Dear Readers,
It’s such a thrill to have Lisa Belacastro visiting again. She’s written a lovely post and is sharing about her new release, A Shenandoah Christmas.
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An early Merry Christmas, Collette, to you and your readers.
I’m thrilled to be back on the Blue Rose Romance. To celebrate my return, I’m offering my first ever free ebook deal. Over the next two days, December 8 and 9, readers will be able to purchase my recent release, A Shenandoah Christmas, for free on Amazon.
It’s December. Finally!
An odd choice of words for a gal who loves summer (not winter), who loves hot days (and can’t stand temperatures below sixty degrees), and who loves dinner on the beach when the sun sets after eight o’clock (unlike the current 4:30 pm).
Why then do I love December? Christmas, of course. I’ve always loved Christmas. The music, the decorations, the joy, the scents, Santa and reindeer, and the decorated tree in our home are all wonderful accents to celebrate the birth of Jesus. An Advent wreath and its candles are the centerpiece on our kitchen table, an Advent calendar helps me count down the days (as if I didn’t know exactly how many days were left until Christmas morning), and an Advent devotional guides me in prayer each morning.
I confess that I spent years attending church, lighting Advent candles, popping chocolate pieces out of Advent calendars and into my mouth, and I never fully understood the meaning and importance of the weeks of Advent. Last year, a Sunday sermon touched my wounded heart and revealed to me why the days of Advent are significant.
Before a new beginning, before the dawn, before the arrival of Good News, there are often dark days, difficult times, and moments of hopelessness. I have experienced painful periods in my life, but nothing has compared to the last year and a half. In June 2013, my best friend, suffering from a degenerative brain disease, opted to commit suicide, leaving me a final text message and a body to find. A few months later, my husband left, and a few months after that, one of my children was rushed to the hospital and has been battling an illness since.
Have you know periods of pain and hurt? Times when you’ve been waiting for the light at the end of what seemed to be the longest, darkest tunnel? In A Shenandoah Christmas, Andrew Roberts is totally and completely in love with Allyson Flanders. He’s ready to propose, has purchased a gorgeous diamond and sapphire ring, but something is wrong. He doesn’t know what that something is, but Allyson has been different since Thanksgiving, spending less and less time with him.
Andy despairs. Allyson all but disappears. Just as I experienced in 2013, Andy hears a sermon that releases the worry in his heart and unleashes a new resolve. Andy determines to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and the true Gift – a savior. Andy’s decision doesn’t change Allyson, but it does change him. He learns, as I have, that Advent has the potential to lead us toward the brightest new beginning possible if we focus our hearts on the promise of Christmas.
For me, Advent has become a celebration of waiting in hopeful expectation – hope for renewal, hope for restoration, and hope for the fulfillment of God’s promises. My husband is still living on his own, but we are in therapy. My child continues treatment and her body is healing. And though I miss my friend, I know we will meet again one day.
In a world that is too often filled with death, illness, and man’s inhumanity to man, love stories transport us to places where I bet we’d all like to live every day. I hope A Shenandoah Christmas will lift spirits, inspire hope, and encourage us all to believe in happily ever after because the happy ending we’re all looking for isn’t a fairytale. As we walk through our weeks of Advent, we can find our happy ending in the forever love of Jesus.
What does Advent mean to you? What are you waiting for? What are you hoping for? I pray this Christmas season fills you with hope, with joy, and with the assurance that you are loved. Merry Christmas!
Andy walked Allyson to her car, knowing she had to be at work by noon. He enclosed her right hand between his. “Great sermon, huh?”
Allyson nodded. “That one hit home. I don’t think I’ll ever write another Christmas wish list.”
“Did you write one this year?”
Her gaze strayed over his shoulder and down the street. “I guess I had. Well, one thing. But it seems insignificant now.” There was no mistaking the pain in her eyes. Whatever she was thinking about, Andy knew it wasn’t clothes or shoes or a trip to Jamaica. More than anything, he wanted to know what caused the longing and sadness inside her. If he could tear down the wall she was building, break through to whatever was hurting her, he’d fix it or die trying. But he wouldn’t push her for the truth.
Andy wanted to see her smile as she had when she’d first seen him this morning. “I had one thing on my list too. In light of the sermon, though, I think I’ll forgo wishing for season tickets to the Red Sox.”
Allyson laughed. “You’d never get to all the games anyway.”
“True, but I could sell the tickets and make money to buy Tess a bungee cord and diving board, and then I could sell tickets to another of her crazy schemes. It would be the Christmas gift that kept on giving. All my sister needs is a shove, no pun intended.”
Allyson smacked him playfully on the arm. “Stop it. Tess doesn’t need any encouragement.”
They were laughing. Together. And it felt good. Andy wanted to leave her on a positive note. “I’ll promise not to support Tess’s wilder side if you promise to have dinner with me tomorrow and attend Christmas Eve service. Deal?”
She smiled that warm, radiant smile Andy loved. “Deal.”
He opened her car door. “If you need anything at work today—food, chocolate, or a bodyguard to protect you from the swarms of shoppers, just call me and I’ll be there.”
“Thanks, Drew.” Allyson kissed him lightly on the lips and then hurried into the driver’s seat. “See you tomorrow.”
Andy grinned. “Tomorrow.”
And every day thereafter, if he had anything to say about it.
Lisa Belcastro lives with her family on island of Martha’s Vineyard. She writes inspirational romances set on the Island and the surrounding waters. She loves chocolate, reading, writing, running, working in her gardens, including weeding, and almost all outdoor activities — as long as the temperature is above sixty degrees! Being on or near the water is pure joy for her, and she is counting the days until the warmer weather arrives once again.
When she’s not at her desk working on her next novel or writing the cuisine column for Vineyard Style Magazine, Lisa is volunteering at her daughter’s school, serving in her church community, gardening, training for her first 50-mile road race, or walking the beach looking for sea glass.
