Oh Yes I Did!

Police officers and security experts tell you it's dangerous to meet people online and it is something you should avoid at all costs.  Even though you hear horror stories of people being robbed and murdered from someone they met online, you still see and hear commercials on the tv and radio espousing the benefits of it.  There have even been songs written about it, comedy skits acted out, movie scripts created, and real life drama that's unfolded on the evening news.

Being a typical redhead, I ignored those warnings and spent part of the weekend with a friend I'd made online. But this case was different (isn't that what the person always says in a movie before their online "friend" either robs them blind or kills them with an axe?).  Yes, you heard me right, it was different.  This wasn't from an online dating site, or some I'm a loser and need a friend site.  No, this was a much different orchestration and can only be described as us having been put together by God.

I know it sounds crazy but sometimes that's how God orchestrates our lives.  You see, I had known this person for a few years from a photography website I am a member of.  Photographers can be a very close-knit society and when one of our members suffered an unthinkable tragedy a couple of years ago, without even so much as a backward glance, we all came together and formed a bond which has become unbreakable.

Since that time, our group has met several times around the United States but unfortunately I've been unable to attend each gathering for one reason or another.  When the opportunity presented itself to meet one of the members of our group while she and her family were travelling on vacation this summer, well, being the crazy impetuous  redhead I can sometimes be, I jumped at the chance and invited them to stay at our house.

My husband was sure I'd lost my mind, but he went along with it.  The morning my friend was to arrive, my husband said "you realize this is something police tell you never to do, right?  We could end up on the news looking like a couple of idiots".  I laughed, but I was a bit nervous as well.

My friend and her family arrived and she told me about the first time our photography group got together and she had to explain the excursion plans to her family.  She has a great sense of humor and explained it to them as: one of the males in our group would pick her up in a white unmarked van at the airport.  He'd then take her to the hotel where he'd made her room accommodation to drop off her luggage.  They would then head several hours out to the desert for a photoshoot.  Ummm........ yeah.  Maybe I'm wrong, but it sure sounded like the makings of a Stephen King novel.

After that description, I think our visit sounded quite tame.  It was, after all, just bbq, relaxing, and church.  We had a great time and introduced them to some good old-fashioned Texas staples like fried okra (she'd never even heard of okra, much less fried okra) and corn dogs.  I could not believe her children had never had the cornbreaded, deep fried mystery meat yumminess on a stick we call a corn dog. 

All in all it was a fantastic weekend and we look forward to spending time with them, and the rest of the photography group, in the near future.  And thankfully, none of us made the evening news' headline story and no Amber Alert was issued for our disappearance.  Was this crazy?  In today's world, yes it was, but it was a crazy wonderful blessing as well, but not something I recommend anyone else doing.

by: Christie Bielss