Romans 8:28

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

    ^{We are certainly living proof of this scripture.  We both lived godless, horrid childhoods. I (Tracy) at least, had my real Momma who was saved before she died and she told my sister and brother and I about God and she truly lived a godly life until she died.  I was 7. After she died though it wasn't good.  I don't want to disparage anyone but I will say that I experienced abuse, both mentally and physically, and had to be grown up at 7.  I had to learn to survive in an environment with only conditional love and with abuse. I call it chaos.  Will also grew up in a godless, horrid childhood.  He experienced worse than I did and also had to grow up very early, he had to be able to survive on his own at age 5-7 and had a terrible experience at age 8.  Will calls his chaos.} 

    ^{People always ask how we met.  It's a funny story and fits this particular blog.  Will has one son named Daulton who he raised by himself from the time that Daulton was 6.  God had moved me to Oklahoma to help my step-mom and on a whim, I decided one day as I was driving past Milburn School that I could substitute teach and so I applied and started subbing.  Right away, I took over the long-term sub position as science teacher.  Daulton was in 8th grade and was one of my students.  That year, Daulton approached me at Old Settlers Day (a fun festival here) and said he wanted me to meet his Dad.  I thought to myself, "Oh great, another toothless, drug addicted loser" and we walked over to this DREAMY man and Daulton introduced this dreamy man as his Dad.  Will is shy to strangers and he was polite and quiet and pleasant. I thought "OMGOODNESS! Daulton has a SMOKING HOT DADDY" but nothing happened.  Daulton was my student for the next three years and was one of my favorite students because he was always respectful and hard working.  The year my Mom died, 2009 and then 2010 were awful years for me and for Will. We had both been hurt badly in relationships, my Mom (step-Mom) who was my best friend died and I was notified that I was being RIF'd (terminated) at school.  We had an awards dinner and Daulton came in with his Dad and sat by me.  Will had not ever been invited to come to something at school by Daulton and so it was odd that he was there period.  Will and I struck up an amazing, interesting conversation and really enjoyed each other.  We both had already independently made the decision that we were going to do life alone and so it was just a great conversation, nothing else.  A month after school was out, a dear friend Missy sent me a message on facebook and asked me if I knew Royce Willard (Will). She is a hospice nurse and I really thought she was talking about one of her patients.  I said I didn't and she said she had been talking to him on fb and that he is a really nice guy and has been praying for a godly woman and she thought of me.  When she said he lived in Emet and was raising his son alone and was building a house, our interesting conversation kicked in for me and I knew who he was.  She convinced me to send him a friend request, I did, he accepted, and we spent a week reading each other's posts. He liked mine, I liked his.  He eventually sent me a chat request and we chatted on fb for 8 hours the first time.  He shared his testimony. He had a horrid childhood, grew up and got mixed up with drugs and alcohol pretty seriously.  When he was at rock-bottom, he was walking where he is building his house, right there nestled against the trees. He said he heard a rustle behind him, he stopped, looked back and nothing was there. He started walking again and heard the rustle again and was immediately aware that this was something to do with God and knew he had better do something.  Even though he didn't know God,  he fell to his knees in a mud puddle and then to his face and prayed the prayer accepting Jesus as Lord and was forever changed.  That was 7 years ago and he was completely delivered from the temptation of drugs and alcohol and has not ever been tempted again.  A certain divine intervention.  When we met he was humble, knew the Lord, was being changed by God day by day, and had experienced "everything under the sun" and knew that he didn't want anything but a peaceful, calm, godly life.}

    ^{I didn't get saved until I was 30 and had experienced "everything under that same sun" and had learned by my time in Oklahoma that all the material wealth I had experienced, career success...everything didn't make me happy. By the time I met Will I knew that all I wanted was a peaceful, calm, godly life.} 

     Better one handful with tranquillity
   than two handfuls with toil and envy
   and chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 4:6

    ^{We are now both on a quest for simple things, calm, peace and the Lord.  We shared with each other when we met that we both felt that it was important for our testimony to be shared.  We were talking one day and I said I had always felt led to write a book and he said he also felt led to write a book and I said mine was going to be entitled "To Hell and Back" and he was astounded because that had always been the intended title of his book.  Our lives have been to hell and back but we have arrived at "back" because of God and now we start the journey forward.  Hell is behind us but God used it for good.}