Awhile back, you may remember, I wrote a little, tiny story in response to Prevention magazine asking their readers for input.  And they actually printed mine.  Well, that story was read by a nice lady who lives a few states away and she wrote me the nicest letter.  Her mother was born in my town and this lady visited my town many times in her youth.  We wrote back and forth a few times and she said she'd like to meet me, as she was going on a cruise up the coast and one of the stops was at our port.  Today was the day!

Gosh, I was nervous!  We arranged to meet at a monument on a hill here (the Astoria Column) and it had been drizzling off and on.  I prayed for sun and right at 10:00 am, the clouds opened up for a bit of sunshine!  I thought our meeting would be kind of awkward but it seemed like I already knew them.  She was here with her husband and another couple, good friends of theirs.  They were just so nice and we talked with them for over an hour.  She even brought me some little gifts.  Isn't that sweet?  My kids ran around the park-like area and climbed up the Column with my dh (I was so happy my dh could be there with us.)  From up there, you can send a balsa wood airplane sailing and they had great fun doing that.  When they climbed back down, they ran around collecting airplanes other people had left. 

My new friends were only in town for the day so at 11:15, we took photos and said our goodbyes.  It was fun and interesting getting to know them, and we found we had some things in common.  But when my family got home, I had a complete confidence breakdown!  My dh had asked me, "Well, do you think you were all she was were expecting a writer to be?"  I know he was joking but I looked at him and suddenly, I felt like everything I had said was wrong or stupid!  I just couldn't shake it!  I thought back at our conversations and cringed!  It was awful.  I finally had to pray for peace about it because I knew I was overreacting.  I just wrote the other day that most people remember what they said, not what other people said, in a conversation.  I guess because I'd never met them before, I got worried about what impression I made.  They did ask me a lot of questions about our town and stuff and I'm pretty honest in my opinions.  That can be good or bad.  I also have a tendency to start out with a comment and then realize it's not sounding like I meant it but there's no going back!  (A little disease called foot-in-mouth.)  Oh my!!!  The confidence-level is plummeting again!  O.k., it's not the end of the world.  This too shall pass. 

Anyway, I'm really glad I got to meet them.  It's amazing to think that a magazine could bring new friends into my life like it did.  We agreed to keep in touch and she invited me to visit if I was ever near her town.  God brings people into our lives in all sorts of ways.  I never knew when I first started blogging here that it would lead to so many contacts with people.  I wouldn't have responded to Prevention if I hadn't already been writing so much on here.  I've always wanted my writing to be for good reasons, to be positive.  I'm thankful God has already blessed me in so many ways through it.