The Earring

Book 6 Part 7

A few weeks after we returned to the church, Ann came to me.

"How would you like your old job at the paper back?" she asked.

"Writing feature stories and columns? I've been reading the paper. You don't seem to be lacking in either," I said.

"The feature stories are written by the reporters on a rotational basis. I write a recipe column for the lifestyle section, but we don't have a real lifestyle columnist."

"Do you have the authority to expand your staff?"

"Not really, but I talked to the editor. I told him that the reporters were having trouble finding the time to do features. Some of our recent ones have been pretty weak. I took him to the conference room to our Press Awards Wall. I showed him your LPA awards for best local column and best feature story. I gave him some of your recent Life's Bumpy Landing columns to read. I told him that you'd moved back into the area, and I thought I might be able to talk you into working for us part-time. You wouldn't get any benefits, but the wages would be okay. You could work out of your house and email your stuff to me, so you'd be home for Faith."

I returned to the Parish Pride the next week. I revived Taking Off with Lander. I continued to write Life's Bumpy Landings. I also started doing some freelance stuff for various magazines. I remembered the scriptures about God doing immeasurably more than you can imagine and Him giving His children their heart's desires. I certainly could see God's hand at work in our lives. David was in ministry. I was writing. Faith still had a stay at home Mom. At the end of the summer Josh had transferred to LSU, and Zach was admitted as a freshman. They shared an apartment near campus, but came to visit a lot. My cup was full and running over.

For four years we lived a seemingly charmed life. Oh there were plenty of ups and downs. Zach's orientation didn't change. We struggled to figure out how to hate the sin while continuing to show unconditional love to the sinner. He knew where we stood on living the homosexual lifestyle, but we welcomed his friends into our home and loved them, too. We tried to find a way to keep his homosexuality from defining our relationship.

Our relationship with Josh also suffered. He accepted homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle, adopting the secular worldview rather than the Christian one. He and Zach weren't going to church very much. Struggling with God's condemnation of homosexuality had led them to question their faith. We simply prayed for them and loved them.

Faith entered the teenage years and faced the hormonal vagaries of adolescence. Somehow, though, the trials of the teen years seemed less trying with her. Maybe it was because everything paled next to what we had gone through following Zach's revelation.

Four years after David reentered the ministry, he gave me a special Christmas gift. To start the last year of the millennium he took me on a couple's retreat. He gave me a card after we filled the stockings. Santa was a thing of the past, but the tradition of stockings continued for whoever was at home. The card's front had the familiar rose, but in the center was a tiny photo of David and I. On the inside it read:

I asked you to spend a lifetime darling.

You stood by me through good and bad.

You even offered forgiveness

When I'd been nothing but a cad.

I asked you to spend a lifetime darling.

Your love was faithful and true.