Our Story - Part 7

I had never been in a situation like this before.  A guy, whom I was quite interested in, was showing an interest in me!  Wow.  I was pretty excited to say the least.  After that initial supper when I brought all my friends with me, I went back to my room with my roomie, Jessica, who had gone with us.  We talked about Matt and everything, and she seemed pretty excited - almost TOO excited over just a simple meal.  I wasn't sure, but it seemed like something was up.  But what?  I soon would find out.

I had work to do, so I got busy doing that.  Meanwhile, my roommate, Jenn, had arrived back on campus, and she was in our dorm room unpacking, all the while listening to Jessica share what she knew about me and Matt.  A few hours later, when I cam back to the room, Jenn jumped up, grabbed my hand and said, "Why did you go all last semester without telling us about Matt?"  I was a little taken aback, then glanced at Jessica.  "You told her, huh?"  She smiled and shrugged, "Sorry.  I couldn't help it.  We are just so excited."  We then had to go to prayer meeting, so we started to head out the door.  "Emily, I need to tell you something, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.  I am just SO excited!"  Again, I sensed something was definitely up with my roommates, but didn't have the time right then to investigate.  But my interest was definitely perked.

Finally, the next day, when we were all in our room talking when I said, "Okay guys.  Spill it.  What is the big deal?  What is this you all want to tell me."  It was then that they "confessed" how they have been praying for me all last semester, and were so excited to see that the Lord was answering their prayers.  "Well, let's not get too excited.  He only asked me to one meal so far.  Let's not get ahead of ourselves."  But it was from this point on we all began to pray with each other for each other's relationships.

As for Matt and I, over the next few weeks he kept asking me to meals, and I, silly enough, kept bringing my friends with me!  Haha!  I have to laugh about it  now, but I was just so nervous.  But finally, after a few weeks of this, Matt asked me to come to supper with him - only by myself this time.  I laughed, apologized for how silly I had been, and said yes.  And that's how it went from there. 

We would try to together and go to as many things as possible.  We would talk on the phone for hours about all kinds of things - like our goals, standards, dreams for the future, what the Lord was teaching us - things like that.  I found myself liking him more and more.  And praying more and more.  I still wanted to only person I got involved with, the only person I said those 3 important words to, to be my husband.  So I prayed constantly for the Lord to continue to guide and direct us.

We had been doing this for a few weeks when it came time for Valentine's Day and another Fine Arts.  This particular Fine Arts was one where the girls were supposed to ask the boys to the banquet.  But, as I had said before, it would go against one of my "rules" so I refused to ask him to the banquet.  I think he understood my reasons for not asking him, and knew that I was waiting for him to ask me.  Which he used to his advantage and waited until the LAST POSSIBLE SECOND to ask me!  I should have known - he is such a tease!  It was at that Fine Arts that I wore my new dress that we bought over Christmas break. ;-)

We continued casually dating until March 10, 2004, when Matt asked me to make us "official."  I said yes and we went on from there.  We continued to get closer to each other, find out more about each other, spend as much time together as possible, all the way praying for God to show us His will in the matter. 

One night in April, Matt and I were spending time together on evening, just talking away.  I can't remember exactly what all we were talking about, but we were having a good time.  I remember I said something that made him laugh.  I jokingly said something to the effect that he shouldn't laugh at me, and that it didn't matter, because my mom loves me no matter what (I don't exactly know why I said that!).  He then said, "Well, Jesus loves you."  And then he added in a bit quieter tone, "And I do too."  I looked him in the eye and asked him to repeat what he had said.  "I said I love you."  I was speechless!  What?  Really?  It took me a minute to gather my thoughts.  Then I said, "Thank you.  But I don't think that I am ready to say that just yet.  Okay?"  He said that was fine, that he had been thinking it for a while, and really hadn't planned on saying then, but it just "came out."

And so it was for the next month - us dating, him saying "I love you," and me always answering, "Thanks."  Haha!  I am so glad he understood how I wasn't sure just yet, and wasn't ready to say it.  I was praying very hard about it, though.  And then, one day, it hit me while I was with him.  I loved him.  I really did.  He was exactly what I wanted I wanted in a husband - and so much more.  I wanted to make it very special when I told him how I felt.  So I made a plan.

I went to the dollar store and bought a couple 15 piece puzzles with pictures of animals on it.  Over the next couple of days, I sent him these puzzles through PH mail, with messages written on the back side of them..  He had to put together the puzzle in order to see what I had written.  Then, a couple of days before the last day of the semester, I sent him the last puzzle - with one piece missing.  On the rest of the back of the puzzle, I had just written squiggly lines, but no words.  That night, when he got it, he called me tell me that "a piece was missing."  "Hmmm..." I said.  "Are you sure?"  I asked, secretly laughing to myself.  This was going just how I had planned it.  "Yes.  It is not there."  he said.  "Well, I will look around and see if I can find it."

He probably knew something weird was up, but I don't know if he knew just what.  The next day, I met his parents for the first time (a very nerve wracking experience - I was afraid they wouldn't like me!).  Then, that night we went to the last Fine Arts of the semester together.  When he came to pick me up, I handed him a card and told him to open it up.  He did, and there, taped to the inside was the final puzzle piece.  On it I had written, "I Love You!."  When he read that, he got the biggest smile on his face.  Then I told him, "See?  Now our puzzle is complete!"  (maybe a little cheesy, but hey, it was memorable!) 

The next day, Matt graduated and left to go home.  That summer, he came to NH to be at my brother, Andrew's, wedding, and then I went to spend a week with him in Canada.  And then began out long summer apart.  But we survived, and it think it only made us realize even more how much we loved each other, how much we enjoyed being with each other, and how we wanted to be together always.

And that, my friends, is our very "long" story of how we met and got together.  I was probably a little more detailed than needed, but I want to always remember the small details of how God worked in each of our lives to bring us together.  Already, there were some details that we both couldn't quite remember, and it has only been 5 years!  So, I hope you enjoyed hearing (or rather, reading) all about us.  It has been fun for me to write this as it has taken me down memory lane and brought back a lot of happy and funny memories.