I could gush about you, my husband, for a long time. I could tell you how handsome, smart, witty, and utterly amazing you are. Instead, I will tell you about the beginning of us. Not that you haven’t heard it before because you were there, but it’s fun to remember what brought us together 6 years ago.
I met you in bible study in September of 2005. I had graduated from college the past spring and had been church shopping all summer. I was missing my college friends since I worked primarily with older men and didn’t have many friends my age. I was beginning to feel a bit desperate for friendships since you don’t tend to cultivate deep relationships when you are in church shopping mode and I was tired of it. So, I had settled on Bethlehem Baptist and contacted a few of the bible study groups and chose one that was appropriately for co-ed singles in their twenties.
I wasn’t looking for love, or a boyfriend, or really anything else romantic at the time. A part of me had begun to think that if I was in a program that was 93% male and I didn’t come out of college in a serious relationship, that I was probably destined to be single. The idea of being single forever scared me a little bit living in the Midwest, only because almost everyone gets married eventually. I also had always wanted children, but perhaps I couldn’t have children anyway. I figured that I would eventually move to Europe where it would be more socially acceptable.
I digress.
I showed up at bible study and you know me, I get really nervous around new groups of people and either do one of two things. I either can’t stop talking or I can’t start and I sit there not saying anything. As soon as everyone had arrived, I noticed you right away because who doesn’t make note of the hottest guy in bible study. I told myself that you probably weren’t very bright, that we would have nothing in common, and that you probably already had a girlfriend. None of these things were in fact true, it’s just what I do to protect myself from getting hurt. I make up excuses as to why things won’t work out before they ever begin.
The second week of bible study, because most of us didn’t know one another, we went around the room and shared what our jobs were. You were towards the beginning and you said you were a student at the U of M (Minnesota, not Michigan). People asked what you were studying and it came out you were working on your PhD in astroparticle physics. Well, there went my excuse for you not being smart.
A few weeks later, you came in late to bible study and were looking for a seat and my friend Jess announced that we could squeeze together and that you could sit next to me. Squished next to me on the couch, I got a chance to talk to you for the first time about yourself and your research. You were funny, smart, and once again really cute. That was it, I was interested, but I still figured you probably had a girlfriend so I would do the only thing I could do, pray about it.
A month went by and the only person I confided my interest in you to was my friend Shari. It was helpful being able to talk about it with someone and to have someone else pray about it. The end of November, one of the other girls in bible study, my friend Jess, told me that God had been pressing on her heart that she should set two people up in bible study. I, a bit distracted, asked who. I am pretty sure she saw my eyes get huge and my jaw drop when she said you and me. I then felt I should tell her that I was interested in you and that I would be interested in spending time with you outside of bible study.
So the first weekend in December, Jess planned a game night. You came and I made a point of sitting down next to you on the couch with my glass of wine and we ended up talking to each other the entire night. I should mention that wine can make me more bold than normal.
It was then Christmas break and you went home to Indiana. I wasn’t sure if you were interested in me, but I figured I would send out an email to the people that were at game night with the pictures that I took. You responded back to my email and then started the email chain that would last the three weeks until January.
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| the infamous first game night photo |
The first bible study in January, you were late again, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to you prior. There was a sports game on upstairs and you and many of the other guys went upstairs immediately after study to watch it. I figured you would have talked to me if you were interested, but you went upstairs so quickly, I thought that you must be avoiding me. Feeling a bit foolish and hurt, I quickly left bible study and barely made it outside before the tears came.
My friend Jess called me the next night and said that she was planning another game night and that she had called you and you said you wanted to come. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to since I was pretty sure that you weren’t interested in me. I went anyway and you and I immediately sat next to one another and started talking. The rest of the night was a blur but I remember spending the entire night talking to you. It did include a game of catch phrase where I was trying to get you to say the word trendy and I think I said something like “if I were wearing something cool, you might say that I was this”, with you listing – beautiful, amazing, gorgeous.. It ended with me blushing and you and I sitting on the couch well after everyone left with you telling me that you liked me.
And then began us. <3
-Anna
-Anna
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| a picture from our first valentine's day together |
