Page 73 of Love Story
John felt his world right itself, just a little. “And one day... one day we’ll find our baby boy.”
It was four in the morning when they packed her things and quietly set out. John took her to the Wesleys and the next evening the couple met with them and agreed to a plan. John and Elizabeth would get married and live there in John’s room, on one condition.
They had to tell Elizabeth’s parents where they were.
Neither of them wanted to make that call, but the next day John took the lead. He called her parents and told them what he’d done, that Elizabeth was safe with him. Then he advised them that the following Monday the two of them were getting married. On their own. No parents allowed.
The first time he’d spoken with Elizabeth’s father, John had been nervous, embarrassed, and certain the man hated him. This time, John didn’t care. He couldn’t change the past, couldn’t go back and protect Elizabeth’s innocence. But he could take care of her from this point on.
It was no surprise that Elizabeth’s parents didn’t protest not being invited to the wedding. Elizabeth’s father shouted at John when he heard the news. “You have no right to take my daughter without my permission!”
“She’s an adult, sir. This is what she wants.” John managed to keep his tone calm. His mind was made up and so was Elizabeth’s. There was nothing her parents could do to keep them apart.
Her father yelled and screamed and said lots of things John didn’t really focus on. Bottom line was this: Elizabeth was disowned. Neither she nor John were allowed back to the house where she grew up ever again.
They got married that Monday in a ceremony that was short and sweet. Elizabeth wore an outfit she’d been given by the houseparents while she was pregnant. A flowing white gauzy dress with long sleeves that flared at the ends. John wore a suit, and the justice of the peace took their picture.
A photograph John would keep forever.
It wasn’t until three weeks later that the Wesleys sat them down for another meeting. Space was tight. Money tighter. They gave John and Elizabeth a week to find somewhere else to live.
That afternoon John drove Elizabeth to Independence Lake Park. The irony hit John hard as they pulled in.Independence. They were hardly independent, now that they were about to be homeless. And it was there—in a parking spot overlooking the lake—that John remembered everything Wilson Gage had told him.
He shared the story with Elizabeth, and the whole time she never looked away, never did anything but nod and wipe an occasional tear. At the end of the story Elizabeth said only this: “I think he’s right, John. We can’t do this without God’s help.”
And suddenly, John could feel his heart open up for the very first time. Yes, they needed God. They would never survive the coming week, let alone a lifetime together, unless they had the help of God Almighty. A God that John believed in now, because without His help John’s car would’ve broken down somewhere else.
It was as if God Himself cared enough about John Baxter to let the oil leak out of his car at exactly the right time. And to place him right in the living room of a man whose story would change the course of John’s life forever.
There in the car that day at the park, John and Elizabeth asked Jesus to forgive them for what they’d done, for going against His ways and for making such a mess of things. They gave their lives to the Lord and asked Him that one day they might find the son they’d lost.
Then John prayed one more thing.
That God would give Elizabeth and him a marriage and family so beautiful all the world would want to know their secret.
23
Ashley stood at the edge of the kitchen table and studied the finished project. Cole had gotten an A on it. As she looked over the letters and photos she realized even now, with the interviews over, the story stayed with her. And when she was alone—the way she was this morning—it made her cry.
So much of their lives had been shaped by that summer. The choices that led to heartbreak and the fact that after that season, her father had made a commitment. He would never drink alcohol again. He and her mother both.
The Bible made it clear that getting drunk was wrong, and so was making someone else stumble. “Doesn’t leave a lot of reasons to have a drink,” her father liked to say. So none of the Baxter family drank. They didn’t want to.
Besides, they’d seen firsthand how much fun a family could have without alcohol, how much laughter and happy times. All of it around a glass of iced tea or a mug of coffee or hot chocolate.
A lifestyle that began because of that long ago summer.
That wasn’t all, of course. In the days before she died of cancer, Ashley’s mother begged God for the chance to see her baby boy. Hold him and kiss his cheek. Let him know that she’d never stopped loving him.
And in what could only be a miracle, that grown-up boy came to her. There in the hospital he found her and told her who he was. He had hired a private investigator to find his birth parents, since his adoptive parents had been killed in a single-engine plane crash over an isolated jungle.
Later that day, Ashley’s mother and father talked about the meeting. Her mother explained that she’d met their firstborn son. Ashley’s dad at first thought she was delusional, that she’d had a dream perhaps. He didn’t believe their firstborn son had actually found her and made peace with her. But eventually the boy found Ashley’s father, too, and confirmed the story. The meeting had happened.
Their firstborn was Dayne Matthews. A Hollywood movie star known by the whole world. He was a Christian now, too. Long gone were his days of wild living and partying. Now he was part of them, at every holiday and summer barbecue. Married with three children and still celebrating the miracle of their reconnection.
Thankful to finally be part of his family. The Baxter family.
And of course the most dramatic thing to come from that summer was the way her parents turned their lives to God. How they grabbed on to His Word and never let go, never again let religion or mean people stand in the way of their faith.
