NICK AND K ANAE

VUJICIC

WithoutLimits

Love

Author of the New York Times and international bestseller Life Without Limits

A Remarkable Story of True Love Conquering All

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LOVe WithOut Limits

PuBLished By WaterBrOOk Press

12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

All Scripture quotations are taken or paraphrased from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Details in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.

Hardcover ISBN 978-1-60142-617-8eBook ISBN 978-1-60142-619-2

Copyright © 2014 by Nicholas James Vujicic

Cover design by Kristopher K. Orr; cover photography by Dean Dixon; uncredited photography (cover and interior) courtesy of the Vujicic family

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company.

WaterBrOOk and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataVujicic, Nick.

Love without limits / Nick And Kanae Vujicic. — First Edition.pages cm

ISBN 978-1-60142-617-8 — ISBN 978-1-60142-619-2 (electronic) 1. Marriage—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Love—Religious aspects—Christianity. 3. Vujicic, Nick. 4. Vujicic, Kanae. I. Vujicic, Kanae. II. Title.

BV835.V85 2014248.8'44—dc23

2014020575

Printed in the United States of America2014—First Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

sPeciaL saLes

Most WaterBrook Multnomah books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, and special-interest groups. Custom imprinting or excerpting can also be done to fit special needs. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@WaterBrookMultnomah.com or call 1-800-603-7051.

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T h e S p a r k

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Nick and I weren’t aware of it when we first met, but we were both at the stage where we wondered whether we’d ever find true love. Then, to our sur-prise, true love found us!

You may have similar concerns if you’ve had relationships that didn’t work out or if you were attracted to someone who didn’t feel the same way about you. I know it’s not much of a consolation if your heart feels broken, but many of us go through heartbreak before finding the right person. If finding love were easy, most of us would end up marrying our first kindergarten crush. The truth is that having a loving relationship and making it last through all the years of a marriage requires emotional maturity. I think that maybe I needed to learn what I didn’t want in a relationship before I really knew what I did want.

By the time I met Nick, I had grown up a lot and I’d realized that there were certain things I wanted and didn’t want in the man I married. So if you have had relationships that didn’t work out, it might help you to think of them as learning experiences that will help you find someone who is a better match—maybe even perfect for you!

First ImpressionsThere was definitely a spark and a strong attraction from the first moments I locked eyes with Nick. Honestly, I was caught by surprise. Nick tells everyone that when he was speaking that day back in 2010, he looked out into the crowd, locked eyes with me, and had to force himself to look away.

I just wish I could say the same thing, Nick!Just kidding. Except it is true that I didn’t force myself to look away. I didn’t

have to because he was the speaker and I was just part of the audience. I had the luxury of staying focused on him, but he couldn’t do that.

We both felt something. I wasn’t sure what it was. Magic in the air? Maybe! Of course Nick is such a compelling speaker that I wondered if he wasn’t having the same effect on everyone in the room. He has those warm and beautiful blue

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L o v e W i t h o u t L i m i t s

eyes, and that Australian accent is not bad, either. When he speaks, you just have to pay attention, right?

I was aware that he didn’t have arms and legs, of course, but as most people who’ve met him will tell you, Nick has such a magnetic personality that you pretty much forget all about that in the first ten minutes of listening to him. It wasn’t just his appearance that drew me in. He talked about his faith and his desire to share it with people all around the world. I was drawn to his message and impressed with the depth of his commitment.

Nick said he had a heart for broken people because of his disabilities and his struggles even before he identified his own purpose. I was just amazed at this man of God who wanted to touch hearts, save souls, and make a difference in the world.

I noticed that his eyes kept coming back to me, but I wasn’t sure if that was anything more than a very skilled speaker making eye contact with his audience members. Later, Nick told me that he was torn emotionally because he wanted to keep looking at me, but he was afraid people would notice. Then he was afraid that if he didn’t look at me more, I might think he was ignoring me!

We laugh now at all the inner drama we experienced during his short speech. We may have seemed calm on the surface, but all of these thoughts and emo-tions were swirling in our heads and hearts. I was feeling something I’d never felt before. I wasn’t sure what it was in the moment. I had this strong attraction to him, but I was questioning myself: What is this I feel? Is it his eyes that are drawing

me in? His passion for his work? His faith? His accent? All of the above?

Once you hit your twenties, relationships seem to get much more compli-cated, don’t they? I guess it’s a good thing that we become more mature and we think long-term instead of just jumping into relationships, but I also wonder if people tend to be too self-protective after they’ve had one or two bad experi-ences. We second-guess ourselves and our feelings, and that can be a good thing, but it can also be too much of a good thing.

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There is risk involved in love and relationships. You can be aware of that, but you shouldn’t be afraid of it. Yes, you can get hurt. But what’s the saying, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”? The romantic version of that would be the line from the Tennyson poem: “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

Give Love a ChanceYou can’t build a wall around your heart if you hope to give it to someone some-day. What you can do is listen to both your heart and your mind. But don’t be so afraid of being hurt that you are unwilling to give love a chance.

As Nick and I took the first steps of getting to know each other, we were both guarded. We did this little dance—one step in, one step back, one step in, one step back—wondering whether it was safe to get closer or stay back. We were both a bit wary because of past relationships. We didn’t want to hurt each other, and we wanted to guard our own hearts too. Nick had struggled with self-doubt about his worthiness as a husband, and he’d been burned once or twice after putting his heart on the line.

I’d had my own ups and downs in relationships, and I had a little baggage because my parents had divorced when I was very young. Maybe you come from a similar background. It’s pretty common these days, I’m sad to say. Nick and I hope our story can help you—not because we are special but because our ex-periences are like those of so many people. If we can find love, we think you can too. We want to encourage you in your journey. There’s no reason to give up on love and marriage just because you come from a broken family, or because you’ve had relationships that failed. And it’s okay to be a little scared and cautious. That’s understandable. It’s part of your survival instincts.

You should never jump into a relationship without getting to know the per-son’s background, beliefs, and character. I’m not suggesting that you turn on the bright lights and the lie detector, but I’ve had too many friends enter into

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