Shannon here: Lori DeJong shares how she met her husband and how her characters meet in her Contemporary Romance, Love’s True Calling. Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing for a copy. Deadline: July 29th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Lori:
How I Met and Married My Husband … Without Ever Going on a Date:
My husband Eric and I joke that we never dated. And it’s true.
You see, I’d kind of already been there, done that with an ill-fated earlier marriage and was a little battle-scarred and afraid to trust. Betrayal will do that to you, if you let it. And I let it.
But my desire had always been to be married, part of a unit, a family. Find someone to build a life with, have children with, grow old with. And I wasn’t sure I would ever have that, because the idea of dating again was petrifying. It was doubtful God was going to plant a guy in a tuxedo on my front porch ready to marry me, so I knew if it was meant to be, I had to trust that He would bring me the right guy in the right way at the right time. If only I didn’t have to go out on dates.
So I didn’t. Two or three times a week, a group of us from the singles class would meet at the park and play pick-up volleyball for hours. One evening, a mutual friend invited Eric to come play, we started talking, and …
We hung out. He never called and asked me out on a date. Never anything that formal. Instead, what God grew us into was a strong friendship based on respect, acceptance, and a common faith. Eric would come over to the house I shared with three other single ladies from church (my sisters-in-faith to this day) and we would take off walking. For miles, just talking. (No wonder I was so much thinner in those days!) It was all so very comfortable and relaxed. Safe.
Several months passed before we realized there was something more bubbling under the surface, and we got married a couple of years later. God knew I didn’t need a date. I needed a true friend I’d grown to trust without question.
We’ve been married over thirty years now and have one daughter, twenty-three and living her best life up in the DFW area. Walking with God, plugged into a good church, and pouring herself into her work and friendships. We couldn’t be more proud of the young woman she’s become.
Eric and I are empty-nesters now and still best friends. We just built a little house and are moving in a month. But that’s another story for another time, how God journeyed with us through financial devastation due to job lay-off to living relatively debt-free (except for aforementioned house). God is good. All the time.
Harper and Wyatt in my new release, Love’s True Calling, were besties from kindergarten who started down different paths in middle school. After a brief reunion in high school that ended in heartbreak, they didn’t see each again for eleven years. Until she showed up as a late-bloomer student in a psychology class where he was a last-minute substitute professor. Theirs is a story of forgiveness, redemption, healing, and hope.
You’ve heard the story of how I met my husband. Here’s a quick look into Harper’s first glimpse of Wyatt after more than a decade.
Excerpt from Love’s True Calling by Lori DeJong:
Chapter One
Harper had never felt so … old.
She fidgeted in her second-row seat as her classmates gathered in groups around the room—the proverbial square peg. The last time she sat in a college classroom, most of these kids were in middle school. Of course, starting her sophomore year of college nine years after her freshman hadn’t been the original plan, but then, well … life. There was no way to see what lay around that next curve.
And hers had seen plenty of curves in her scant twenty-eight years.
She glanced at her watch. Class should have begun five minutes ago. Odd for a professor to be late the first day, especially one with as stellar a reputation as Dr. Marjorie Vance.
A man strode into the room and closed the door behind him. “Okay, everybody, please take your seats, and we’ll get things rolling.”
Harper froze. She hardly recognized the man, but that voice she knew. The voice she’d witnessed transition from boy to adolescent crackle on the way to its present smooth, deep timbre. The voice she last heard the night she broke his heart. The night he took hers with him when he walked away.
About Lori: Lori DeJong (pronounced DeeYung) is a contemporary Christian romance author who enjoys penning stories full of grace and the redemptive power of God’s love that inspire others to hope regardless of circumstance, find joy in the moment, and grow in their faith.
Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Lori arrived in Texas in 2005 and dug those roots right in. She currently resides in beautiful Georgetown, north of Austin, with her husband of thirty years. Other than their two fur-babies, their nest is empty, as their daughter graduated from college and settled in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, where she is thriving in her faith and career.
Lori loves to write about love and romance and all that fun stuff, with a firm foundation of faith. Clean but sassy, sparkly, and even goose-bumpy romance, with God in the middle and characters seeking and learning and changing, couldn’t be more heartwarming or spine-tingly.
Lori’s debut novel, Love’s True Calling, Book One of her True Calling Series, was the 2020 winner of the Scrivenings Press Novel Starts Contest, the 2022 winner of the ACFW Genesis Award for Romance, and a 2022 Maggie finalist. Book Two of her True Calling Series, Love’s True Home, will be released in 2024, and Book Three, Love’s True Measure, in 2025. Learn more & connect:
Lori’s Website Lori’s Instagram
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About the book – Love’s True Calling:
After years of jumping through other people’s hoops to be all they thought she should be, and enduring a tragedy no mother should, self-described “newbie” Christian, Harper Townsend, has finally found her true calling … and her true love. Until it appears that to follow one may mean leaving the other behind.
Adolescent Psychologist, Wyatt McCowan, is beyond delighted to have the-girl-that-got-away back in his life, and his heart. But even as they fall more in love, he realizes that being obedient to God’s calling on each of their lives may pull them apart. She rejected him once in favor of another, which left him hurt and angry. But this time, he can’t fault her for following hard after the God she loves with all her heart, even if it means leaving him once again.
Can’t wait for the drawing? Worried you won’t win? Get your copy now!
Love’s True Calling Lori’s Amazon Page
Come back July 21st for Donna Schlachter!
Interesting post. It’s nice when a married couple are also good friends. By the way, there’s no question in the post. It sounds like a really interesting book. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for commenting, Diana! You’re so right. I completely forgot to offer a question. My bad!
What a beautiful story of friendship and love! Thank you for sharing!
Aww, thank you, Natalya! He truly is my best friend, my hero, my confidant, and so many other things. God really healed me through the love and graciousness of this man. Thank you so much for commenting!
nice post
don’t see a question
Hi bn100! You’re right! I completely forgot about offering a question this time around. I’ll have to remember to do that next time. Thank you for commenting!
I have a winner! Beverly Duell-Moore won the drawing. I appreciate Lori for being my guest and everyone else for stopping by.
Congrats, Beverly! I’m delighted to send you a signed copy of Love’s True Calling!