A Remembering

It has been quite a while since my last blog post. In all specificness, it's been a year and 21 days. I can barely even remember why I stopped making blog posts, since it was so long ago! I do know that I got busy with them. I also know that I got bored with them, despite the obvious need to have them for archiving thoughts, feelings, experiences, and revelations. So, now, I make this new blog post in order to update some as to how my situations have changed, to tell others that I still exist, and (more than anything) to keep myself from growing rusty with my writing.

A lot has happened in just over a year. It's amazing how God works in His amazing ways. Looking back at where I stood a year ago, I can hardly say that I would have imagined myself where I am today. I could hardly imagine that the Love of my life would have provided me a love on earth, one who I found not so long ago.

For those of you who haven't heard, I am indeed engaged to a wonderful lady named Stephanie. She's been a great part of my maturing and time spent this past year, but she hasn't always been with me. You see, in eleven days from this day, I will be marking my one year anniversary of even meeting her!

It was on a rather sunny Saturday on August 21st, 2010 that I met her. She was with our mutual friend, Rachel, and they had come to the student center for a service project. I was there for the same purpose, but for a different reason. While she was coming indoors to escape the heat, I was indoors so as to perform a service project that wouldn't put too much weight on my ankle (I had sprained it the Tuesday before). After coming up, tapping me on the shoulder, and stating that I "look like you're in charge," we sat down to write letters to various people around the campus who had hardships in their life. The campus's main cameraman, the cafeteria ladies, and a staff member who had recently had a family member pass away. So, after figuring all of this out, we were sitting down and conversed for two hours! Granted, it wasn't just the three of us. Somewhere along the line Mullen joined us, and it was a great time of conversation and joking about.

From there it was a steady progression towards a solid friendship for the two of us. While some things about her made me suspicious as to this friendship with her, it didn't take long for us to really bond with what we have the most in common: God. Since the beginning it has always been God that has drawn us together, and while other topics and other interests in each other might have permeated the friendship, God has taken the cake, pie, ice cream, cobbler, cookies, and every other dessert-like item as for our main topic of discussion.

It was about October that I think that both of us came to the same conclusion: that God was meaning for us to pursue a relationship with each other. The only thing really stopping me from calling up her dad and talking to him immediately is that Stephanie had sworn against having a relationship her first semester of "real" college life.

So, the end of the semester came, and we separated for the Christmas break. Not for too terribly long (although it seemed like forever), since on January 5th I flew up to the Kansas City area to meet her family. That week I met the wonderful people that will someday soon be my in-laws, and I can't wait to get to spend time with them throughout my life. Sure, they're sort of crazy, but so is my family, and I'm sure so is every family in America in their own rights. They've taught me a lot, and I hope that I've taught them a few things as well.

So, on January 8th I asked Stephanie's father if I could court his daughter.

For those of you out there who aren't familiar with today's courting idea, let me tell you a bit about it. From the beginning of a relationship it's entirely different from a dating relationship. For starters, you don't pursue a relationship with a person just because you like them. While I can't honestly say that I didn't like Stephanie before we started courting, it was something else that brought us together to court. You see, it's not physical attraction that caused me to make a flight two states away from home and ask her father if I could court her. It was because I truly, honestly, and whole heartedly felt that God was moving us together to form a relationship together.

After that, while dating might focus a lot on going out and having fun, courting doesn't focus on that. Yes, there are fun times to be had, but we don't do it on dates. You see, the focus isn't on just having fun and then, if the person you're dating doesn't work out, throwing the person away for somebody else "more fun". It's focus is creating a God-filled, Christ-focused relationship that's end result is a marriage. I used to call courtship the pre-engagement-engagement, but it's different than that. It's the exploration of whether this person is the one that God has meant for you, not by the means of whether or not you've got things in common, but by the means of finding God's will for your relationship.

And, if you haven't connected the dots yet, I found that God's will for our relationship was that of us eventually being married to one another. So, after asking her dad if I could court her, and then praying about it, I asked Stephanie if she would court me on January 10th. The next three months would progress our dedication to God and to each other, and while there were challenges, trials, and distractions, we came out unscathed because our Father protects us from all things.

During spring break of 2011, while visiting her family again, I once again confronted her dad. This time, to ask for permission to be engaged. This eventually led to him giving me permission several weeks later.

(Included in that spring break trip was my interview with the elders of East Independence Church of Christ. You see, I had visited their church a few times by then, and I had asked if they wanted an intern for the summer. Coincidentally, they had been wanting to start an intern program since their last intern, Jesse (who now gets his main missionary support from EICOC). Jesse had been the first intern, a decade ago, and so I had to both fill some big shoes as well as get an internship program's kinks worked out if I was going to be the intern. The day after my meeting with them, they called and offered me the position. I, of course, accepted, and so I've been the East Independence Church of Christ intern for the entire summer.)

So, since I had been given permission to propose, I made plans. On April 10th, at approximately 2:00pm, I proposed to Stephanie in the student center (the time/place that we had met, three months after the start of the courtship).

Since then, it has been such an amazing ride in engagement. The past four months have been filled with everything from tears to unstoppable laughter. From anger, to holding hands and watching people be people. We've both challenged, triumphed over the challenges, and have matured and grown from the experiences. It has been an adventure, one that I wouldn't give up for anything here on life.

So, here's to seven months of courting and four months of being engaged to a wonderful lady. Here's to overcoming the world's thoughts about what we're doing, and instead following God's will for our lives. Here's to loving God more than we love each other. Here's to knowing that we'd be nowhere, especially here with each other, if it weren't for the One who made the heavens and the earth, the waters and the skies, and all the things that we know today as our home.

May we have another seven months of being together, and in eleven days I hope we have many more years of knowing and growing together.

P.S.-This is not cheating to use this as a method of telling you "HAPPY SEVEN/FOUR MONTHS!" :p