“Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested, “so we can be alone.”

We walked a few blocks to Echo Park, an old public park that dated back to 1895.  A large lagoon dominated one end of the beautiful park, and we crossed over the arched footbridge that spanned it.

We laughed over silly things and strolled hand in hand through the historic park.  Over the next few weeks we would come here often, and we started calling it our Love Park.  We had no place else to go for privacy.

So when we wanted to be alone, or when we wanted to escape the bleakness of the ghetto, we would trek the few blocks to Echo Park.  To us, the park with its lagoon and palm trees was like being on a tropical island, our little corner of paradise.

Excerpt from “More Than I Could Ever Ask”

Early on in our relationship, Jim learned that part of my personality was the very strong need for his undivided attention from time-to-time.  That’s just the way I’m wired.  When I am feeling lonely or tense or vulnerable, or when I’m obsessing on some aspect of our lives that isn’t working the way I think it should, it’s only one-on-one time with Jim and his undivided attention and reassurance that will soothe my distress.

That sounds doable, doesn’t it?  Just a little one-on-one time – getting away from it all and spending some quality time together?  However, our lifestyle these days is very challenging.  The demands of an international television ministry, our five children and a plethora of business issues daily must, at times, take priority over our desire to be alone and get away from it all.

Sometimes, I close my eyes and recall those days in the beginning when we escaped to Echo Park and I think about the peacefulness we felt there.  It truly was like our little corner of paradise – like being on a tropical island with palm trees blowing in a warm tropical breeze, listening to the waves of the ocean calmly caressing the shore, laying back in our beach chairs sipping one of those little umbrella drinks…

Oh, I could “go there…”