The Story - Part 1

**the other half of the relationship has already approved this blog**


As of Saturday, October 1st at sometime after 5pm, I became an engaged woman. So many have asked me for the engagement story. It is truly one to blog about because I think it is the best engagement story ever, but I'm not biased - just stating opinion. However, with all good stories, you never start at the middle or the end. 

For the past year and a few months, I feel like I have been living in someone else's story. Yet, when I think about Who writes and fashions the story for each of our lives, I should not be surprised that my loving Heavenly Father would bless me with more than I could have ever expected or dreamed. 

Adam and I have known each other for 8+ years. He was probably 16 or 17 when we met, which would have made me 20 or 21. (Que the old woman jokes.) We were not really friends, but I did talk to him and things like that. We just ran in different social circles. He was totally into music from the time I met him to this day actually. My musical talent and ability can probably fit into my thumbnail, maybe... I'm incapable of keeping rhythm. Yep, we are a good match. When people at our church found out of Adam's music talent he began playing for everything Youth Ministry related. This in turn caused girls to swoon over him. If I had nickel for every time a girl said to me, "I want a guy who plays guitar and sings..." I would have a lot of nickels. For years, I gave Adam a hard time about this. Now, I like to say to him, "I like you cause you play the guitar and sing..." He loathes that. 

Anyway, that's not the story. We were friends and co-workers and that was about it, until June of last year. I'm not exactly sure when it all started. We would hang out with groups of people and at the end of the time, we would be the last ones left. This would lead to some good conversations and then we would leave. The conversations continued over text messaging late into the night. (Yes, sometimes dating even as adults is kinda like high school.) I lost a lot of sleep in the first few weeks of his pursuing. Adam asked a lot of good questions and I guess I answered a few them correctly. We were in a long, boring meeting one Tuesday night and he sent me a text, "Want to get some food?" Most guys would say something sweet like, "You look nice or... something." He got right to the heart of the matter by appealing to me with food. My text back was "Sure." We went a bit away from our area of town to get food at a Wendy's. Super duper romantic, right? It was a bit awkward and fun all at the same time. I remember him opening my door for me and I was thinking, "This is strange, but I like it!" There were quite a few more awkward moments, but that's part of the fun, I think. Little did I know that a sovereign God was orchestrating in my life what I had resisted for so long. 

For the first few months of our relationship, we kept it on the downlow (DL). Our families knew and my roomies were aware, but we had decided that we didn't want to make a big deal about it. After a couple of weeks, it seemed like this was going to be the real deal. I'm sure I was the one who became attached quite quickly (Adam prefers to use the term smitten when referring to my feelings.) Normally, relationships involve some type of risk. Adam was definitely worth the risk. From the very beginning, God has given peace in my heart about him. One of my constant desires for the man I would marry is that there would be time to see his character and those around me would confirm that he was a Godly man with integrity. Despite his flaws/sin (which we all have), Adam has proven himself to be faithful in his walk with Christ. I did not need friends to affirm his character, I had seen it for many years. However, I was thankful for the encouragement from so many family and friends that our relationship seemed to be something the Lord had done and not anything we tried to manipulate.

Without a doubt, this past year + has been the best of my life. We have learned a lot about each other and have hopefully grown closer to the Lord in the process. The story is not over Part 2 has just begun. Stay tuned.