prologue

I could have nearly fell to the ground! She was right, I could no more force Rich to accept the things I had come to know, then I could mature a rose with my hands. What a solid visual! That 'off-sides sermon' came to minister and teach me literally thousands of times, as I learned more and more to rely on the Holy Spirit and on God's perfect timing! No one could have known, but the Sovereign God of Love, that I would walk the next seventeen years  with a man bathed in bitterness and sunk in a bottle. Not being able to pray with my husband, or grow in faith together, made that unequal yoke rub down so hard on my shoulders right to my heart. There were times when I just wanted to spiritually shake him, but was humble to remember in the process I had the ability to destroy him. My love for him had grown so deep, despite the ravages of alcoholism! I had a saying that I had known since I was young, that came to mean a lot to me in this era of raising children and being married but never spiritually connected! It was "please do not send me roses for I may never readjust to daisies!" It was crucial not to have any expectations for holidays,  church events, or even daily in thinking my husband would arrive home for dinner, so as no major disappointments would occur. The 'yellow book' in the seven-set-series describes in a more profound manner the constant ways that I was dependent on God's strength and Grace in my marriage. And, the 'blue book' explains the time and place I came, to where I divorced my husband. (in the middle of teaching a Kaye Arthur COVENANT Bible study to children, to my shame and Jesus' full atonement!) The children and I moved one block from a glorious Rose Garden. Often we would walk there! I would just pray so deep, and so without words. If books were to have a wave pattern of building to a climax in the middle, or just straight on towards the end, the wave pattern of this book would be a downward valley. I forewarn the reader, this tale ends very sadly. But I also claim to know that God restores the years the locusts have eaten and HE IS THE RESSURECTOR! !I found myself