Immediately after I arrived home, God began to open up a lot of new and incredible opportunities for me. It was exciting for me to watch and I was very much enjoying the path on which God was taking me. Then came time for our church’s
annual Valentine’s banquet that I organize. During the planning, I mentioned to my parents which musicians I was thinking about having for the banquet. They brought up Joe’s name and recommended that I ask him to play guitar. He had played for several past banquets but considering God's recent working in my heart, this was not something I especially wanted to do and tried to convince them otherwise. A few days went by and my parents
again came to me and suggested that I re-consider having Joe play. I reluctantly agreed on the condition that
I wouldn't have to ask him or have any communication with Joe regarding it. Dad agreed to ask him and I thought that was the end of it. Little did I know, it was just the beginning.
Right before the banquet, Joe offered to come early to help us set up. Since there was a
lot of work to do and my parents thought it was a wise idea to have help, we accepted his offer. Joe and I spent quite a bit of time together the day and a half preceding the banquet. (The theme for the banquet that year was gardens, so we brought in dirt, sand, loads of rocks, flowers, etc into the building and made 6-7 different themed gardens.) As we set up each garden, I quickly discovered how creative Joe was. It was amazing how well we seemed to work together. Joe was also very alert to my needs and often knew exactly what I was thinking before I even said it. This greatly surprised me.
After spending almost two days with Joe, I realized that I had seen a side of Joe that I didn’t know existed. It seemed like God had stepped in front of me and worked out the details to put Joe and me in that situation. But I didn't know why, especially because I had recently given everything up to God and come to a place of contentment and peace with my life. The next few weeks were filled with much praying and seeking the Lord.
Around this time, my brother underwent major jaw surgery. The recovery was long and painful for him and it was difficult to see him suffering. One day I was thinking about how discouraged he (my brother) seemed and I began praying that God would somehow encourage him. Suddenly, I found myself praying, “A
nd Lord, if Joe is the one You have for me, prove it to me by having him write Nathaniel a note.” I was immediately horrified at myself! I
never prayed things like that and I couldn’t believe what I had just asked for. As far as I knew, Joe did not enjoy writing notes and I only knew of one note he had written in the entire 6+ years I had known him. Truthfully, I was a little upset at myself for what I had just asked God for.
I totally forgot about this prayer request until a couple of days later when Mom mentioned to our family at lunch that Nathaniel had received several nice notes, including one from Joe's family. Immediately, it all came flooding back and my heart began to pound. I tried to play it cool as I asked to see it but my mind was racing. I couldn’t imagine that Joe would have written anything or even signed his name. Every note we had received from their family was always written by his mom and signed by his mom. With trembling hands, I opened the card. My heart went to my throat when I saw the perfectly neat handwriting on one side of the card, which I knew was Joe’s. Not only had he signed the note, he had written three sentences plus a verse. My first thought was, “
What is God doing?” I was in complete awe and amazement. It took me several months before I shared this experience with anyone. Just three weeks later, I got an even bigger shock. I had just returned home the evening before from an 8-day trip to Kansas City and wasn’t suspecting anything. My Dad came to me and asked if we could talk in my parent's bedroom whenever I had time. Usually this meant I was in trouble, so immediately my mind started going over the last couple of weeks trying to figure out what I had done and what this "talk" was going to be about. I couldn’t really think of anything, but when he shut the door and I saw my Mom sitting there, I started to get really nervous. Oh boy!
Dad told me he had something serious to tell me (
I kind of figured that!). He then proceeded by saying that Joe had expressed an interest in me. In fact, for the past several years he had repeatedly expressed an interest in me to his parents, but they had thought it best for him to wait until he was further along in school before approaching my Dad. With certain circumstances taking place, they had agreed that now was God's timing for Joe to express that interest to my parents and me.
I wish I could say I screamed or jumped up and down or threw my arms around my Dad or cried….or something. But I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t say anything. My Dad finally had to ask me what my thoughts were. I looked at him and said, “I don’t know.” After talking for a while, I told my parents that I thought I would like to get to know Joe on a deeper level. But I wanted to be sure this was God’s will. God had given me such a peace over the past few months and I didn’t want to just jump into this because it was a relationship, or it seemed like a good thing. The following evening, March 23, 2008, Joe came to our house and by the time he left, I felt confident that God was leading us into a relationship together.
One of the things I was very grateful for from the beginning of our courtship was the fact that we had already been friends for several years. We knew a lot about each other already, which made us feel at very much at ease in each others presence. Much of the first few weeks of our courtship was spent just reminiscing. It was amazing to me to find out from Joe that he had been very eager to pursue a relationship with me for several years, but had waited and trusted God for His perfect timing.
We had been courting for about 3 ½ months when I moved to Minnesota to nanny for some close friends who had been in a very serious car accident. It was very difficult to be separated from Joe, especially when we were used to seeing each other 2 times a week for the past six years. But we learned quite a bit about each other during that time that we wouldn’t have learned for a long time otherwise. Since our phone calls were very limited, we resorted to letter writing and emailing. God used this time in our relationship to draw our hearts closer and make us dependent upon Him. We were reunited in August and continued to make many wonderful memories during the fall months.
By the time winter arrived, it was getting harder and harder to stay content. We had been friends for 6 years and had been courting for almost a year. I wanted so badly to move forward in the relationship, but once again, God had brought me to the waiting trial. Joe still had a couple years of college left and our parents wanted him to be closer to the finish line before we started thinking about marriage. By the time January arrived, I was trying to make it through one day at a time. It was one of the hardest tests of my life up to that point. Each day I would pray for strength and stamina to make it through the day and God was always faithful. The verse I clung to was Ecclesiastes 3:11 which says, “
He hath made everything beautiful in His time.” I knew that in God’s perfect time, He would give me the desire of my heart – marriage – and make our relationship a beautiful thing, but it was still such a struggle to stay content. Even though it was a difficult time for both Joe and me, we continued to laugh and make memories together and grew more in love with each other every day.
Our parents had told us that if several things fell in place, there was a slight chance that we could get married that summer but I tried not to get my hopes up. I continued to wait, pray, and trust God. One night, I got to the point of feeling like I could go on no longer. I poured out my heart to the Lord and asked Him to do a miracle and somehow allow Joe to propose within the next two weeks. God overwhelmed me with peace and, once again, gave me the courage to face the next day.
Just a few days later, God answered that prayer! Like usual, I was planning to go to Joe’s house on Friday afternoon. It seemed a little strange to me when he asked me to come at 10:00am instead of my usual time. I was a little scared my parents wouldn’t let me go that early, but they said nothing of it – which also seemed a little peculiar. But I didn’t really think much about it as I was just excited I would get to spend more time with Joe. :)
March 27, 2009 dawned a very cold and snowy day. When I arrived at his house that morning, Joe greeted me at the door by telling me that we had to go with his mom over to the church as his mom had to meet with his sister's wedding coordinator (his sister was getting married a week later to my brother - yes, that's an entire different story!). Joe and his mom were both apologizing for messing up our plans for the day, but I was like, “It’s fine.” Joe seemed so upset about going that I finally said, “Why don’t I just go with your mom and you can stay here.” But he immediately turned down that offer.
When we got to the church, Joe's mom headed off to the gym and Joe and I were left alone in the lobby. Joe suggested we go into the sanctuary and I thought it sounded like fun. The lights in the sanctuary were dimmed and there was beautiful music playing in the background, but I still didn’t clue in. Being the sentimental people that we are, Joe and I both began reminiscing about memories we had in that sanctuary. We ended up in the balcony where we sat down and began talking. I still suspected nothing.
We’d been talking for quite some time about our future when I heard one of my favorite songs begin playing. I immediately said, "I don't want to talk about our future anymore because it's just making me depressed. Let's talk about something else, ok?"
Before I knew what was happening, Joe got down on his knee and said, “Ok, then...Will you marry me?”
I was thinking, “
What? I know you’re just trying to make me feel better and all, but this really isn’t a nice joke. I really don’t want you to ask me that until our engagement.” Yes, I was pretty dumb. But, I didn’t want to
not reply. So I quietly and slowly replied, “Yeeeeeees.”
Without taking his eyes off of me, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the most beautiful ring I’d ever seen. My eyes about popped out! I looked at him with bewilderment and gasped, “Is this for real?!?” He got a huge smile and nodded. I immediately started crying. I couldn’t believe what was happening! I don’t think I have
ever been so shocked in my entire life!
All of a sudden, a thought came to me. “Do my parents know about this?” I asked him. Again, he nodded. After I had composed myself somewhat, he gave me a beautiful rose exactly like the very first one he had given me. It was then that I realized that
he was the one who had arranged for the lights to be dimmed and the music to be playing in the background. We stayed in the sanctuary for about an hour making phone calls to tell our exciting news after which he took me out for a romantic lunch at Olive Garden.
We kept asking each other, "Can you believe we’re getting married?” It was the most surreal feeling. After our lunch, we went back to the church to take a bunch of pictures.
Four months later on August 1st, we pledged our love and united in marriage before God and many witnesses. As I look back on the journey that God took us, it is a reminder to me that God’s plans are so much better than ours. He has truly given me so much more than I ever imagined. Every day I am amazed by how wonderful Joe is for me. There are so many qualities that he has that I wouldn’t have even ever thought to ask for. But God knew exactly what I needed and gave me everything I desired in a future spouse, plus more!
I want to encourage each of you to never, ever doubt that God is able and willing to do so much more than you could ever imagine. Jeremiah 32:27 says, “
Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is anything too hard for Me?” Many of you are probably waiting. Waiting for wisdom, waiting to be done with school, waiting for a future spouse, waiting for direction for your life. I think the hardest trials always involve waiting. Don’t give up hope! God knows your needs and desires even better than you do and He will fulfill these in His perfect time.
Isaiah 30:18 says, “
And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him.” So often I tend to think that if only I could do it my way, right now, it would be exactly perfect. But, time and time again, I see that waiting on God only brings better things. Things I could never, in my wildest imaginations, have dreamed of. God is able to do exceeding abundantly above ALL that we ask or even think!
I'm hoping in the near future to do a few posts about pulling off our wedding and honeymoon on a small budget, as well as more details and pictures of our wedding week and honeymoon. If there's anything you are interested in hearing about, leave me a comment (or email me) and I'll try to include that in the posts.
, today is the day you've been waiting for. Eeek! I was super excited when I found out that today only, Amazon is selling 
