5 years

in a few weeks (november 15th!) wes & i will celebrate our 5th anniversary (6th, if you count the year we met, dated, & were engaged). over this past year i read an article saying that year 5 is the new year 7...meaning, it used to be that a good percentage of married couples divorced at year 7. somehow it was the breaking point. but now recent trends are showing that year 5 is when more divorces are occurring. so we made it over the hump! (*not that i didn't think we would*)

we met almost exactly one year before our wedding day...we made it fit perfectly into the columbus vineyard's requirements of dating 6 months & engaged 6 months (& we also made it through their pre-marital stuff...we were off the charts on compatibility! our dear friend holli always gave us the inner scoop on things b/c she was the 'marriage & family' admin at the time). we also met at columbus vineyard...we haven't shared this story with that many people, but i've decided that we will now. b/c looking back, i realize it's worth telling.

so wes & i were both going through a few years of not dating anyone (well, a few for more, about a year for him, a-hem) just b/c we thought the other gender sucked pretty much. ;o) & b/c we felt that god was telling us to do this, to be single for awhile & enjoy our friends & our church & we used that time to grow closer to god as well. how handy! vineyard columbus likes to have conferences on many things, one of them that i was looking forward to was "doing what jesus did" w/ don williams as the main speaker (a fan favorite preacher). so i signed up for all 3 nights, as did wes, starting on thursday. i was with my other dear friend christine mcqueary & we sat in one spot, then we moved b/c i just felt like sitting in another spot for some reason (okay, vineyard columbus is HUGE, it seats about 2,000 & the church has at least 6,500 members the last i knew, plus hundreds more who attend each of the 3 services). so worship started & i saw this really cute but sorta hairy guy walk in & he caught my eye, but i was like 'nope, don't even worry about it' & kept on singing. then i HEARD god say, like he was sitting next to me & talking like any other person would, "turn around, your husband is sitting behind you." seriously. so i thought i was probably going crazy or making this up & just kept singing lalalla. another minute later, i heard it again, the same thing. so then i started to feel god's presence strongly & knew that this was for real. then i start to think that there's probably some really weirdo guy or a really old man sitting behind me, so i turn to peek, using the trick of pretending to look for someone else. classy. it was the same near-hairy guy who had walked in late! he was sitting directly behind me! (hint: it was wes).

little did i know, but he had taken a very holy approach to the me also; he noticed my bright blue underwear & thought i was cute. blue underwear....i can't help that i hate belts. but other than that, wes had no idea what was going on in my mind. the only thing he knew was that i was the girl with the blue underwear that he thought was pretty cute.

i talked to christine on the way home & she was ecstatic & happy & i really just wanted to cry. it was overwhelming & i had no idea what to think about it. so i did what a lot of people would do: i called my mom! she said that the only way to find out if this is really god speaking to me is to go talk to him & maybe even ask him out. hhmmm...

so the next night (friday) i went early to the conference, hoping to see him before...& i was freaking out. almost the entire night went on before i saw him sitting with another woman across the sanctuary. i was relieved & terrified thinking that he already had a girlfriend, holy crap, what is god doing to me? but we saw each other & sort of gave a look to each other, like 'hey that's you & it's me, we sat by each other last night....' so i leave that night totally weirded out. no sleep sort of night...

the next morning, i go & don't see him at all during the morning session. someone prayed for me to give me peace over the whole situation. it worked & in the afternoon session i saw him sitting with a bunch of high schoolers (what?!) in the church cafe. so i do this stupid half wave as i was walking by him & he looks at me like 'hhmm, hello? are you waving to me?' & i feel totally stupid! so the afternoon session is over & i see where he's sitting & my sister sat with me & was checking him out the entire time. but she talks me into going over to him & talking to him. i am one of the most shy people you will ever meet, so for me to approach someone i don't even know, especially a guy, is overcoming a lot of emotions. but i did it. i stood behind him for almost 3 minutes while he gabbed away with this teenage (again, why the teen? i soon learned that wes worked with the youth ministry; ah it all makes sense now) & then his friend says 'hey wes, there's someone here to talk to you...' b/c i had probably not made a iota of noise while standing 2 feet behind him. i forget exactly what i said, but it involved, 'hi, you sat behind me the other night & i keep seeing you this weekend & i just wanted to say hi...' i originally went over there intending to ask him out, but while talking to him, god again told me plain as day that i was not to ask him out. so i didn't. after we talked about ignorant things for 10 minutes, he finally NERVOUSLY said 'would you like to go out sometime?' b/c he now says that he realized that i wasn't going to ask him out. i said yes & gave him my number...he called me that tuesday & we made a date for the next sunday....

picture from the blizzard weekend in february, when i told him the skinny on our future.

in feburary (we met in november) i finally broke down & told him what had originally happened, (i couldn't hold it in any longer) that god told me he was my future husband, etc. which freaked him out a bit, but he agreed it was right on, that he was already thinking that was our direction. we were engaged in may & married in november. what a year it was, my friends! so now you know the real story. i don't know why we always just tell people, even good friends, the general idea: we met at church. that sounds so boring compared to the real deal. i've had very few times in my life when i hear god speak to me that plainly, but i know that's what it would took at that time for either of us to take the plunge & talk to each other. god knows us better than anyone, eh?