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My story with Nancy

I met Nancy towards the end of 2013. We were introduced by a pastor, a mutual friend of ours, who knew about our losses. Nancy lost her husband in September 2011 in an accident at work. I lost Julie and Timothy in April 2012.

In the midst of grieving, neither of us was looking to rebuild our families for a long time. So when this pastor said to me, "Norberto, there is a beautiful widow you should meet," I was not really interested. As a favor, I went to his church, and Nancy and I were introduced to each other after the service. We exchanged numbers and agreed to get together sometime.

However, neither of us was ready for a relationship at the time. But over the next seven months, we met a few times, our kids played together, and something began to stir in our hearts for each other.

That was when I left for my sabbatical, last year in April. During that time, Nancy and I stayed in touch, praying for each other, committing our feelings and each other’s lives to God. Neither wanted to get emotionally involved, and we resisted a deeper relationship for some time. Both of us were cautious of affecting our kids with our decisions.

In September 2014, we started dating. God answered prayers and we fell in love. On December 30, I proposed to Nancy. She said yes. We got married on March 3 in Encarnacion, Paraguay. The pastor that performed our wedding was the one that introduced us. 

Although close friends and family have been part of the process, I have not shared our story publicly via this blog until now.  

More about Nancy and her two kids (Mark, 14, and Nicole, 11) in next posts. 
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