Why I Wrote Aloha Rose

After twenty years, I reunited with a college friend, who shared with me how she’d located her birth father in Hawaii and how a wonderful, new chapter in her life had opened. Through a difficult personal journey, she and her family had come full circle. As we laughed and cried, rejoiced and remembered the pain along the way, that very day, the seed of Aloha Rose, was born.

Like a lot of us, Laney and Kai of Aloha Rose are both on a journey, seeking family, a place to belong, a connection. A huaka’i—the Hawaiians call this—no matter what our journey, that requires truth, heart, and extraordinary courage. The kind of courage Laney and my friend displayed in traveling halfway around the world to find a family. The kind of courage required of those who seek God. The courage intrinsic to all to seek a place to belong and someone to love.

Kai and Laney both at turning points—forgiveness of self and forgiveness of others. How answer this determine whether free of pain of past and find God’s best for them. Like Kai, there are a lot of people trapped inside wounds that have scabbed over but never healed. They yearn to be free of their own gaping pit and the hole that scars their life.

At its heart, Aloha Rose is about grace and the power of the cross. Its sufficiency to save. Where guilt meets His forgiveness. Where confusion meets His peace. Where loneliness meets His companionship. Where the lost find direction. A place for the hurt and wounded, like Kai. A place for restoration of relationships, like with Laney and her birth family.

To choose to trust the cross is to never be afraid again. Easy to say. Hardest thing in the world to do.

My hope is that Aloha Rose will make you laugh. Perhaps make you cry. But most of all,  warm your heart with the greatest love of our life, God’s.

For behind-the-scene photos of Aloha Rose visit http://www.pinterest.com/quiltsoflove/aloha-rose-by-lisa-carter/.