Get Out of My Way!

Erica's blog post inspired me to write about how me and my husband met.  I love hearing stories about how couples met and started dating.  After college, I began going to a small start-up church.  The pickin's were quite slim in the boy department, but I knew it was where God wanted me to be.  I loved it.

Round 1:
I had donut duty that day, and  I was cleaning up after the service and had to take the trays to the kitchen.  And when I say kitchen, it was more like a very small closet with a sink in it.  This was in the very small lobby area of the church, so people are always standing around in there.  WELL, there just happend to be this handsome, young lad standing right in front of the door to the kitchen.  I think his beautiful blue eyes were the first thing I noticed.  Well, the way he tells it, I said, "I'm Amelia.  Nice to meet you.  Now get out of my way." What?!  I would never!  I remember flirting for a brief moment... ahem, I mean, I remember introducing myself, chatting for a minute, and then politely asking him to move so that I could get in the door behind him.  And that's how it all began.  For months, I would hope to see him at church.  We would share a few brief minutes of conversation about gas and steam turbines or things like that, and that was it.  And it was fun.  He traveled a ton, so I never knew if he was going to be in town or not.  When he was in town, we occasionally went out to eat with many of the other singles at the church.  Somehow, we would always end up sitting across from each other.  After one of those outings, we were both getting in our cars and were kind of saying goodbye over the roof of his car.  And then he randomly asks if I'd like to go see a movie that Friday night.  Um, yes!  I was excited, but then I didn't hear from him all week.  Boys!  I finally heard from him... I think it was the same day we were going out.  I could even tell you what I was wearing for our date... and what he was wearing.  Come to find out later, he actually was going to wear something different, but his friends convinced him he was over-dressed!  Boys are funny.  And annoying.  During our dinner that evening, I think they sent him at least 50 texts.  He finally had to turn his phone off.  Anyway, so we went to eat and went to see a ridiculously crude Austin Powers movie.  Yeah, baby, yeah.  We both felt a bit awkward during that... not the best first date material!  We had a nice time, went on one more date, blah, blah, blah.... then we had to have a DTR.  Due to other circumstances and our general feelings at the time, we decided we would just be friends and seek the Lord for a while to see if together was where He was leading us.  We had not kissed or held hands or any of that mushy stuff, so it was really not that we were taking a break from anything but just setting the limit that friendship is all it would be for then.  And usually one of these decisons would be sad or tough, but I really just knew that God was in control.  I was content.

Break:
We talked occasionally and saw one another when he was in town at church, but the communication wasn't super consistent.  We both were seeking the Lord during this time, and man, it paid off!

Round 2:
I think Round 2 started in February of 2003.  We met at Outback after I got off work one day.  He told me how he had been feeling, and I was feeling exactly the same way.  And from then on, we actually finally dated, and I guess somewhere in there, we eventually kissed.  :)  It all felt very fast from there, but we already had that frienship to spring off of... and we just knew.  We were engaged on May 23, 2003 and married 5 months later on October 26.  I love my husband!  And by the way, his name is Chris.  I just realized that I had not used his name yet!

If you read this post, you know that it has been a pretty big whirlwind since then, and now I have 6 more of those beautiful blue eyes to look at.  :)  I love our engagement story, and I think I'll save that for another week.  You've probably had about all you can handle for one read!