Falling in Love - Part 1

by Laura Lofgreen

I just finished reading Stephanie Nielson’s new book Heaven is Here and cried sad, happy and spiritual tears throughout the entire read.  Please read this book.

Now, I’m in the middle of Ree Drummond’s book The Pioneer Woman and am giddy with her incredible sense of humor.  This book is so good.

What contrasting books to read in the same week, but there is something similar in these stories (other then the fact that they are both famous bloggers turned New York Times Bestselling authors);

it is romance.

Yes, both Stephanie and Ree are great story tellers of how they meet their one true love.  Both romances are dreamy and earth-shattering and unforgettable.  

I am left feeling lop-sided, swimming in the thoughts of how I met my own handsome man and I feel the need to share my love story.

I never thought love would find me, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.  Men asked me out, I obliged, only later to wonder what I was doing.  I was so lost in dysfunctional male relationships, I didn’t know which way was up.  I had dated many men including the older father-figure man, the divorced man, the bankrupt man, the man who didn’t want children, the man who was getting a master’s degree in German and had a German temper to match his ego, the man who just wanted to be friends but never got around to telling me, the man who worshiped his car, the man who wasn’t really a man at all but a big kid trying to act macho and so on.

If all men were like this, I no longer believed in love.  Love wasn’t something tangible, it wasn’t available to average everyday people like me. It was an idea that lit up the Hollywood screen or sold romance novels.  

At the age of 19, I was proposed to by an unemployed pre-maturely gray-haired insecure want-to-be firefighter.  He was sweet and we’d watched ‘The Bodyguard’ together, but when his car broke down and he reacted like a deranged gorilla all respect for him was gone.  At the age of 21, I was proposed to by an atheist 13 years my senior.  He was a great person, warm and smart, but I just couldn’t get past the fact that he didn’t believe in God.  At the age of 24, my friend set me up with “the nicest guy”, other then the fact he was mean. He put me down for being vegetarian and mocked my passion for obtaining higher education.  And yes, he proposed in a sort of “Let’s get married and you can work full-time to support me and my kids,” sort of way.

No, no and no. 

Men weren’t what they claimed to be and I wasn’t going to let my heart be broken again until a met a 6’5 tender man who I call the counselor came into my life. 

I promise this story has a happy ending.

To be continued. . . .