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I’d be all, how dare he get mad at me—I don’t even like him!
    Yes, I was a brat. But I wasn’t doing it on purpose. Really. Because you all know that when you try to act this way when you really like someone, it never works. You’ve got to be in full on denial mode.
    It took him about three months or more to wear me down. And then he ended up proposing to me in my classroom in front of my students without getting clearance from the principal when I didn’t have tenure and almost caused a riot when all 150 of the kids I taught went running through the halls to find and congratulate us.
    So see, it all worked out. And Lauren ended up in our wedding.
    She’s getting married next year—Zoo and I were her only fix up ever. When anyone asks her how she knew to pair Zoo and I together, she shrugs and says, I just knew they’d be perfect for one another.
    I guess that’s what I’d say to someone who asks me how I pick and choose the characters who’ll end up together. I just know.
    — Stephanie Tyler
www.stephanietyler.com
    #28
    There’s a reason I believe in love. Actually, there are a lot of reasons, the most important being the people in my life. I’ve been blessed to have been surrounded by love growing up. I know, some people aren’t so lucky. But believe me when I say my family has had its share of divorce and health problems and heartache. But we’ve survived-because of the power of love and God’s presence in our lives.
    My parents met and married when my mom was fifteen. Fifty-four years later, they’ve been through everything together. Have you ever heard the advice that if your marriage is on the rocks, don’t build a house or remodel? It’s true, because the stress and tension and problems that arise when doing those things have ended too many marriages to count.
    But not my parents’ marriage. Over the years my parents built twenty-three houses together to help supplement our family’s income. Not bad for an Army vet with a sixth grade education and a high school drop out, eh? At twelve, my depression-era father had to go to work to help feed his family. And my mom-she dropped out because she was in love, simple as that. Things were hard. Oh, the stories they tell about their early years together! But love got them through, and when my father wised up to the fact that he could overcome his lack of education working in real estate, things began to look up.

    Out of those twenty-three house builds, my parents moved a total of fifteen times-two of which took place in the same week! (Want to read an example of true love? Get this: Several years ago my father built yet another beautiful house, this one 6,000 square feet of beautiful tile, marble, wood molding and gorgeous cabinets. They moved, and the same week my mother was so homesick for her old house that my father moved her back!) Now tell me, how many husbands would do that? That’s love, no?
    Did I mention a sense of humor helps? My Dad can still tease a blush to my mother’s cheeks when he brings up that move. But on the flipside, neither can talk about my mom’s cancer and fifty-fifty chance of survival without glancing at each other with teary eyes and an expression of soul-deep love and dedication.
    The ability to laugh at the silly things that come up in life, the pet peeves and irritating, frustrating, I-can’t-believe-they-did-that moments, is HUGE when it comes to keeping maintaining one’s sanity. Through the hard years, the years when there wasn’t enough money, no jobs, tough, tough times, my parents were able to find the humor in their marriage. And in the dark times, they leaned on each other more, not less. People react to bad news in different ways, but I can’t describe how special it was to me to watch my parents fall in love all over again during my mother’s illness. They knew time was precious and they weren’t going to waste a single moment of it. Given all that I’ve seen, how can I not believe in love?
    I’d