How We Met

I was walking with Nate the other day and thinking about our story of how we met, dated, got engaged and then married.  I was reviewing mental snapshots from different dates and adventures we had during that time and I hadn't thought about in awhile.  And blurted out "I'm going to do a photo scrapbook of our story!"

I then immediately felt guilt and regret because, let's face it: I just lied.

I over committed in my exuberance to document our story.  I wasn't really going to scrapbook.  Do you want to know how many scrapbooks I have done to date?  Zero.

I have a wonderful one that my mom did for me when I graduated from high school, with great family pictures and memories as I was growing up.  I love it and I think it's a great idea.  But realistically, the percentages of me doing one are very small.

But I thought the idea was still good.
After all, I have to explain how I got my new last name.
So here it goes.
A piece of our story...

The beginning:
We met through a couple named Chuck and Kristi.

Chuck is Nate's cousin and the two of them grew up in the same hometown.

I had met Chuck and Kristi when I was attending college and they were living in the same town and we went to the same church.  The church had a program that matched families in the congregation with college students that were interested in being more connected with others in the church and the community.  Soon I also started babysitting for their son several times a week and did that for the next two years while I was a student.

Over that time, I formed a friendship with them that continued after I graduated and still continued when the couple moved a few hours away.

This friendship allowed Kristi to inform me years later that Chucks's cousin Nate, was moving to my town to attend seminary.  Kristi was very confident that the two of us could be "great friends" and shared this often during visits we had.  When Nate moved to town, during his visits to see them, she also mentioned me to him.

But the timing was never right as we found out later on, one or both of us would be dating different people.  And for myself, I had bouts of dating weariness when single just seemed better.  Perhaps other single women out there can attest to that, when you hit your stride in single life and life is good, it can be difficult to give that up for the unknown of letting someone new in.  I can speak for myself that the stakes are also higher when it's family or friend connection.  So I was perfectly content to nod and smile at the mention of Nate, but had no intention of pursuing it.

However, Kristi's persistence paid off and a year or so later after her campaign started to make us great friends, the timing was finally right for Nate to decide he wanted to meet me and for me to be open to accept.

After an email to break the ice, our first outing as great friends was decided on and we made plans to meet that weekend and travel to an area fall festival.

It was the end of September, 2009 and I was also busy celebrating the weddings of Amanda and Jessi!  As you can see my best friend Alisa and I had classy travel arrangements to get to Jessi's Ohio wedding thanks to her pilot dad.  Thanks for the lift!