December Memories

I love December. There are just so many special things about it. Advent. Christmas. Baking Christmas cookies with my children and decorating the house. I even like the snow, although I have to admit it gets old by February.

I have another reason for liking December. Next week I will celebrate my 20th anniversary with my husband, the love of my life. I knew when I met him that he was the one. He took a little longer to figure it out. Let me back up a bit.

Growing up, I remember my parents telling the story of how they had met. My mom had been visiting her sister, my aunt. While there, she met my aunt's neighbor and his brother, my dad. My dad went home that night and told his parents that he had met the woman he was going to marry. Six months later, they were married. Sigh. The romantic in me always hoped I would have my own story to tell.

And I do. My best friend moved from Illinois to Pennsylvania after college. When she got engaged, she asked me to be her maid of honor. Several months later, I traveled to PA. I met the best man, and we clicked. After the wedding, I told my parents I had met the man I was going to marry. My mom and dad just laughed. They had already decided that we were perfect together. A year later, he proposed. Six months after that, we were married, and our best friends were our honor attendants.

That was twenty years ago. We're still together. We have three children and enough animals to make our own petting zoo. Life has been good.

I am releasing my fifth book with Love Inspired Suspense this month. Another milestone that makes the month special. Amish Christmas Abduction was a book that had been in my heart long before I sat down to write it. I love this story and am so grateful that God gave me the opportunity to share it.

"KIDNAPPED IN AMISH COUNTRY After catching a glimpse of something she wasn’t supposed to see days before Christmas, Irene Martello is run off the road and barely survives. More shocking is the backseat whimper of an Amish toddler stowaway and the familiar sight of their rescuer—the man who’d let her down years earlier. Police chief Paul Kennedy fears Irene stumbled onto a kidnapping ring with two dangerous agendas: retrieving the girl and silencing the witness for good. Only Paul can keep them safe for the holidays. Guarding Irene means risking his heart—and his secret—but to save the child and the woman he never stopped loving, it’s a risk he has to take."