Our Story - Part 1

Our 5 year anniversary is coming up next week.  Wow - I can hardly believe it!  5 years, 3 homes, 2 towns, 3 kids, 2 jobs, lots of ups and downs - a lot has happened in those five years.  And I have loved it all.  I am married to my best friend ever, to the most handsome man ever, to a very godly man, to a wonderful daddy.  I love him thousands of times more today than I did 5 years ago.  My love is so much deeper for him.  I know him and understand him so much more and on much deeper levels.  I am so thankful for him.

In celebration of our anniversary, I decided to write down our story here - officially.  I may have written bits and pieces during the time I have had this blog, but I want to write it all down in one place so that we can pass down to our children how we met.  And I love to think about it - to see how God was working in every detail in our lives to bring us to each other, in his time.  Of course, since I am the one who is writing this, it will be mostly from my perspective, although I will probably get some input from Matt at times too.  I will divide it up into several posts so that it won't be too long, and we can read about it all throughout this week as our anniversary approaches.  And so, without further ado, our story begins....

I didn't date in high school.  I mean, I had a date or two - like to homecoming and Junior/Senior Banquet (the Christian school version of prom - without dancing and all that stuff of course! ;-) )  But I didn't date - didn't really want to.  I have three older brothers, and throughout their high school and college years, I watched their relationships.  I watched how girls treated them - both good and bad.  I watched what type of girls they were drawn to, what character traits they sought in girls they dated.  I did this because, you see at that time, the only earthly opinions I cared about at all were that of my father and brothers.   What they said really mattered to me, so I watched them.  Because I knew that one day, I would want to marry a man who was godly and respectful to women like they are.

So, I graduated high school (TEN years ago - wow!) and went off to college with very high hopes of meeting that "Mr. Right" on the very first day of class and the rest of my life would be set.  Well, not so much.  My freshman year came and went without too many dates.  My very first date was with my roommate's brother, sorta as a "trial run" for him to "learn how to ask girls out."  Ha!  Now that I think about it, it was really funny.  He was shy, and his sisters' wanted him to ask someone out, so they figured I was "safe" since I wouldn't think anything of it and read into things.  Other than that, there really wasn't much dating going on by me.

I do think that there was one small thing that may have been a small deterrent to some guys actually asking me out - and that was my dear brother Andrew.  Andrew and I have always been pretty close, and when I went to college, I didn't know too many people, so I just hung out with my brother and his friends.  It was usually me with 3 or 4 guys going to church, meals, etc.  Haha!  I remember one girl asking me one time, "So, which boy are you dating?  You are always with all of them!"  I just laughed at that and explained that one was my brother and the others were just his friends.

So that was me.  Little Emily hanging out with her big brother.  I knew a few guys who at the time I probably would have liked to date, but hadn't meet "that" guy that I knew was just for me.  I will admit that by the time the end of my Junior year came around, I was getting a little lonely.  Andrew was dating Danielle, so I "didn't have him" anymore.  It is hard being at a place like a Christian college where everyone is "on the prowl" so to speak - looking for that special someone.  And by the time you near the end of your years there, a lot of the kids you started college out with were finding that person.  But not me.  I kept wondering why no one wanted to date me.  Was it my looks?  Was it my height?  Was I weird?  Did I smell all the time?  What was it??

It was during the summer just before my senior year (my first senior year - I had 2 of them! Haha!) that I finally realized why I was not dating anyone yet.  It was because of a prayer I had been praying ever since early high school, and a promise I made to God.  In 10th grade (or Grade 10 for the Canadians!), I made a vow to God to keep myself pure for my husband.  And part of that vow was me asking the Lord to help me by not getting caught up in unnecessary relationships.  I prayed that the Lord would have it be that the only boy I would ever date to be my husband.  I asked the Lord to make it be that way so that I would be able to fully and with no regrets give my heart and my WHOLE heart to my husband.  I had been praying that way for years.  So it finally dawned on me.  God was answering my prayer.  The reason I was not dating was because I had not yet met my husband.

Once I realized that, a peace came over me and I finally became contented in where God had me in my life.  Oh, I still had those moments where I got lonely and discouraged.  But I would remind myself of my prayer and would get over it.  I knew that God was helping me to keep my heart and life free from regrets in this area.  And I am so, so, SO thankful he did.  And so I went about my business, praying for my husband, wherever and whoever he was, and waiting for him to come into my life.

And then he did.....

Until next time....