I forgot a few details of my story. It was really late when I wrote it. Without further ado...
After I found out Josh worked at Target whenever I was home I would frequent Target. Mind you it was around the corner from our house. He worked in the deli so I would head down the grocery aisles, choose an aisle to cut across and then make my way up to the far side of the produce section where I could catch a glimpse of him. Then I would peruse the produce section with my eyes madly darting around to get one more looksie at my hottie! Yes, basically I stalked him for, um, oh, nearly a year.
Okay now fast forward to where I left off. The next day was Sunday and I saw Josh at church and had the guts to ask him if he'd like to come over for lunch after church. Amazingly he said yes!! I was a nervous wreck. Josh was going to be in MY HOUSE!!! He was going to sit on the couch I sit on and walk on the carpet I walk on. You get the picture, it was very exciting. So he came over. Now one thing to know is that my family is very welcoming to visitors. We have always had extra "siblings" because we basically adopt our friends as family. While we are very hospitable we also keep it very real. So I remember my parents on the couch reading the Sunday ads and I think perhaps Dad even went off for his Sunday afternoon nap. The tv was on. We were all hanging out in the living room where you typically find us all on a Sunday afternoon. It was a regular Sunday picture but with Josh added. You also have to know that while Josh has an awesome family he grew up mainly without a dad (his dad died when he was one year old) which paints a very different family picture. We played games and watched tv that day. Josh told me later that he fell in love with my family and the way I interacted with my family before me specifically. He loved every minute of the day and he didn't leave. It was so weird at the time. I thought for sure he would politely eat his lunch visit for a bit and scoot out the door as fast as possible. I truly thought it was a pity lunch acceptance. But soon enough it was getting close to dinner and we threw some frozen pizzas in the oven and ended up watching the Colts game. It was a wonderful day. It is one of those memories I love to think about. My family is so important to me and I love the fact that one of the reasons I became so attractive to Josh was because of my family. I went back to school after the new year and Josh and I had swapped email addresses. It was killer intense to wait for his emails. My every heartbeat wanted to write to him every minute of every day but I knew I needed to wait for him to first send me and email. My poor roommate had to listen to me moan in agony every time I checked my email. Even when he did email me I was like a kid in a candy shop and I of course wrote him back the very second I read the email. He on the other hand spaced his out to every two weeks or so. Josh came down to Evansville where I went to school because Steven Curtis Chapman was having a concert at Robert's Stadium. That weekend we went to the concert and a basketball game. It was so much fun. I went home later in February and Josh asked me to our church's Valentine's banquet as friends. I was elated!! I'm sitting on the couch waiting for him to pick me up and in pulls his hideous van. That van is for another story and time!!! Anyhow, he gets out of the van and is holding a rose. I almost peed my pants!!!!!!!!! It was a sweet yellow rose. We went to the banquet and had a lovely time. It wasn't romantic in anyway but I loved it because Josh was next to me. That yellow rose was the first of so many flowers that were given to me by my husband. At some point Josh started meeting with my dad for some accountability and help with finances and other stuff. My dad even started loving Josh! : ) At some point we started to call each other while I was at school. I remember anticipating those phone calls. I savored each one. I was sure it all would come crashing down around me someday soon enough. I went home for the summer and Josh and I spent all our extra hours and minutes together with my family! We joke that most all of our dates were spent on the couch in the living room with my family. I wouldn't trade a minute of it though. I saw the real Josh and he saw the real me. We did occasionally go out in public as well (we didn't do it much, we were both not so well off)! Our first REAL date was to the cheap seats movie theater to see National Treasure. Whenever we watch that movie we always remember that first date. Some of my memories of that year aren't in any particular order. I do remember I helped him clean his room and organize it. The next day he brought me a bouquet of purple tulips as a thank you. Now you might just say awww but there is great meaning behind this. I love tulips and tulips aren't exactly a flower people give as a bouquet. I had told my mom once that the boy who brings me tulips will be the man I marry. My mom almost passed out when Josh came walking up to the front door with his bouquet of tulips in hand. On December 31st 2005 Josh asked me to go to breakfast with him. We decided on Denny's. On the way he said he had something for me at his house and would it be okay if we stopped off there first. I of course said I didn't care. In the house we go and he sits me at the kitchen table (where a year and 2 days ago we first played skip bo together) and told me to stay there and close my eyes. I hear him rustling around in the other room and then plod back out to the kitchen. Then he tells me to open my eyes and he is down on one knee with my beautiful ring in a box and he asked me to marry him. Up to this point we had never said I love you to each other. As soon as I said yes and slipped the ring on my finger I told him NOW SAY IT! And we exchanged our first I love yous! I still get chills down my back thinking about how those words resonated in my heart. We drove back to my house where I showed the ring to my parents. By the way he did ask my father for my hand in marriage. Well Josh was so nervous when he went do it that Dad took mercy on his nervous soul and told him it was okay if he wanted to marry me. Then we went to Bob Evans and had breakfast with his family! We were married on July 8th, 2006. I love my husband. So now to end how this whole long story fits with my blog name...
God's sovereignty. I said that for a long time our paths were always crossing but never colliding until that December night in 2004. Josh went through a period of time where he was not walking with the Lord. He changed not too terribly long before I started going to his church. The first time I saw Josh I was so attracted to him because he was singing to the Lord. The timing was just right that God chose for me to see him then with his hands reaching up to the Lord and it showed me a glimpse of his heart. Then God knew Josh needed grooming to become the husband I would need someday so he took him away from where I was so that our paths wouldn't collide. Then when I was disobedient to the Lord and Josh was home God took me away from him so that our paths wouldn't collide. I wouldn't have been the right woman for Josh at that point. God grew me while I was away. When Josh and I were where we were supposed to be God collided our paths. We have often said that had we met earlier neither of us think we would have A) fallen for each other or B) had we dated it would have ended badly. So in God's perfect sovereignty he brought me a man who loves the Lord dearly and is so imperfect that he is perfect for me. My flaws are his strengths and his flaws are my strengths. He is a man who loves his family so much he is willing to be silly and give t-rex hugs without a second thought!
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