Hello dear readers,
I always feel when I've been gone from blogging for a while that in order to get back into it I must give an update on my life and what all's been happening to me during my absence. But, dear me, there's so much to tell that, that idea is just a tad bit daunting!
Let's see, the last real update you got from me was back in February and the update before that was all the way back in June of 2019! Both of which posts -- though "updates" -- were, I must admit, rather sneaky and secretive as I didn't mention a word of my future husband who was in fact on the scene when both of those posts were written. So I think what I'll do is simply fill you in on the large blanks I left in 2019 and 2020. I shall try not to be too verbose.
Basically, here's my love story. In a nutshell.
End of February 2019: I got a job at Chick-fil-A. Oddly enough my first day on the job happened to be a snow day. We closed up the store at 10:30 in the morning, and not having been trained yet on any of the cleanup tasks, I was sent back to help with dishes as that was the easiest thing for me to do. There was a young man also on dishes. He showed me how to rinse the dishes before handing them to him to wash, and I thanked him for his instruction by spraying off the dishes as thoroughly as I could -- and spraying him multiple times in the process (which was an accident, truly)! He was very kind and friendly and asked me what sort of things I enjoyed doing. I told him I liked to read. He asked me what sort of books I liked. I said mostly fiction, and further informed him that I was at that time currently reading "The Secret Garden". I then turned the question back on him and asked him what he enjoyed doing. He said he also enjoyed reading, and that he was currently reading a science fiction book (which I had never heard of but which he said was very good), and that he also enjoyed reading theological books sometimes. We talked about school. How I had gone to a six month Bible school and only stayed three months, and how he had started a four year Bible school, but only finished out the first year. We found we could relate. And I found myself feeling rather pleased that I had been able to have such a pleasant conversation with a total stranger, and a guy stranger at that! :)
The following month brought me in contact with Joey on a regular basis, as he was a fulltime employee in the kitchen and I a fulltime employee out front. However, there was no opportunity for further conversation except those little snippets we were able to have when I waited on him for his break or when we waited outside the building at 5:30 in the morning as our leader opened up the place. And these were so short that they could hardly be called conversation. Still...it was enough that I began to get the idea that Joey was interested in talking with me further. Especially so on that particular week when he asked me two different times whether I had read anymore of "The Secret Garden" (because, poor man, that was all he had to go on!) and I had to tell him twice that "no, I hadn't been doing any reading lately." After the second inquiry about my reading habits I went home and made myself read some because I felt it would be too embarrassing if he asked me a third time and my answer still remained the same. I needn't have worried though. He didn't ask again.
I was at this point fairly certain that he was interested in getting to know me, but the difficulty was that I didn't feel particularly attracted to him myself. He didn't quite match the ideal man I had dreamed up in my head. Though oddly enough, despite this apparent "deficiency" on his part, I continued to think about him quite a lot and I had a growing desire to be friends with him. (Fickle, Miss March! Haha!)
March 27: On this particular day I found myself hoping that Joey and I would get off work at the same time and happen to meet up as we walked out to our cars, so that we might have the opportunity to talk for a bit. However, things did not go according to my plan as the day got quite busy and I ended up leaving work a half hour later than scheduled. As I walked out to my car I found myself feeling very disappointed knowing that Joey must have left already. And that's when I finally acknowledged to myself that perhaps I was a little interested in this man. Though I knew so little about him.
I reached my car and immediately took in the fact that Joey's car was still parked in the row behind mine. He hadn't left! There he was, sitting in his car! In fact, he was getting out. He had something to say to me! "I have a question for you," he said walking toward me. I turned and met him in the middle of the parking lot. "I was just wondering if you might like to go out for coffee sometime." He was nervous. I could tell. Oddly enough, I felt perfectly calm. I'm horrible at handling new situations and I freak out over ridiculous things, but here I felt quite at ease and almost as if I'd expected this to happen. I told him I would be happy to go out with him and asked him what day worked for him. He was not expecting me to so readily agree to a date and found himself at a loss how to answer the when and where questions. Both of us were a bit at a loss, I must admit. We agreed on a Monday, but then decided to contact each other by email and figure out the particulars. Somewhere during that short conversation I happened to mention that I didn't actually like coffee. He admitted that he didn't actually like it either, which made us both laugh, and thus the voluminous email chain that began that very day bore the subject "Not Getting Coffee". Which is a great motto, I think. :)
April 1: Our first date! (We've since laughed that April Fool's Day was a very fitting day for two fools like us to begin dating! ;)) We met at 3:00pm at a small coffee shop/restaurant (but did NOT get coffee, mind you) where we sat and talked for a solid five hours. The second date was set for the following Saturday and that evening we talked for 5 and 1/2 hours. It really was wonderful how much we found to talk about, especially as we were writing emails every day, too. Our third date was on April 11 and that was the day Joey asked me to be his girl. I very gladly said yes. The following months were a joyous time of getting to know one another. Going out on dates, or staying home and spending time with each other's families. We wrote emails every day for two months and spent long hours talking in person as well. It didn't take long for us to realize that God was bringing us together and that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.
August 10: Joey proposed!! I accepted! And the official engagement period began.
Engagement felt quite a bit different from dating. It seemed like almost every week there was some major decision to be made. And I must admit, I rather hated wedding planning! (Because I'm such an indecisive person and there's too many decisions involved with wedding planning!! Haha.) We definitely both grew a lot during that time, and it was lovely to see how the Lord continued to draw us together and teach us how to love and care for one another, especially through difficulties.
March 24th 2020: Our wedding day!
Our wedding date changed multiple times throughout our engagement. First in our initial enthusiasm we wanted to get married in October. However, that didn't sit too well with certain members of our family, and for good reason. It really was moving things a bit too fast. Secondly we wanted to try for December but I had a sister who was expecting a baby that month and as she was going to be one of my bridesmaids that wasn't going to work super well. So we settled on February. Later on March was suggested in order to accommodate our pastor a bit better, and in the end we simply landed on April 4 in an attempt to have everything covered! But was that the end? No! That was not the end! The Coronavirus hit and everything went haywire. Just a couple weeks before the wedding our guest list of 150 people had to be narrowed down to just our immediate families. The church where we were to hold the ceremony closed and was therefore no longer available to us. So we had to have the wedding ceremony and reception at my parent's home. And since it was just our families involved now we decided "Why wait till April 4th? There's been so much stress with the constant news and changes regarding the virus. Who knows what might happen in another two weeks?" So Friday evening (March 20th) we decided to get married the following Tuesday (March 24th). My family was amazing in pulling it all together last minute, and despite the disappointments of not having our wedding as we had originally planned -- with all our friends and relatives present -- it was still a beautiful and lovely and special day! And we were married! And that's what mattered!
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| The sunroom mostly set up for the ceremony |
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Dining room set up for the reception.
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Close up of the table, and view into the sunroom.
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The dessert table. My sister made the cake! It was delicious!
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| And a picture of the happy couple. :) |
THE END
