There have been, in my past, and I suppose will be in my future, moments, events, things, happenings if you will, that go on my list of things to ask Abba when I am at last face to face with him. One of those “things” is going to be, “What were you thinking on April, 14^th 2007 when you woke me from an evening nap and suggested I go to the Cash Inn in Phoenix?

You see, what awaited me there was an introduction to someone I would have never in a million, no make that a billion years, have expected God to place in my life. She snuck up on me so to speak. Two friends invited me to join them at their table, which I did and we went through the usual “How you been? What’s up in your life?” banter. I don’t remember how many minutes passed that way but it couldn’t have been many. There was a tap on my left shoulder and when I turned to see who it was, thinking it must be another friend, I found myself looking into the green eyes of an adorable little blonde who asked, “And who are you?” And thus, it began.

As the evening progressed, the world shrunk to that small area the two of us, Christine Curtin and Georgia, occupied there next to the dance floor. Other than the Saturday nights when I would later be employed there at the Cash Inn, I have never stayed till closing … except that night. Several weeks later, the friend she had accompanied to the bar that night, told me that she thought she thought she was going to have to pry us apart when the bar closed. Needless to say, we exchanged phone numbers and promises to connect the next day.

At that moment, I was head over heels in love with whom I have come to refer to as “the little green-eyed blonde.” As it turned out that wasn’t the relationship which developed. I can say with clarity that what we have now didn’t develop overnight. It has taken most of the intervening nine years for that to happen.

In that time, we’ve learned a great deal about each other and we have gone through a period of drought in our relationship. In other words, we ceased communicating for nearly nine months over a misunderstanding that should have never occurred … but it did.

I’ve learned that, first and foremost, Christine is a loving, caring woman who puts family first then friends. She is a tough business woman who has built a thriving business virtually on her own. She hasn’t been without her own personal challenges. Her own battle with alcohol is one that she turned to for help when it had taken its final toll on her life. She is an overcomer if I ever knew one, and though it took a few starts and stops she has overcome the one thing that had the potential to bring her down.

She has done more to support me in my effort to promote “Dear Mom and Dad” than anyone else and for that support I am eternally grateful. That’s not the only support either. Thanksgiving weekend of 2007, I asked her if I ever made the decision to transition fully, would it make any difference in our relationship? Her response not only, “Of course not.” And then she added that if I made that decision she would go with wherever I needed to go and hold my hand for as long as I needed her. Nearly two years ago now, when I called and asked it the promise was still good, her response was simply, “Of course. When and where?”

I still don’t have a clue why God put this Little green-eyed blonde “atheist” in my life, considering what the difference in our spiritual lives is, but the fact is that she is here, and I believe she always will be. If I have learned nothing else from her it’s this: You don’t have to have a Christian belief to have a Christian heart.

I love you Christine Curtin. You are a friend I will always cherish. When I was a child I learned a little sing-song verse that goes like this: “Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold.” You began as silver but have become solid 24 carat gold.