Day 69 | How We Met

 This was posted on a blog I did leading up to our wedding.  Enjoy:)

In early April, my mom’s friend, T, who used to live in our area added mom to her facebook.
So, Mom spent some time looking around her facebook page catching up with her, then traveled over to her myspace and then to her sons’ myspaces. As she read T’s son, J *also known as Somewhere* myspace her jaw totally dropped and kept dropping lower and lower. “He has so much in common with Didge!”, she kept thinking. Lots and lots of things…from the normal to the bizarre, such as both drawing the same design on our arms in the same places, both being born in British Commonwealth countries (Me-Australia, J-England) in February of 1987, same favorite cars, movies, bands and even J temporarily dyed his goatee the same reddish-purple color that I dyed my hair one summer.
So my mom sent his mom a message: “Do you think J would be interested in a new friendship? Have him contact Didge if he is.”

That afternoon J contacted me. Thus began a friendship that quickly turned into a very deep friendship and more.

My mom had no idea I had prayed a week earlier, “God, I’m so tired of picking the wrong guys. Half of them have been no good at all. Please let my parents introduce me to the one I’m supposed to be with.”
And, unknown to anyone one on my side of the story, was the fact that T had been praying for J. a week earlier and felt God was telling her to tell J. that he would find “someone for him” at a church where he used to attend, namely mine.
We messaged… a lot for the next few days, like super long, “oh my gosh, you like that too?” two-hour to reply messages. Then J. asked if I had text messaging or IM. I had both. We text constantly (thankfully we both had the same carrier and unlimited texting.) and IM’d well into the night. (We’re both extreme night owls.) J. eventually called me, about a week and a half later, but only after first sending me a video where he took me on a “walking tour” of Savannah, so that that would be the first time we “talked”…”After all,” he said, “our relationship is so unique, that I figure the first time we “talk” should be nothing less than unique.”

He also talked to my dad first on the phone, not to ask permission to call, but on a dare from me since my dad didn’t believe J. had made one of the sound effects on the video.
Our friendship is one of the most eye opening, beautiful, fantastic, fun things ever. But the story doesn’t just end with a friendship…
But I’ll let J. tell part of it next…
How great is God–beyond our understanding! Job 36:26
How great are your works, O LORD. Ps. 92:5

J.’s Tale:
As tales like these go, this one begins with a “Once upon a time.” And in this “once upon a time,” there was a boy, and there was a girl. They knew each other long ago when they were but children. Now, all grown up, they meet again….
The first few days they just got to know one another again. They asked of likes and dislikes and things in between.
The next few days they talked on the phone. They talked for hours on end about everything and nothing, all at the same time. Until four in the morning they talked and talked. They liked each other a lot. And each could tell what the other one thought.
You could almost say it was love at first sight. But it really was not, because they had not yet met (at least they could not remember meeting as children).
Astonishing? Yes!
Amazing? This is true.
For the boy had not seen the girl, and the girl had not seen him too. But they loved each other, that girl and this boy. And nothing, not money nor fame, could bring them such joy.
Well now they are getting married. It’s what happens next in stories like these. You see, he asked her, and she agreed. Again, these things happen in tales such as these. Very soon they will be married, these two will be a “we.”
This is how it happened, believe me or not. But it happened this way, just as sure as you sit in that spot.
Although this story must end, the real one does not. This fairy tale goes on, you see, even though you might not believe. But God brought them together, and that’s good enough for me.
-The End-

And the fairy tale continues…..
Okay, more bragging on my wonderful J.
While I was at a conference, Wednesday, April 30th, my parents received a beautiful letter from J., handwritten in fountain pen on embossed gold stationery. He’d told me he was writing it that Monday and sworn me to secrecy days before that. I’ll admit, I cried when he had told me what he was going to do. But I asked him not to tell me everything it would say. So, anywho, that Monday he had spent a good number of hours practicing writing the letter. Keep in mind, using a fountain pen is not easy for a lefty. Mom calls me Wednesday, while I’m at the conference and tells me that her and Dad had a very encouraging time of prayer concerning J. and I. All I could do not to tell her that a letter was coming that very day.

So here’s the letter they received:
“I, J.D.E, formally request your daughter’s hand in marriage.
Didge is your first child and only daughter. I know she is very dear to your heart and the apple of your eye.
You have guarded her from the time she was born. You have protected her in a different way than your two sons.
I would be honored if you allow me to share in this role of guarding and protecting your daughter.
I love Didge with all my heart. I know this is a God thing because I love her and I haven’t even seen her. I have fallen in love with the inside. Your daughter has a beautiful heart.
Scared to death,
Excited for what’s to come,
and holding on tight while on this ride.
J.D.E.”

My dad gave his blessing to J. and I (provided J. didn’t do anything “knuckleheaded” LOL) in Savannah on May 11th.
This was another HUGE confirmation to me. My dad has been very discerning over the years about guys in my life. He had always known, very quickly into me developing an interest in a guy, that he was not right. So for him to not say a single negative thing about J. and to know, so soon, that he would give his blessing, really had to be of God. I’m my dad’s little girl. Giving me away in marriage is definitely not a matter he takes lightly.
My story really won’t be complete without this detail, because for me and J. it is the most important. Both J. and I made lists in the past year and a half of what we wanted in a future spouses. I’d always had a “idea” in my mind of what he would be like, but didn’t take the time to write it all down until Feb. ’08. I was dealing with a lot of confusion in the area of boyfriends and had been counseled by many to get it on paper what my standards were. I decided then and there to hold out for that guy. I’d never dated before, and I wanted that man. So I told the guy that I was talking to at the time, that I was sorry, but God was telling me “no.”

A week later I met J.

Another confirmation, every guy beforehand, God had laid on my heart at some point in “interest” that I could do better. Not cause they were all bad, cause they weren’t. Some even met ALMOST all the standards, but not EVERYTHING. But they were not who He had for me. J. was the first, and only guy, that God impressed on my heart “He’s the better”
On J.’s side, he had recently questioned the same things. “Maybe I should take a few things off my list and not have such a high expectation,” he told his friend a week earlier. Thankfully, his best friend counseled him, “keep your standards high and wait”
Well, here’s the cool part. We both match each others list.

And these are no ordinary lists.
For one thing, we both have exactly 31 points on our lists. Strange? Yes.
And these were not ordinary lists, but like I’ve wanted a “warrior poet”. My mom responded “What is that anyway??” when I told her. I had read about it in a book once, and knew my heart needed one. J. is definitely a Warrior Poet (he is a “modern day knight”–- google it – and he writes poetry/songs).

So that’s the part of the story I’m going to include in this note. I’m going to type about the engagement with J. later. Love to you all!

“We’re in perfect rhythm. You’re the Bass Clef to my Treble. Together,
we’re a beautiful melody of praise to God. Apart, we’re just a tinkering sound.”

~ Me"