Blessed

In late May, 1984 Louis Woodall walked into my apartment in the early morning. My daughter, Jonea, had just left for school and I had the day off. I asked him why he wasn't working and he replied “I thought it would be a good day to get married.”

“My daughters and our friends would be very upset,” I replied.

“I hadn't thought about that,” he returned. “Well I guess we should make plans then.” That settled, he left promptly and went to work, leaving me totally off balance. It was a precursor.

The date we set was August 12^th. I had a friend from my past that agreed to perform the wedding and let us use his church for the ceremony which would be small and simple. We gave our landlord the 18^th as the day we'd be out of our apartments. We both began college classes the end of August. We searched out and began fixing a rent house that needed work to be livable, but would recompense us for our effort.

Sometime during the first week of August my preacher friend called me and told me his mother was terminally ill and he would be out of town for awhile -not sure how long. We prayed. I was sure it was going to be fine. It wasn't. We had released our apartments, rented a house, invited friends, planned our days and we had no place to marry, no one to marry us.

The church we belonged to was very iffy on the marriage of divorced people and certainly strong on in-depth premarriage counseling. The pastor was a long time friend and if I had explained, he probably would have helped, but he was a long time friend and had he helped, it would have put him in a precarious position with his family and his church. I could not do that. The other pastors on staff were known for their individual unyielding stands on required counseling and or marriage after divorce.

On the 12^th of August, after the evening church service, we stood at the front of the church not knowing what we would do. Of course, there was the JP at the courthouse, but I wanted the blessing of a ceremony and the sanction of the church.

Tom Newton was the associate pastor -kind of second in command. He didn't marry divorce people and he didn't marry anyone without 6 months of counseling. He walked up to us as we stood there somewhat dazed by our situation. “Can I help you guys with anything?” he asked.

I replied, “I don't think so.” Louis said “Not unless you know who can marry us by next week.”

Tom Newton burst into a big grin. “Let's go to my office and talk.” We did. We went to his office to talk each night that week. He told us that God had told him he was to perform our wedding.

On Sunday, August 19^th in the afternoon, we met with a few friends and my daughters in the parlor at First Baptist Church of Fort Smith to recite our vows to each other and receive the prayer of blessing from Dr. Newton. We took my daughters home in northwest Arkansas and spent a couple of days at a lake together. We returned on Tuesday to a gift of a room at the Sheraton and a house in bad need of organization and repair. Our lives together had begun.

We've had fun and we've had stress. I've had more impromptu than I would have ever imagined in my life. I completed my degree while working for the college in the next several months and worked in print media for a few years. I went back to college 6 years later to get a degree in teaching.

My husband graduated with an electronics degree and began working for a company he would be employed with for 30 years. Life has not been easy. We've lived with good and bad like everyone else. But it's a life I would not trade. If I could do anything differently, there are junctures where I might make different choices. But I would want to do them with Louis Woodall.

It's been a relationship sanctioned by God in a very special way, a marriage blessed by God, by friends, and by family. I feel honored to celebrate 34 years as Donna Woodall this day and to look forward to whatever time God allows til death or rapture occurs. Will it be smooth and predictable? Nothing has been as yet. But I know it will be blessed.