Status: AWOL

I should like to credit my recent disappearance to Leanne’s daybook, but that sounds like blame-shifting…  Let’s just say I took her hint and found a couple books by Francine Rivers… and proceeded to be consumed by them both over the past five days.  (I actually did a few other things those days … and did most of my reading during normal business hours. Meaning I did not stay up until 3am like Leanne  :-))

Leota’s Garden

Once Leota's garden was a place of beauty, where her flowers bloomed and hoped thrived. It was her refuge from the deep wounds inflicted by a devastating war, her sactuary where she knelt before a loving God and prayed for the children who couldn't understand her silent sacrifices. Now, eighty-four year old Leota Reinhardt is alone, her beloved garden in ruins. All of her efforts to reconcile with her adult children have been fruitless and she voices her despair to a loving Father, her only friend.  Then God brings a wind of change through unlikely means: one, a college student who thinks he has all the answers; the other, the granddaughter Leota never hoped to know. But can the devastation wrought by keeping painful family secrets be repaired before she runs out of time?

 

The Scarlet Thread

The story of two women, centuries apart, who are joined through a tattered journal as they contend with God, husbands  - and even themselves – until they fall into the arms of the one who loves them unconditionally. When Sierra discovers the handcrafted quilt and journal of her ancestor Mary Catherine Murray, she finds that their lives are amazingly similar. Though the women are separated by time and circumstance and Mary Catherine endured the hardships of life on the Oregon Trail, many of the issues and problems they face are remarkably similar.  By following Mary Catherine’s example, Sierra learns to surrender to God's sovereignty and unconditional love.

Credit:  The book descriptions are from Francine Rivers' website linked above.

Note to self:  Purchase a new box of Kleenex.

And these weren’t even the books on Gina’s list that I also brought home from the library.  Uh oh.