Rosanna Huffman: When We Get to Trade for a Normal Life

Everyone's Story gives a warm welcome to author Rosanna Huffman. Not only do we share the phenomenal agent Linda S. Glaz, but Rosanna has an excellent middle name, Elaine (wink wink)! And, being candid and transparent, Rosanna and I also have shared several life circumstances and that's one of the reasons why I'm thrilled that Rosanna is my guest this week. After reading her thoughts, I hope you too are blessed and encouraged. Also, check out her lovely BookGiveaway of her novel, Hand Me Down Husband (don't you love that title?!), as well as the novel excerpt. Both Rosanna and I look forward to hearing from you.

BookGiveaway:

Rosanna is offering 1 copy of her novel, HAND ME DOWN HUSBAND, to 1 randomly chosen commenter. The winner will be announced here on Friday, December 18th between 5-6 PM EST. To be entered in the Giveaway, please leave your contact information within your comment (you may choose to use the Contact Me form to privately send me your email address--the form is in the right-hand sidebar on the blog's main page, toward the bottom).

Excerpt from Hand Me Down Husband:

Hand Me Down Husband by Rosanna Huffman

Mitchell crossed the classroom. In one hand he carried a McDonald’s bag and in the other a drink carrier with two large cups.

“Good afternoon, Miss Bloomer. I hope this is a good time for me to come. Gerald said after school, but I should have checked with you to find out what would be most convenient for you.” He waved the bag toward Suzanne and her stomach growled. “I didn’t get around to eating lunch, so I hit the drive-thru on the way over. Okay to set it here?” He nodded at the conference table.

She shrugged. “Sure.”

Lovely. She’d smell hot food while she trained the new principal. However, if he was eating, surely she could too. “I’ll be right back.” She sped to the kitchen to retrieve her leftover lunch and fill her water bottle.

She returned to find two meals set out on her table. Who else was coming? She looked away and tried not to smell the fries.

Mitchell was across the room studying a bulletin board. He turned around as Suzanne reached her desk. “Uh, Miss Bloomer, I hope you like Big Macs. That’s what I got and I brought one for you too. Didn’t want to eat here if you didn’t have something too.”

“I don’t have to eat your food. I have some here.”

He laughed. “I hope it’s something that’ll keep. I won’t eat two burgers and two large fries.” He stopped and frowned. “I’m sorry, you don’t like them, do you? I wondered if I should get chicken. I should have called and asked you.”

“Oh. Well . . . thank you.” One part of her brain wanted to split her face with a smile and gush shamelessly. Who didn’t like Big Macs? The other part of her brain—the dominant one—demanded caution. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. She shook her head and formed a lips-only smile. “No, a burger’s fine, but you didn’t have to do that.”

Trading for Normal by Rosanna Huffman

How old were you when you realized you were not “normal”? That, for whatever reason, you didn’t quite measure up to typical personhood?  For me it was probably around 6.8 years old, soon after I started first grade. That’s when I realized how much smaller I was than other kids in my grade. How frizzy my hair was compared to other white girls. How weird my clothes. How skinny and bony and hairy my arms.

As a tween my non-normalcy increased as I changed schools and was now rubbing bony elbows with only church kids—no, neither Amish nor Mennonite, but German Baptist Brethren. I seemed to fit into their homogenized group as well as a green bean in a milkshake. My female classmates wore skirts and blouses bought off a rack. I wore homemade dresses because “girl, you don’t have enough hips to keep up a skirt.” They wore white ankle socks. I wore dark, thick knee socks and hopefully both the same color. They had styled hair. I had frizzy hair that refused to look combed and had certainly never been styled.

Of course it improved in our teen years. Not. They sometimes went to movies. I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing such a “worldly” thing, much less have been allowed. They were asked out on dates. I wasn’t—not often anyway, and never by the right guy.

They entered their 20s and 30s and 40s. In a rare trend toward normalcy, I did too. But they fell in love, got married, had babies. I bought shower gifts and wedding gifts and made excuses not to babysit. I went to college. I traveled twice to Israel. They had more babies and stayed home and kept house and washed clothes. And forgot the 12s multiplication facts and the Pythagorean theory and how to diagram a sentence and 28 of the U.S. capitals. I taught high school. I moved into an apartment in my parents’ barn and crocheted afghans for my 33 nieces and nephews. Their children grew to school age and they began homeschooling and calling me for free advice. I quit teaching and began writing school curriculum for Christian Light Publications.

Rosanna with one of her nieces

They watched their children grow into adults and date and marry. I began traveling around the country to attend writers conferences. I wrote a novel. I watched movies. They celebrated Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Sweetest Day, and anniversaries. I won the grand prize in a national afghan design contest. Their husbands built/bought them nice homes, and they started cuddling grandbabies. I signed contracts with a literary agent and a publisher for my novel and two years later held my firstborn word-baby, Hand Me Down Husband, in my far-from-normal hands.

Do I miss the normal life? Can a person miss something she never had? Yes, and definitely yes. I miss the love and companionship of a good marriage. Occasionally I let myself stop and think about all the “normal” things I have missed out on, children and husband being the bulk of that list, and I admit—the disappointment is heavy. Would I trade all the awesome non-normal experiences I’ve had for a husband and family of my own? Absolutely—in a heartbeat.

But God is good and He is faithful. And we don’t get to make those trades in this life. We do get to be thankful for the blessings in the good times and in the hard times. Furthermore, someday all of us blood-bought believers in Jesus Christ do get to trade. We get to trade all the sorrows and disappointments and pains of this earthly existence for eternity with Him where all normal will be wiped away. Until then I take great comfort in the fact that Jesus lived as a non-normal on this earth and that He knows and cares for us all, whether we are normal or not.

Rosanna's Ah-hahs To Tweet:

Everyone’s Story: Meet author @RosannaEHuffman, #ChristianFiction & the single woman. 3BookGiveaway (Tweet This)

Author @RosannaEHuffman: Trading for a normal life? #BookGiveaway  (Tweet This)

Thinking you’re not “normal” & wondering how to fit in? See what @RosannaEHuffman shares. (Tweet This)

Author's Bio:

As an author, Rosanna’s goal is to write stories with single women protagonists who do not marry in the story. From experience she knows those characters can live happy, fulfilled lives although one of their greatest dreams—marriage—remains unfulfilled. Rosanna was as surprised as anyone that her debut novel turned into a romance, although she did retain strains of the single life in the story.

Places to connect with Rosanna:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Amazon

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Please note:

--Just putting the finishing touches on my new website that will incorporate Eveyone's Story blog. I hope you will follow me on this new site. When it goes live, I'll make the announcement!