Story of Us: Part 3

It was August 26, 2001. 

The day came sooner than I thought it would.  Oh, how nervous I was.  I wanted to be late.  I did NOT want to have to talk to "this guy" before I absolutely had to.  How was I going to handle this?  I took my sweet time getting ready for church.  Late. Late Late.  I needed to be late.  Really.

We drove slowly. I wasn't normal.  This couldn't be normal.  I was way to nervous about meeting this new email friend of mine.  Way to nervous.  It wasn't like we "met" on the internet.  We were set up for communication over the internet, but this was too weird for me.  Meeting some 24 year old guy.  He was too old for me.  I was sure he was a nice guy and all that, but 24-year-old's aren't looking to be friends with some girl who lives 200+ miles away from where he lived. Were they?

We drove into the parking lot.  There was his truck.  The only red F150 in the lot.  Oh my oh my!  He's here, I thought.  I was cool as a cucumber. Yeah right. Then, I walked into the church.  I had known he led singing, but I wasn't expecting him to be leading singing in my church.  But there he was.  Standing in the front of the church, song book in hand, singing.  Wow.  He sure can sing.

I'd forgotten that I was still wearing my sunglasses.  Gasp. There he was.  I couldn't breathe.  I couldn't move.  Oh my. I think my heart stopped for a second. I slipped my glasses up on top of my head.  He looked up at me, and our eyes met for the first time.  I'll never forget the look on his face in that moment.

He knew I'd walked in.  There was a little smile, and I sat down.  My life changed in that moment. I thought I knew how my life was going to play out.  I had plans.  I thought I knew what I wanted, but God began to change my heart that day.

Story of Us: Part 2

I can barely remember back so far, but Deron emailed me.  I remember thinking to myself, "We're just going to be friends."  {yeah, right} I had plans.  Grand plans that I knew were going to happen because I knew practically everything.  I had just graduated high school. So I was somewhat wasp-ish...you know, biggest when first hatched.  I'm so embarrassed at the know-it-all I was back then.

We emailed back and forth, and he tried desperately to get me to give him my phone number.  But there was no way I was giving my number out to some guy I didn't really know.  Thus, Deron was intrigued, and I was unwittingly playing hard to get.  I didn't know that's what I was doing.  I was just going to be friends with him.  Seriously.

But truth be told, I was intrigued, as well.  Why else would I continue emailing and checking my email a hundred times a day if I wasn't?  I didn't actually want to be intrigued.  I wanted to be indifferent to my new found friend.  But finally the day came when he asked if he could come meet me at my church.  "Whoa!"  Butterflies.  "What should I say?"  Of course he could drive the 200+ miles to meet me.  I suppose...

At church the two weeks before he was supposed to travel to meet me, I was chatting with the ladies about how Deron would be coming to meet me soon.

Then came several "ooooohhhhhs" and "aaaahhhhs."

"We are just friends," I said to them, completely convinced that this would be the case.  {because people who are "just" friends travel four plus hours to chat face to face for a little while. mmmhmmm)

"Sure you are.  You'll probably marry him..." came the prophetic response.

A few days before Deron was supposed to come, he had decided to back out since I, obiviously, was not interested.  He got on his computer, typed an email about how he wasn't going to be able to make it.  Then, he pressed send.

What? No internet connection. Riiiinnnggg. Back in the days of dial-up, a phone call had interrupted his connection.

It was his sister-in-law calling to tell him that she'd spoken with a lady from my church about how excited I was to meet him...{hahahaha} So he changed his mind and decided to make the trip after all...

Story of Us: Part 1

On my old blog, I wrote something similar to what I will be writing, but I've lost much of those writings.  So I'll be starting this series anew.  This is more of a journaling for me, but I thought it'd be fun to share.

The Story of Us


It was June of 2001.

I graduated high school and had plans like any other high school senior. I thought I knew what I wanted out of life. I was going into Respiratory Therapy (which I would have hated). Seriously. I was going to get my Associate’s Degree and then be working in that field while I went to school for something else, also in the medical field. I don’t really know why I wanted to be in that field. I enjoy taking care of people, but other than that I certainly am not suited for it.

I continued to go about my business that summer which brought me to church one Sunday when my pastor’s granddaughter, a good friend of mine, and her new husband were there. Her husband was nine years older than her which was crazy to me! Such a big age gap. Wow. (Please note that they will have been married ten years this spring and have two beautiful girls!)

After church, she asked me if she could give Deron, her brother-in-law who was six years older than me, my email address. What was with all these big age gaps?!  Not wanting to hurt her feelings or her husband’s, I said, “Sure.” And thus changed my entire life…