The Wait is Over and the Story Begins

(prelude)

So friends, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I must admit that I have been caught up in a marvelous series of events beyond my wildest expectations and I have been waiting for the moment to write about it all and well that moment is finally here. Woohoo! :) I am so happy to finally be able to share with you the story of one of my greatest surprises from our faithful and awesome God…but first how about some background information?

When I became a Christian at the age of 19, I made a radical commitment to serve Christ with everything that I had and to always choose His way no matter what. One of my own personal commitments was to wait for the man that God had for me and not to settle for anyone else. I didn’t believe in dating around to try guys out like one tries on clothes in a dressing room to see whether he fit or not.

I prayed for a man who loved God, who would adore me, who would be kind, fun, romantic and adventurous. I prayed for a man that would be like a friend that I had known my whole life and was just reuniting with. You know, like you see him and think wow! and he sees you and thinks wow! That he would be someone who could appreciate foreign cultures and loved to travel. That our conversations from the beginning would be easy and that it would not take a long time to know that this was the one that God had brought into my life. Needless to say as the years went by and I watched friend after friend meet people, fall in love, get married and start families of their own, I began to lose hope and wondered if these standards were worth it. My prayer for years and years…and years it seemed, were a struggle between hope and despair over this man and whether God even had someone in mind for me or not.

I clung to the verses that reminded me that “God’s plans for me were to give me a hope and a future” and that I should “Delight myself in the Lord and He will give me the desires of my heart.” Also I remembered frequently that I needed to “Trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding” and that “…as for God His way is perfect” and “His timing is not my timing,” and off course that “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” and that “without faith it is impossible to please God…” It came to a point when I had to face the fact that I may never get married. Yikes!! The battle was to determine whether that was really what God had for me or was something was wrong with me. My options such as they were seemed bleak, I had to decide whether I wanted to settle and be miserable with someone that wasn’t God’s best for me, be content with being single forever and trust that God was enough or continue to hope in spite of everything that maybe just maybe God still had a plan…

Well friends, let me introduce you to the plan…his name is Joseph :)


On Easter Sunday of this year, April 24, one of my drama team members and close friend introduced me to his son Joe that was visiting church that day to see his folks. My eyes met his as I shook his hand and in my head I thought “Wow! He’s cute!” Yes, that’s possibly slightly shallow. :) Don’t judge me! I did send a text to his dad saying as much that same day. Lol! Of course from the dimly lit step that I was standing on, it seemed that there were many circumstances at the time that eliminated the possibility of ever having a relationship with this man.
However as it stood, my bff and I were good friends with his parents and so we ended up spending lots of time with them at their house for dinner, game nights, parties or out on excursions, picnics etc. and of course Joe would normally be a part of these events. So we started talking and joking around of course and I quickly realized this guy was so easy to talk to and he was funny. I thought I was glad that we can at least be friends. My friend would mention on occasion that there was some ‘flirting’ taking place on his side and mine but naturally I just brushed off such outlandish comments (but secretly I wondered if there was some truth to them. Shhhhhh, don’t tell her that though):).

On June 12th we were invited to a bonfire at their house where somehow I ended up sitting next to Joe (imagine that) and we talked throughout the night, and I must say it was an interesting and entertaining conversation. At the end of the evening we proceeded down the hill back to the house and I almost took a nose dive, but he was right there and reached out his arm and I caught it. It was the trigger for a text that I would send him after I got home saying, “Hey, thanks for saving my life, my public would have been so sad:).” (So maybe there was a little flirting:) Well his response was “So would I.” Ummmm….Ok deep breath, of course he was joking right? I thought to myself don’t be such a girl and read too much into that. My mail carrier would probably feel the same way if I nose-dived off a hill.

Well after some texting it came down to Joe leaping forward and suggesting that we should hang out sometime. Wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. Hang out as friends or was this like a date? I don’t know and I couldn’t really think about it because I was having a minor hyperventilation issue taking place at that moment. Haha! Does it ever fail that a woman feels butterflies when a man that she actually finds attractive asks her out? I would venture to say no! A few days later we ventured out on our hang out/possible date and ended up taking in a movie and then talking at Timmy H's for 3½ hours. Not kidding! On a work night too! After some deliberation it was decided it was a date, well he assumed it was so I conceded cause well it felt sort of like one.

Over the next few days I saw him on various occasions and we started texting each other some. Within a few days I couldn’t remember life before Joe. It was weird, like he’d always been a part of my life or something and I was just getting re-acquainted. He made it clear that he had feelings for me but didn’t know where I stood. I admit I was a bit concerned because I knew we were at different places in our lives in many areas. And yet still there was something quite undeniable almost drawing us together. So he proposed, (ok don’t get too worked up, not that kind of proposal:)…yet!), he proposed that we start dating and make God the center and focus of our relationship from the start.

As much as I wanted to say yes right at that moment I decided to pray about it some more…I mean big step here. Joe would literally be my first boyfriend…ever!!! I had to think is this a man I could see myself spending the rest of my life with possible? I wanted to know that this was God leading. I was heading out of town for the weekend and vowed to give him my answer when I returned. In the meantime I was curious as to when he first became interested in me and so I asked of course and his answer was this, “As soon as I saw you…never thought you’d give me half a chance but as soon as I saw you. Remember when you walked over to dad that one day in church a while back, (Just a reminder this was Easter Sunday, the day we met for the first time),…and you looked my way? Yeah…I was like wow!!” OK, how cool is that! :) It gets better.

On my return from DC on June 27th, I went for a walk with Joe and basically asked him 100 questions about his life, beliefs, hopes, dreams and faith and by the end of the night as he anxiously and nervously awaited my decision, Joe Turner became my first boyfriend. By the grace of God! I went home that night and could barely sleep. He was not the man I had pictured my entire life yet there was something about him that I couldn’t get away from. I never wanted to know anyone in my life as much as I wanted to know him.

Since that amazing decision, we have been absolutely blown away by the relationship that God has blessed us with. It is hands down the most incredible, awesome, unexpected surprise of my entire life. From the onset we have done what we determined to do and that is make Christ the focal point and I think that God has been gracious to honor that. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I couldn’t imagine life without this man. There is too much to tell really since the last few weeks have been filled with romantic walks, holding hands, amazing conversations, the first time he told me he loved me, the moment I knew I loved him, the joy of praying together about everything, the gift of learning to put someone else first, taking in God’s breath-taking creation while star gazing at midnight, breaking out in a song in the middle of a conversation, dancing whenever and wherever because a great tune is on, worshipping in the car, praising God together in His house, enjoying comfortable moments of silence and getting blown away every time we look into each other’s eyes and think this is what love looks like…

Don’t get me wrong it is not that we are ignorant that challenges and hard times are bound to come and actually already have, but our goal is to build a foundation that is rooted and grounded in Christ so that we can better face those tough times.

So I would welcome feedback from you guys, please share your love stories of how you met or how you knew they were the one or something that ties you guys together. Trust me, Joe and I cannot have too much inspiration. :) It’s already been fun to see how our story has been an inspiration to some of my friends and I can’t tell you how much the support, encouragement and wisdom of our friends and families have meant to us.

So our story continues and no doubt you will be hearing more of it. Haha! Quite frankly, between you and me, I am hoping it never ends… :)