Forever and a Day

By Emma Foster

Harper Adams lives in a small town in Virginia called Abingdon. She is an intelligent young woman studying to be a nurse. Focused on going to graduate school after nursing school, she won’t let anything stand in her way to achieve that goal.

McCray, a carpenter, moves to Abingdon, where he is assigned a job. Harper and McCray cross paths unexpectedly. Is this God’s will or a coincidence? Both strong Christians, they begin to grow together in Christ and share their passions in life, without thinking of what life would look like if they were apart.

An accident lies ahead that changes Harper’s perspective of God and His will. Her sole purpose for life hangs in the balance as she finds herself questioning whether to move closer toward or farther away from the God she once knew. What do you do when life throws you curve balls? Do you delve into scripture for answers or succumb to the world around you?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385022458

Emma Foster

Emma Foster is an author out of North Carolina. She lives on a farm at the end of a long gravel road in a small town. Before a long day of caring for others, she can be found with a cup of coffee, a Bible, and watching the sunrise over the tree line. Emma is fulfilling her calling to share with others the important things God has shown her in her short twenty-eight years of being on Earth.

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Copyright © 2024 Emma Foster.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®

Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM

Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover art by Zoe Schulze

ISBN: 979-8-3850-2246-5 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-2247-2 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-2245-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024906343

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/26/2024

This book is dedicated to

those who have stood by me during the trying times of my life, encouraged me along the way, and picked me up when I was down. Thank you for the guidance and direction that has helped me become the person I am today. And for anyone who has ever felt alone, let this book remind you that you are not.

Contents

Chapter 1:  Introduction

Chapter 2:  The First Date

Chapter 3:  Operation Coffee

Chapter 4:  Home at the Inn

Chapter 5:  Packing for Overseas

Chapter 6:  November 30, 2021

Chapter 7:  December 7, 2021

Chapter 8:  December 9, 2021

Chapter 9:  January 25, 2022

Chapter 10:  February 2022

Chapter 11:  February 14, 2022

Chapter 12:  Home on the Road

Chapter 13:  February 28, 2022

Chapter 14:  Days Turned to Weeks

Chapter 15:  Dating

Chapter 16:  Boxcar

Chapter 17:  What a Coincidence

Chapter 18:  Backstory

Chapter 19:  Pizza at the Pan

Chapter 20:  The Beginning of Something Special,

Round Two

Chapter 21:  December 2022

Chapter 22:  January 2023

Chapter 23:  January 26, 2023

Chapter 24:  February 2023

Chapter 25:  The Day I Said I Love You

Chapter 26:  March 2023

Chapter 27:  Colorado

Chapter 28:  April 2023

Chapter 29:  The Next Day

Chapter 30:  Rwanda

Chapter 31:  CHUK

Chapter 32:  Back to the United States

Chapter 33:  Months Went By

Chapter 34:  Jeremiah 30:17

Chapter 35:  A Man Who Knew No God

Chapter 36:  Cologne

Chapter 37:  .45 Revolver

Chapter 38:  Yellow Butterflies

Chapter 39:  Best Friends Are There for a Reason

Chapter 40:  The Lord Will Show You

Chapter 41:  The Beautiful Mess

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

D riving down the flattened highways, no mountains in sight, I was beginning my journey to the beach. I was startled that a recently released Christian song was playing on the radio. Tears streamed down my face before evaporating into the hot summer air outside. The radio static was getting worse as I passed through one county after another. I began flipping through the stations, trying to find something that was appealing to the ears. I saw a yellow butterfly flickering its wings in the wind, nearly pelting the windshield of my old beat-up SUV. It was August in Virginia, the heat almost as bad as in Arizona during the summer months. The air-conditioning in my car had just gone out, and I hadn’t had time to repair it before heading to the beach. With the windows down and the summer heat against my wheel, I began to wonder why I had decided to wear leggings. The closer I got to the beach, the closer I felt to McCray, the person I had fallen so quickly for over the past year, the person whom I thought would be with me forever and be my forever. Flashbacks began racing in my mind of that dreadful day in April. April 19, 2023, to be exact, the day that God decided my life should be changed forever. Now I’m not talking just an average Joe type of day; I’m talking about a significant life event, one that changed my life forever. So, let’s start from the beginning. I can’t just tell you the one-day story and have that suffice for how you found out about God’s plan for me. That’s not how it works, even in the famous love sto ries.

My love story started more than a year ago, in the fall, and had yet to unfold. I saw a handsome blue-eyed guy whom I thought would be a good fit for me. His name was McCray. Well, let me rephrase that: he would call his eyes gray or green, but every time I’d seen them, they were blue. It depended on what he was wearing.

He had messaged me sixth months prior on Likable, but I hadn’t responded. Honestly, I was too busy talking to the bad guys who would never have anything to do with me. Likable was just another social media platform where every user believed that everyone else’s life was better than that of the previous young woman who’d posted about her name being misspelled on a green cup. I must admit, the app was becoming part of my everyday life too. I began wondering how and why everyone else’s life was so much better than mine. I was into the guys who were into fitness and had perfectly sculpted bodies, the ones who would never talk to a southern woman with braids who lived on a farm like me—the ones who would kill to go out to a club and have their photo taken just to slip something into a woman’s drink for a one-night stand. Either way, usually when I talked to guys, it went a little something like this:

Hey, how’re you doing? I would send.

Good. What’re you up to tonight? the guy would respond.

Not too much. Just reading. What about you? I would state.

Oh, I’m out with friends at Nightlife, he would say excitedly.

Oh, cool. I would kill the mood with a period to make sure the guy knew not to respond.

I wanted to be like the other users on Likable. I wanted to be wanted, but I didn’t need all that. I was far too independent to be sloppily dancing with some random guy who would just ditch me after one night. I was far better than that, and I still am. But everyone goes through stages of life, and I just so happened to skip straight to being a grandma. I was OK with that, but I wasn’t quite old enough to start drawing social security, so I wanted to expand my search for the perfect guy for me.

After scrolling through my messages, McCray’s name popped up. In his photo, he looked young and was wearing a white shirt, but he was far too handsome to pick a woman like me. I decided to reply to his message but couldn’t bring myself to press the orange arrow to send the message I’d type. Knowing my luck, he already had another girlfriend, and I was just going to be another backup, a designated driver when he needed a ride home at two o’clock in the morning. It was fate that I ended up messaging him back—unless we would have met some other way. God had a plan.

One day I was sitting in class, daydreaming about how everyone else’s life was better than mine, and thought about messaging him back. I was going to comment on a Bible joke he had made, but I didn’t know what to say, so yet again, I didn’t press the orange arrow that would have sent the message straight to his inbox. At this point in my life, I was just a regular brown-haired woman with hazel eyes, average height. Simple. I may have even considered myself to be a nerd. I was a nerd. I wore glasses that were thicker than a quarter and was legally blind without them. Thank goodness in seventh grade my parents had made just enough money for me to get contacts. Then I was no longer the leader of the nerd herd. I was a farm girl who wasn’t afraid to get dirty, but I could dress up and look cute if I felt like it. I was of average weight but could be considered a bit fluffy because I didn’t have a six-pack and in fact carried a nice little muffin top that I continuously struggled to get rid of. I usually had my long brown hair twisted up into a bun on top of my head or worn in a long braid down my back. I rarely wore my hair down, but all my photos on Likable were of me with my long curly hair perfectly twisted in ringlets that tapered down my spine. Just to restate, Likable was where everyone’s life was perfect, including mine.

I was in my last year of undergraduate school, studying nursing at a small university that was located in my hometown. Nursing school was hectic, busy, with something always going on, from clinical in the hospitals for school to working almost every day of the week. Add this to my life on the farm and I was busy. I had everything going for me: my GPA was near perfect, I was vice president of my class, and God was the center of my life. Many people wanted to be me or else thought my life was perfect. To be honest, my life had been anything but that. I had been struggling with anxiety and depression for years, but no one knew that. I had panic attacks that would make me sit in the stairwell at school and cry because I missed my family and my horses. I would be hit with a gut-wrenching feeling that something bad was going to happen, followed by another breakdown that caused me to rush out of my classes. It was hard for me to hide that I was struggling, but apparently, I did a good job of portraying my life as perfect on Likable just like everyone else.

All right, back to McCray. The message that he sent me sixth months prior read, Hey, baby, what that tongue do?

I responded with, Lick my fingers to turn pages in the Bible for sinners like you.

I had read that on a meme before and figured it would be funny if he read it and didn’t respond—or even if he did respond.

The little bubbles next to his name appeared. Oh my goodness, he read my message, I thought, as I sat in bed on a Monday night, refusing to study for the quiz I had the next day. It was beginning to get late, and I couldn’t bear to be up another minute. I was going to have to get up around four in the morning to take care of all the horses and dogs and wasn’t about to stay up to wait for some young man to respond to some dumb joke I had made.

The next morning, I had a notification on Likable. It was from McCray. He had responded to my message. I couldn’t believe it! I was so shocked that he had even responded that I didn’t read the message, but instead did my daily routine. I rolled over with my hand patting the wooden side table that sat to the left of my bed, feeling for my glasses. Lord knows that I couldn’t see anything without those quarter-thick lenses. I walked over to the Keurig after turning the light on in the kitchen. I picked out a coffee and placed it in the Keurig, listening closely for the little electronic engine to start heating the water. I grabbed my morning devotional and headed downstairs to greet the dogs, which were sleeping in their crates.

I stepped outdoors, where the smell of fresh-cut hay hit my nose. The mornings on the farm were a time for me to reflect and enjoy some stress-free time with Jesus. I sat as the dogs gallivanted around the pasture, nearly knocking into the horses, before I began calling out their names. The horses were nickering in the background, clearly ready for their morning breakfast. I fed the dogs and the horses. As they chomped on their morning mush, I pulled out a little book that I usually read in the morning. It was a book of daily devotionals that I had been working on following. I read my devotional for the day, which talked about loving others as I loved myself. I prayed for God to be seen through me as I took on another day at a small-town university. The sun hit the side of the barn perfectly before I headed upstairs to get my coffee.

My phone was sitting on the charger, so as I drank my coffee, I began to get curious. I decided to open the message on Likable, which consisted of McCray responding with what I thought to be a smart-aleck comment.

Wow. I read the Bible and go to church every Sunday, he said.

I couldn’t decide if I believed him or not. I mean, could you believe someone who had sent you just one message? The answer was probably not.

Ha-ha. I was just following along with your first message, I responded.

The little bubbles popped up again. What is he doing awake? I thought.

Ha-ha. I’m telling the truth. I go to church. I’m a Baptist Christian, he said.

It was nice that we had a similar background. It meant our morals were the same, or at least should have been. I didn’t know him yet, and one couldn’t make assumptions nowadays. I was keeping my guard up, but he got a brownie point for being a Christian, or at least saying he was one. Next thing was for him to show me, if it even went so far that I met him in person. I hesitated messaging him, but I figured only two things could happen: he would never respond, or he was just as bad as the rest of the guys I had been talking to. Either way, I figured it couldn’t hurt messaging him and talking to him on Likable.

He had added me as a friend on Likable and messaged me. I decided to message him back with a joke about him stalking me: I’d never told him my last name, so how had he found me? The answer to that question was God. It was God leading him to me. Whether anyone wants to believe that or not, I believed it at the time. He and I had a few mutual friends who lived where he was living. Our paths just luckily crossed at the right time.

This was just the beginning, and I was in for something challenging, something that would push me to my limits and beyond what I thought I could handle. But now, looking back, I wouldn’t trade what we or had for the world. Through the ups and downs, the heartache, the heartbreak, the best moments, the scariest moments, and the best part, being led closer to our heavenly Father, McCray taught me the raw meaning of love, the good and bad parts of it.

If you’re in this far, then you may as well keep reading our story.

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Chapter 2

THE FIRST DATE

W e began talking casually every day. I had learned quite a bit about him, but I hadn’t yet learned enough to feel comfortable to go out with him on my own. In fact, I felt that I already knew him, but I hadn’t even met him yet. How was that? What caused that feeling in the heart? Was it love at first sight? Or maybe even lust? I had no idea, because I had never really been out with a guy whom I was interested in da ting.

McCray’s eyes shined in all his photos. It felt like home. He had a smile that could light up a room, and he was the most handsome guy I had ever seen in a photo. He finally convinced me after three days of persistent messaging that he was the real deal and wasn’t going to stand me up.

The plan was for us to meet. He would pick me up at my friend’s apartment complex right outside Abingdon, Virginia. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had never been interested in guys, but something was different about McCray. What should I wear? Should I tell my friends? I mean, all women tell their friends, right? Not this one. I told my mom I was going to a study group. Yes, even good Christian women lie. Surprise.

I decided to be myself. For one of the first times in my life, I felt comfortable in my own skin. I wasn’t worrying about being skinny enough, fit enough, or pretty enough for anyone. I didn’t need all that; I just wanted to be plain Harper. That’s exactly what I did. I wore what I wore almost every day: black leggings, brown fuzzy boots, and a big red and blue flannel shirt, which was probably considered a fashion disaster