kelly Cordova lives in Texas with her husband, Tom, where she homeschooled their six children. Before settling in El Paso, she and her husband served as missionaries in Peru. Kelly has a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism and a Master’s in public affairs journalism. Eliza’s Hope is Kelly’s debut novel.
About June:
An award-winning author, June Foster is also a retired teacher with a BA in Education and a MA in counseling. She is the mother of two and grandmother of ten. June began writing Christian romance in 2010. She penned her first novel on her Toshiba laptop as she and her husband traveled the US in their RV. Her adventures provide a rich source of information for her novels. She brags about visiting a location before it becomes the setting in her next book.
To date, June has written over twenty contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels and novellas. She loves to compose stories about characters who overcome the circumstances in their lives by the power of God and His Word. June uses her training in counseling and her Christian beliefs in creating characters who find freedom to live godly lives. She’s published with Winged Publications.
Her novel, The Inn at Cranberry Cove, won the 2021 Selah award for Romantic Suspense. It is available on Amazon in paperback, hardback, and eBook format. Learn more & connect:
husband to cholera. After training under the local physician, she longs to become a doctor, but few schools accept women. Now the doctor has passed away, and she works at her father’s boarding house. When a handsome physician arrives, beaten and stripped of his jacket and boots, she believes he’s another gold-crazy miner heading for the hills where her brother has ventured.When Eliza’s brother returns from the gold fields with a broken leg, Eliza learns her friend who traveled to the mine with her husband needs medical attention. Eliza is determined to make the treacherous journey. When she accompanies Levi to Diamond Falls, Levi discovers affection for Eliza despite his engagement to a woman in Boston.
Though Eliza and Levi come from different worlds, their hopes are the same. Will Eliza have opportunity to study medicine? Can Levi find a life with the Irish lass despite his fiancé and medical practice in Boston?
Can’t wait for the drawing? Worried you won’t win? Interested in June’s other titles?
Get your copy/copies now!
Shannon, I loved reading this article Kelly wrote as it brought back memories I thought I’d forgotten. Oh, how time passes so quickly. Thank you for having us both on your blog this week and happy Valentine’s Day.
Thank you for having us on your blog, Shannon. It was a fun and a little embarrassing telling some of my story.
I loved it, Kelly. And I’m so glad you didn’t end with the cursing guy 🙂 Your mom is a gem. And your dad. I actually met June at an ACFW conference. We went to a dinner at a mall with several other writers and June said we could ride with her and your dad, then they’d take us back to our hotel, which was different than where the conference was. After dinner, it was dark and the unfamiliar city looked different. Your poor dad was a trooper. He drove us back and forth in horrible traffic two or three times, trying to find the entrance to our hotel.
Shannon, I remember that day fondly. 😊
Lovely to meet the authors here.
I don’t think you can look for true love, I think it finds you.
It sneaks up on you when you least expect it
Thanx for sharing the missions trip story! Love shows up when God has it ready for you. You always want the one you cannot live without.
That is interesting you say that because when Tom proposed to me, that was what was going through my head. Could I live without him? I knew I couldn’t so I said yes!
My advice is to pray about it. That is what I did. It took a long time and a great deal of patience on my part, but I finally met the man God meant for me and we have now been married for 21 years.
Cherie, what a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing.
Make sure he’s a Christian, then make sure he makes you laugh!
Hope, God’s word confirms that. Thanks for the reminder.
I have a winner! Susan Johnson won the drawing. I appreciate June for being my guest and everyone else for stopping by.