The Beginnings of Our Family :-)

     So today is my husband's and my anniversary!  It has been two very blessed years!  In honor of that I thought it would be nice to tell the story of how we met - or rather, became reacquainted.  A friend of mine has been telling her love story between her husband and herself on her blog (check it out - the City Wife Country Life Blog that I have the link to on the side of my page).  I have enjoyed reading hers so much that I am risking seeming like a copy cat to write ours up.  It seems like our anniversary is the best day to do it!    :-)
     So the summer was coming.  Summers had been hard for me for awhile.  This one was going to be challenging as well.  Not only was I trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life, but my children were going to be away visiting their father for the majority of their time off from school.  I was really dreading that!  I had lots of prayer going at that point.  Not only had I finished a 30 day prayer (and another 9 day novena) to St. Joseph asking for his intercession to know if I was supposed to marry and if so to be led to the person God wanted me to marry, I was also praying for some sort of miracle that the kids' father wouldn't take them for the summer (I was required by a court order to let him have his visitation if he wanted it).  Well, the kids did leave, but God didn't let me down - He had his reasons for allowing this.
     In order to stay distracted from the dreaded time that the kids were leaving, I planned a road trip to visit some old family friends.  I had been in touch with many of them for various reason, and wanted to see them again.  Also, I thought it would be a good way to stay busy and keep from missing my kids so much (and be alone in an empty house all summer).  So, just after I finished my 9 day novena to St. Joseph (and not by accident, as I was going to find out) I packed up and headed to their house, which was a 9 hour drive.  When I got there, it was so nice to see everyone again.  I also had the opportunity to get to know one of the sons.
     Of course, I had know him for a long time, but we never really kept in touch.  There was never really much of a reason to keep in touch - I had mostly talked to two of the sisters (and it was one of those sisters that I was going to visit when I went).  But circumstances allowed that we spent some time together, and I saw a side to this son that I had never seen before.  Slowly I recognized a person with all of the qualities that I had ever wanted in a person, and all of the qualities that I thought God would want me to look for in a person.  In addition, we had so much in common - the same likes and dislikes, the same types of dreams, and on and on.  We even had the same type of sense of humor (it's always nice when someone laughs at your jokes).  Well, my mind was blown!  This was not at all what I had expected to find, and it was certainly not what I had expected when I thought God was going to have me meet the person I was supposed to be with.  I was so confused!
     So I kept telling myself to take a step back.  I sure as heck did not want to blind myself with silly crushes and go in a direction that God did not want me to go.  So I prayed - I even went to the adoration chapel in their town almost everyday.  I wasn't just praying for clarification about this person, but it was certainly one of the things I was praying about!  I knew that nobody in the family had expected that son and me to hit it off so well, and I wasn't even sure if he was recognizing all of the similarities that I was noticing.  Then the sister I had gone to visit and I had this long conversation about the types of people we should end up with, and she commented that she thought I should end up with someone like her brother.  What?!  Now I was really confused!  Obviously she saw the similarities between her brother and myself, but I knew she probably was not thinking that I should end up with her brother - only someone like him.  The only problem was that I had never met anyone else who was like him.  Those types of men just don't come around everyday.  What in the world was God wanting from me?
     So, again, I just prayed.  Honestly, I was more than a little bit scared.  I did NOT want to end up getting hurt, and I had seen so many people get hurt in circumstances like this.  What in the world was going on?  So I called two friends who I trusted and who I knew understood me.  In all honesty, I was expecting them to tell me I was crazy and try to talk me out of even thinking of this person.  Well, they didn't.  They basically told me to wait and pray.
     The whole time I was having these thought processes, circumstances kept allowing that I would end up spending time with that person.  He offered to take me riding horses, and I of course accepted (I love horses - always have - everyone who knows me knows this is a passion of mine).  We had an amazing time - he did seem to enjoy it as much as I did.  I saw in this person such a sweet and respectful gentleman.  He was genuinely fun to be with, and he just had so many qualities that made him such a good person.  Most importantly, he was such a strong Catholic with a true love of his Faith.  I could see him wearing his scapular, and I even saw him guard his eyes around an immodestly dressed girl.  Wow! Yes, it impressed me to no end.  At one point I mentioned that I was planning to leave to go home, he seemed truly disappointed.  Then he blew my mind by promising to take me riding again if I would stay. Now, how in the world could I resist that?  So, after one final trip to the adoration chapel, we had the most amazing evening ride.
     Honestly, things couldn't have been more perfect. We were riding in the evening, and the lightning bugs came out.  We had amazing conversation and the time seemed to just fly by.  He was enjoying it just as much - he kept thinking up new places for us to ride to when it seemed like our ride was coming to an end.  When we finally did head back to the house it was because he was supposed to go to a friend's party.  He offered to bring me along, but I declined.  I knew how that might look to his friends, and since I had no idea what he was thinking about everything I did not want to put him in that situation.  Also, I didn't want to put myself in that situation and assume that he was having thoughts or feeling that he wasn't actually having.  Again, I was still very confused.  On the one hand I had just spent the most amazing evening with the most amazing person, but on the other hand I didn't know how he felt and didn't want to read into something that wasn't there.  Was he just being sweet because I was an old family friend?  It didn't seem that way, but I knew that when it comes to your feelings sometimes reality can be skewed.  Again, I didn't want to get hurt by letting myself go down that road with my thoughts, and I really didn't want to ruin the potential for a great friendship by jumping to conclusions.
     The next day I went home.  The whole drive home I was so confused - just going over things in my mind.  What in the world was God doing?  Where was He leading me?  What was going on?  By the time I got home, I resolved just to not do anything at all - I sure as heck wasn't going to make any moves.  If there were going to be moves made, he was going to have to be the one to make it.
     The next day, his sister called me and told me that after I had left he had told her that he now knew the type of person he wanted to marry - someone like me!  What?!  Okay - well, now I knew he was at least feeling the same attraction that I was feeling and recognizing those similarities between us.  But someone like me, or me?  Is there anyone else like me?
     I spent the rest of that summer in prayer.  I went to daily Mass and prayed and prayed.  Over and over again, God would let me know that I was being called to let go and trust Him.  There were lots of things in my life at that point that were confusing (not just my thoughts about that visit).  That was the summer that God forced me to trust Him.  And I did.  I didn't make any moves or do anything drastic.  I just waited and lived my life.  And I prayed.
     Towards the end of that summer, my mom called me with a bombshell.  They were going to have a family friend come live with them because he was wanting to get down to our area and find a job.  Guess who that person was?  Yup - you guessed it!  Here he was, back in my life again.  We had kept in touch just a little bit over the summer, but not much.  Now he was going to be living with my parents!
     After that we were able to spend more time together.  Every visit was so nice and just solidified what I knew from before.  We were so much alike and had so much fun together!  Little things would happen that would let me know that he was thinking about me to.  One time he even slipped and blew my mind with what he said.  We had pulled up to a stoplight next to a car that was making a terrible sound (we were in his truck).  I commented that I was glad it wasn't my car that was making that sound.  Although I wasn't referring to his truck when I said that (I was thinking about my car that was parked in my parent's driveway) he thought that I was.  He teasingly told me, "Hey - it's not your truck yet!"  Yet?  Now what in the world did he mean by that?!
     Another time we had all gone to Mass with my parents.  As I was kneeling down praying, I prayed that God would show me clarity and give me a sign as to what was going on with this person.  (I prayed those words - please give me a sign).  In the middle of my prayer, my mother came and interrupted that prayer (and she never does that) to tell me that someone had asked my sister if that person was her brother-in-law.  Then she said, "Do you think it's a sign?"  Yes, she said those words exactly, just moments after I had asked God in my prayer for a sign.  God was smiling at that point, I just know it.
     Still, though, I did not make any moves.  Although he did give me little bits of insight into his thoughts, he did not make any major moves either.  He did find a job and moved out.  After that he would call me on a regular basis.  Usually those calls came from him (I remember feeling quite shy about sending a text) because I was determined not to make any types of moves.  Not only was I old fashioned like that, I also figured if God was going to lead He would lead him - not me.  Our conversations became longer and longer, and once we even had a 6 hour conversation!  After talking so much, it couldn't help but become more and more personal.  He was so sweet and supportive.  Once when I was facing a particularly difficult situation, he sent me a text telling me that he had sent his Guardian Angel to be with me to give my Guardian Angel back-up until that situation was over!  I was blown away by such sweetness, protection, and Faith!  This was truly one of the best men I had ever met!
     In the midst of our conversations, it came up that he wanted me to come for a visit.  There was a sweet little motel for me to stay in the town where he was living, and he wanted to go for another horse ride.  Of course I wanted to go, but I didn't push it.  I remember one time he kind of mentioned in passing that I was welcome to go at any point.  I did not go up there with that.  I definitely needed more than that - there was no way I was going to go running up to visit a man (even if he was such a good man) with such an ambiguous invitation.  What did he mean by that?  Again, was he just being sweet?  There was no way I was going to throw myself at him!
     After that our conversations became more frequent.  It was getting to be time for Christmas, and it was time to start the St. Andrew novena.  I definitely knew what one of my prayer intentions was going to be.  We traded intentions (so that we could pray for each other) and he finished his list with a "special intention."  I did the same thing.  (Yes, he has since told me that special intention was me.)  After that he would be a little more open with his feelings when we talked, and I was pretty sure I knew how he was feeling.  Then he invited me to come for a visit again, but this time he said that if I would come he would pay for my motel room so I would have somewhere to stay.  Now that was the invitation that I was hoping for!
     No other moves were made before my visit.  By that point I knew him well enough to know that he would probably wait to make any moves until we were in person.  We set my visit after the Christmas holidays.  During the holidays he was driving to visit his parents, and he got into a major wreck and totaled his truck.  Thank goodness he was okay, but even that was an opportunity to see his feelings.  The first phone call he made was to his parents.  The next phone call was to me.  At that point I know for sure his sister was suspecting something was between the two of us.
     After the holidays, I did go on that visit.  By the end of that first night, he had indeed made his move and told me his feelings.  After a phone call to my father, requesting permission to court me, we were officially a couple.  The rest is history!  :-)  We were engaged about 8 months after that (another blog post may need the story of how we were engaged - it was pretty great) and married 9 months after we were engaged.
     Our story may not be just like the movies, but it was definitely wonderful.  Through it all, God was teaching me to trust Him.  I sure am glad that I did!