A love story

11 years and 16 days ago I married my best friend. Have you ever heard that saying "Love will find you when you least expect it"? Well, this certainly applies to my husband and I. 13 years ago I was working at a law firm, I had been on many, many disastrous dates (some blind dates, some with men I had met before), I had been on some good dates (nothing earth shattering however) and I had finally come to a point where I had decided NOT to date for awhile. I was taking time for me - to discover who I really was and what I wanted to do with myself.

Long story short, I ended up going to a BBQ with a co-worker at her church. I was to pick her up at her house and we would ride together. I got to her house and she was having a guy friend of hers work on her deck. He was taking his time, and somewhat annoying me by causing me to be late to the BBQ. As I sat and watched him work on her deck, I was amazed at his abilities. He really knew what he was doing and did awesome work.

So, anyway. As we get ready to leave she is telling me that this is the preacher's son. So I asked if he would be going to the BBQ and he said no, that he had other things going on. I was somewhat surprised that the preacher's son wouldn't be attending the preacher's BBQ, but it wasn't really my business.

About 20 minutes later, my friend and I pull up to the BBQ and we see the preacher's son's truck parked there. I have to admit my heart skipped a beat and I had butterflies in my stomach knowing he was at this BBQ. As we walked around here he came again and started talking to me. We had good conversation (although, being the grudge-holder I am I was still a tad irritated that he made me late to this BBQ....) although we didn't talk long or talk much I really felt a connection to him.

About a week or two later the preacher's wife of this church invited me and my co-worker over for dinner. We went and as we are sitting down to eat, why who in the world shows up? Yes, the preacher's son (now known as Mr. Man). Looking back, I know that my now mother-in-law was setting us up. Mr. Man has also admitted to me that he told his mom at the BBQ he knew he would one day marry me. WOW!

After that dinner at his mom's house, he started calling on me. At first, it was just to chat. Then pretty soon we were going to dinner together and taking walks, etc. So here I was, at a point in my life where I didn't want a man, I didn't want to date, and basically I just didn't want the headache at all when this man is dropped into my life and we really connect as if we had known each other forever.

I should also mention here that our paths had crossed over the years, although we never knew it until way later into our dating years. He lived in Oregon when I lived in Oregon - in fact, I drove past his house every day to and from work but never saw him. That would have been about 5 years before I actually met him when we were both living in Colorado. We probably shopped at the same grocery store, got gas at the same station and never knew our future mate was there too! He also had a friend that lived just a few blocks from one of my apartments and we both hung out at the same pizza place near my apartment (obviously, we don't know if we were ever there on the same days though!) There was also a walking/running path on the other side of town from where we met that we discovered we both frequented before meeting each other so chances are that we were on that path at one time or another at the same time! God works in mysterious ways!

I have decided today is as good as any to take a 30 day challenge to encourage my husband. Day 1 is not say anything negative to or about my husband and instead make sure he knows I love him.