We hope to glorify God by sharing all He is doing in the lives of two sisters in Christ.

Sue and Katie

This picture was taken at Memphis International Airport in October 1999. I was waiting to board the plane that was going to take me back home to IA after meeting Katie and her kids for the first time. That was such an awesome weekend and I will never forget it!




About the Interview

Katie and Sue met via the Internet in May of 1999. They quickly became friends and shared many adventures and misadventures. For the sake of brevity, what you will read here are some excerpts from an interview conducted in July of 2002.




The Interviewer

Whyzer (pronounced "Weezer") conducted the interview. Whyzer is Sue's dog. He is a Terrior-Poodle mutt, therefore we used an interpreter to help make the interview a success, although at times things did get "ruff." His credentials include living with Sue since shortly after his birth in 1991 and his experience with nagging yaps, dancing in circles, and taunting his owner with frequent trips to the backdoor to let him in and out, in and out, in and out.




The Interview

Whyzer: I understand that you two met via the Internet?

Katie: What does via mean?

Sue: It's short for Viagra. LOL


Whyzer: LOL, seriously, tell us about your meeting.

Katie: Well, as it so happened I was desperately seeking Divine Intervention in my troubled marriage. I was asking for prayer everywhere I turned. One day, with tears and heartache, I posted prayer requests in every guestbook on every Christian website I could find.

Whyzer: What was your request exactly? Do you remember?

Katie: I don't remember the exact words, but I know I was asking for a miracle in my marriage. I am a Christian and I was praying for my husband's salvation. My marriage was very fragile and I did everything I could, with God's help, to keep it going. I was so depressed all the time and each day was very difficult to endure. I cried everyday.


Whyzer: Sue, what do you remember about the prayer request?

Sue: I know that I was a brand new Christian, ON FIRE FOR GOD! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!! I am an Internet addict so I was spending a lot of time in my new Christian walk surfing the web looking for Christian websites. I was enjoying reading people's testimonies and I would sign their guestbooks when I visited. I had made my own site, and this was one way to get people visiting mine! LOL

Whyzer: What about the prayer request?

Sue: Well, at one site I happened upon a request for prayer. The woman was asking for prayer for her unsaved husband and for her marriage. My heart hurt for this person because the words sounded so desperate. So needy. She was crying out for help. I emailed her and told her I would pray.

Whyzer: What moved you to email her?

Sue: You know, I really can't say because I don't normally contact people I don't know by email. You never know what kind of whacko you might be conversing with…Katie proves that one! LOL

Katie: Me? YOU are the whacko!

Sue: It was a God thing.

Katie: Yep, a God thing.

Whyzer: Can I have a treat?

Sue: URRGGHHHHHHH! What is your deal anyway? STOP DANCING AROUND IN CIRCLES!

Katie: See! I told you he does this EVERY day ALL DAY LONG! Everytime I turn around I am tripping over him!

Whyzer: (teasingly) I'll lift my leg!

Sue: Ok, here's a treat…what's the next question?

Whyzer: After the initial email, what happened next?

Katie: Well, I got her email and was elated that someone was burdened to pray for me. I responded to her and explained that I was going to be out of town for a little while, but that I had ICQ and wanted to chat and get to know her.

Sue: I remember her telling me that and she sent her ICQ number. When she got back into town we started chatting through ICQ. The basic stuff you know…who you are, what you do, how many kids, stuff like that.

Katie: It was so fun. Sue was so funny. I remember laughing so hard, one time I literally fell out of my chair!

Sue: yep! Katie cracked me up so bad and then she invented the PWE,

Whyzer: The PWE?

Sue: Yes, the PWE. Playing With Eyeballs.

Katie: LOL I am laughing so hard! LOL

Sue: LOL a PWE is when someone is talking about one thing, then in the middle of a thought, or immediately after the thought, the subject suddenly changes.

Katie: Boy, moths sure do stink when they burn!

Sue: See what I mean? I am adopted so I do not know what it is like to be blood-related to anyone. I wonder about it though. One day Katie said to me "You and I share the same blood you know", meaning the blood of Christ. It touched my heart so deeply to hear those words. (Actually, I didn't hear them, I saw them, we were typing!) Anyway, she said "We share the same blood you know" and as I sat there and absorbed and cherished those words in my heart her next message beeped through "Boy! Moths sure do stink when they burn!" LOL It kind of ruined the tender moment you know! LOL

Whyzer: LOL

Katie: LOL

Sue: We had so much fun chatting over those months. I saved a lot of our chats too. ICQ actually would add up the messages and at one point we had over 17,000 messages back and forth! That doesn't include our AOL time, or chat in Hearme.com. We'd stay up into the wee hours of the morning chatting!

Katie: LOL Many times I was about falling asleep on the keyboard, but I was having so much fun it was always hard to go offline.

Sue: Then in September Katie said she sent me a surprise and that I had to call her when I got it. I was so excited the day I got the package from her. When I opened it up I realized she had sent me a video! She sent me a video and I was able to see her in person and meet her kids too! She took me to the fish fry at her church.

Katie: Yes, I videotaped the trip from my house to the church and then the festivities at the fish fry. If I had known how repulsed Sue gets at food, I may not have included the fish preparation scene! LOL

Sue: It was so cool to actually see Katie on that tape. I was even more excited to meet her and her kids now. I talked to her on the phone while I watched the video for the first time! I LOVED IT! IT WAS SUCH A NEAT IDEA!

Whyzer: Ok, so how did you go about meeting in person?

Katie: Well, we knew that if God wanted it to happen that it would. He made it possible by providing free tickets on some frequent flyer miles Sue's roommate had earned. We made plans for her to come visit me in TN one October in 1999.

Sue: People at work tried to convince me that Katie was a large black man with 5 kids. I said "I've talked to her on the phone. She doesn't sound like a man. She doesn't sound black." But Jared would say "The large black man got the woman down the street to call you!" LOL

Katie: It was very scary knowing that I was going to meet Sue face to face. We had so many heart to heart talks it was like we knew each other on the inside, we knew each other's hearts. What would it be like to meet the person on the outside. We had already discussed our differences.

Sue: We had indeed talked about the type of people we are and what made us different from each other. We are still amazed that we are such close friends despite our differences. It just proves it is all a God thing. I think if I had met Katie in person before ever talking, we NEVER would have hit it off.

Katie: I was so nervous driving the the Memphis airport to greet Sue at the gate at 11:45 PM.

Sue: It was the biggest adrenaline rush of my life. I was writing down in my journal the emotions I was feeling and I am so glad I did that because I can relive that moment over and over again. When that plane touched down it was so exciting. I told Katie to watch for the woohooo! \o/

Katie: I didn't really understand what the \o/ was until that moment she came into the gate area! My husband was standing far away because he was not one for making scenes! LOL At least he did get a picture of our meeting.

Sue: It was so awesome! I got to hug this person I had met online and felt like she was an old friend. We "woohooo'ed!" \o/ together as we walked to pick up my baggage. Her husband always remained at a safe distance! LOL

Whyzer: What did you do that weekend?

Sue: Mostly we worshipped God.

Katie: We prayed a lot, and we talked and talked. We were enjoying talking in person so much and at one point it was 2 or 3 in the morning and Sue invented the everlasting blink.

Whyzer: The "everlasting blink"?

Katie: Yes. We tried to hang onto every minute of Sue's visit that we avoided sleeping. Unfortunately, our bodies need sleep so one night while we were talking Sue was looking at me involved in conversation and the next minute She was out! I mean out cold…sleeping! LOL

Sue: I WAS TIRED! Katie kept me up to all hours and at one point even kicked out her tail light on her van!

Katie: Don't go there!

Whyzer: So Katie, you have violent tendencies?

Katie: No I do not!

Sue: LOL

Whyzer: Well, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with me about how you two met. It was quite informative and I have to go make an appointment for counseling….errrr...I, …I,... mean grooming.