So how did these two meet up?  Enter God.  On a hot summer night in 1984, T. Lively prayed a prayer in Washington Square Park that would forever change his life.  The God of the Universe broke into T. Lively’s darkness, showed him his sin and his need for a Savior, and drew him to Himself.  T. Lively had become a Christian.  Several months later, in a sorority house on the CSU campus in Fort Collins, Kristi prayed a similar prayer, wondering if the God she had been brought up to believe in was really there.  She had no idea that the only true and living God would answer her.  He did, and her eyes and heart were opened to the wonderful truths of the Bible.  God led Kristi to New York City for a magazine internship, and while there, she visited a small church in Greenwich Village where she met T. Lively.  They became friends, hanging out with other singles from church, and engaging in deep conversation in the 3rd seat of a paneled station wagon en route to a church retreat about the Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island reruns.
 
They married in 1989.  After working as an editorial assistant at Town & Country Magazine and as a public relations manager at Orlane Cosmetics, Kristi left her professional career to take on the career of a lifetime.  She became the mother of a precious baby girl.  Two more daughters followed.    
 
The family, now a total of 5, hearkened to the calling of the Midwest, and moved to Minneapolis, MN, in 1996.  T. Lively embarked on a freelance career and painted magazine covers for Mad Magazine, Sports Illustrated for Kids, The Weekly Standard, Time Magazine, Der Spiegel and U.S. News & World Report.  T. Lively and Kristi dreamed of writing and illustrating children’s books together.  That would have to wait, however.  A fourth daughter was born, and Kristi’s days were spent home schooling the girls.  Several years later, God placed adoption on the Fluharty’s hearts, and they added a little girl from Russia to their family… five daughters – a solid handful.  
 
During drives through the Minnesota countryside, T. Lively, Kristi and the girls started talking about the moon.  They talked, jotted down notes, wrote the text, and Fool Moon Rising was born.  T. Lively roughed out the book.  They talked some more, sought input from those far more experienced than they, and rewrote here and tweaked there.  Then they rewrote and tweaked some more.  Crossway Publishing entered the scene with a book offer and T. Lively and Kristi found their dream of a book coming true.    Thanks for allowing us to dream…