Our Story, Part Two

(sorry to leave you hanging on that last one...here's the next installment)

After our time at the children's home, I began to see this guy (future hubby) in a different light. I had never thought about him in that way before, but God was working something out. I confided in my friend, Lisa, who said she had noticed that he and I always seemed to find our way to one another in a crowd. I just wanted to be wherever he was.

One night in February, future hubby broke his finger playing basketball. Lisa and I were supposed to hang out with him that night, but Lisa got sick (really, she did!) and I offered to cook him dinner since he didn't have full use of his hands to do so for himself (a lame excuse, I know). We had a great time talking and hanging out and after that we just started hanging out all the time, exclusively. We never had the DTR (defining the relationship) talk, but one day at my house he suggested that we pray because he "wanted to start our relationship out on the right note." Hmmm...I thought to myself, so this really is a relationship. Good to know. :-)

Now, you must know that all this time I was preparing to return overseas for 6 months to be a missionary intern in Thailand. We knew going into this relationship that I was leaving in June, which is why future hubby told himself not to date me.

We were inseparable for the next several months. I had found the guy who fit all the items on my list, and now I was about to move around the world when we were really getting to know each other.

Getting on that plane was hard, but not as hard as the next 6 months would prove to be. We talked on the phone occasioanally and emailed incessantly, but when you are living two completely separate lives in two completely separate worlds, there is going to be a lot of disconnect. One of the missionaries confided in me a few months into it that he was worried about my transition back into life with future hubby. I quickly dismissed his worry because I was a lot more concerned about living with my sister upon my return to the States (we haven't always gotten along so well, especially when we live under the same roof! Love ya, Sis!). I thought it would be an easy transition back into life with a man I knew I wanted to marry (and had known since before I left...he's THAT wonderful!!).

I was wrong to be so confident (read: arrogant).

I returned home, after what is really considered a very short time, to find my feelings about everything had changed. I had learned so much and grown so much that I didn't know what to do with myself. I found myself longing to be back in Thailand where I felt "normal." I surely didn't know what to do with this guy who wanted my attention, and I just started getting really annoyed. I was staying at my parent's house since it was the Christmas holidays and future hubby was there as well. You could probably cut the tension in that house with a knife. One morning early, future hubby left to go back to his college apartment about an hour and a half away. I had a lot of things to sort out, and I was supposed to be going with him to visit his family in New Mexico in a couple of weeks.

Long story short, it took a little time to adjust to life here again. Once my foggy head cleared and I had time to sort through lots of emotions, I knew what I had always known...I loved future hubby and wanted to marry him (after all, I had had a wedding gown made while I was in Thailand. Think I was jumping the gun a little on that one???).

So, we were back to normal and had plans to marry in August of that year. Now, he just had to propose. :-)

To see why I was mad at future hubby the day he proposed, stay tuned for Part Three of Our Story.