Featured Image Narrative: The Unity Sand Ceremony visually embodies the central theme of the chapter. While wedding guests witnessed two containers of sand becoming one, the memoir reflects on how two individual lives, families, and callings were intentionally joined through covenant. The photograph serves as both a historical record and a metaphor for the blueprint that would shape the Fagan family for years to come.
Posted inChristian Living Faith Family

The First Blueprint: Preparing for Marriage Before Planning a Wedding | Found in the Margins Part 11

The First Blueprint People often remember the flowers, the dress, or the reception. When I think about our wedding, I remember the conversations. The weekly phone calls with my brother-in-law and sister during premarital counseling. The intentional decision to choose vows that reflected our understanding of covenant. The Unity Sand Ceremony that symbolized two separate lives becoming one family. Looking back fourteen years later, I realize we spent far more time preparing for our marriage than we did planning our wedding. That wasn't accidental. It became the first blueprint for everything that followed.
Featured image for Found in the Margins: Part Seven showing Lela Jefferson Fagan's portrait from her 2009 Poetry of a Black Girl photo session alongside family photographs, symbolizing the season when friendship, faith, career, creativity, and courtship quietly converged.
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Before I Knew I Was Being Courted | Found in the Margins Part 7

Sometimes love doesn't begin with grand romantic gestures—it begins with consistency. Before I ever realized Oji was intentionally courting me, God was quietly restoring my career, helping me publish my first book, strengthening my faith, and introducing me to the family that would one day become my own. Looking back, I can finally see what I couldn't see then: love often grows in the ordinary moments we almost overlook.
Wedding portrait of Lela and Oji Fagan standing together overlooking Niagara Falls, featured on a blog graphic titled "The List Knew Before I Did," part of the Found in the Margins series about healing, faith, friendship, and God's timing.
Posted inLatest News Life Lessons Marriage

The List Knew Before I Did: How a Forgotten List Led Me Back to Love | Found in the Margins Part 4

When I was nineteen years old, I wrote a list. Not a prayer list. Not a vision board. Just a handwritten list of qualities I hoped to find in a future husband someday. Then I forgot about it. Life happened. Grief happened. Healing happened. Years passed. What I didn't know was that God was doing a deeper work in me long before I would reconnect with the man who would eventually become my husband. Part 4 of Found in the Margins explores the surprising connection between a forgotten list, a season of personal growth, an old friendship rekindled, and the realization that sometimes God's preparation isn't about finding the right person—it's about becoming the right person.