1. A Life made Extraordinary.
The Beginning.
Nearing the winter of my life — when I was still clinging to hope — I looked up; and there he was. Black, beautiful and radiating goodness, and happiness — and a peace that drew me to him. Good looking? Absolutely. But the true beauty is the heart and soul of this man.
We are an ordinary, yet extraordinary couple. Just 2 ordinary ‘Joe Bloggers’ (lol). But extraordinary: because we grew up in 2 different countries (Carlton, America and myself, Australia), cultures — even decades; yet across several nations, a vast ocean and many, many years, we met, in the autumn of our lives, on May 20, 2016, in a different country (BC, Canada)— at a time when we might not have, because neither of us knew for certain we’d actually be in that place at that pivotal moment, until almost the last minute. But the time was right. At last.
Carlton and I are committed Christians — we’re Spirit-filled, speaking in tongues — and have belonged to the same global fellowship, for well over 30 years. For both of us, our faith and Christian lifestyle have always been the lynchpin of every single facet of our lives. But Christian life can still present its share of challenges or heartaches. By 2016, we’d both been living single lives for 7 or so years and were looking to God in prayer, for a life partner who shared the same values. Carlton: ‘by the end of this year please.’ And myself: ‘by the end of next year please.’ And so, 7 months after we met — on December 28, right at the very end of 2016 (the Lord’s impeccable timing), we began a conversation via Facebook Messenger.
On that December day, our lives ceased to be ordinary. With the beginning of 2017 came conviction: this was what we’d both prayed for — believing and trusting it would come to pass. This was it. For us, there is never a lull in conversation. Only when technology momentarily failed us, or one of us was on a plane, did we fail to talk at length every single day from that first message. We still do. Once our respective ‘floodgates’ popped open, connection was instant and deep. There’s always so much to talk about. Almost as if we’d saved up an entire world of thoughts, while we were separate, to share once we eventually found each other.
Extraordinary: because our paths had crossed before. Carlton spent a decade living in Australia between the 80s and the 90s (he knows parts of my birth country I haven’t even seen!), and we both moved within the same social circles, between several cities on the Eastern seaboard over that period. We know for certain that in 1987, and again in 1988, we both attended our annual Church Convention in Melbourne — therefore would have been in that same auditorium crowded with a couple of thousand people, known and unknown to us both. We actually shared quite a few friends and could have/should have met on many occasions. But the time was not right.
Extraordinary: because it’s us. And like nothing we’ve known before.
