Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Barb wants to know . . .


how you met your sweetheart? Katrina kind of covered this in a great post on friendship today. Go check out both of them if you get a chance, then share your own if you're willing. You can post a link at Barb's site.

Well, at thirty, I was pretty much convinced that singleness was my calling. My mom told me to pray for exactly what I wanted in a guy, and, coming off the heels of a bad relationship (hmm, the word heel seems to fit well there!), my top prayer request was to meet a guy from my own church. So there, God, I thought to myself. See what you can do with that one. Because at the time, I knew of not one single guy at my church.

I guess God either has a great sense of humor or can't resist a challenge! Within weeks, I'd joined some friends in a Bible study. That couple was very motivated to get some singles activities going and that summer was a buzz of volleyball games, par-3 golfing and lots of other activity. All of the sudden it seems guys were coming out of the woodwork! One guy in particular caught my interest but I was pretty convinced he was just Mr. Nice Guy to everyone. I mean, he only carried my golf bag around the course because he had such good manners. Nothing more, I was certain.

On Labor Day, he picked me up (cuz he was going the same way - Mr. Polite) and we rode with some friends to a local amusement park where we met a bunch of other friends. We walked into the park and I saw all these single girls in our group, and immediately moved away from Mike, knowing that he probably didn't intend to hang around me all day. He followed and I think I moved away again, until he finally asked, "you're riding with me, right?" I didn't know it beforehand but that was our first date. The man had a plan! We got engaged on Groundhog's Day (cuz he knows I LOVE Groundhog Day for some silly reason) and married in October.

Oh, the church thing? I almost had a problem with that. See, I'd never actually seen Mike at my church. Turns out he worked a lot of weekends. But he assured me he'd seen both me and my sister there and just assumed we were not interested in guys or something. I swear, I never saw him. But God knew all the time!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great story! God's plans are always better than our own.

someone else said...

Challenging God can have amazing results. What a lovely story.

Girl Raised in the South said...

What a cute story, and I ran to the church directory to check you both out. I love Groundhog Day too - no real good reason, but it just draws me for some reason. I keep telling my husband I so want to be there on February 2, to see him come out. Dicey roads make it a bit absurd but still every year I watch them drag him out with longing. Glad to know someone else is goofy that way. PS Had lunch with your mom today, sat there and realized "I wish Dianne was here too. I'd love to meet her." Your mom is coming over next Thursday for sewing day and we plan to have blogging lessons so she quits creating blogs and starts creating posts....My mom did the exact same thing when she got started. After I told your mom what I thought she was doing she went home and sent me an email telling me she now has FIVE blogs......She promised to quit hitting buttons til we get together.

Anonymous said...

That's a sweet story. :)

Anonymous said...

Fate always has a way of stepping in...Lovely story..Thanks for sharing

Pamela said...

God is good! What a wonderful "love story", and you thought you were meant to be single just cause you were 30, I think your story is so romantic and I am glad he is so good to you...ground hogs day! :)

Katrina @ Callapidder Days said...

Even though I've known this story for a little while, I would gladly hear it a hundred more times - I love this story! Chad, too, "surprised" me with our first date - I thought we were just hanging out at the same place, but in his eyes, it was a date! Hey, I wasn't going to complain. :) Mike's a great guy, and you two are a terrific couple. I'm so glad to call you my friends!

Susie said...

I love that God showed you an answer to a specific request like that. Sounds like a sweet man. Thanks for sharing.

Susanne said...

God knows what we're going to pray for before we even pray it! Your wonderful story just proves that! Lovely love story!

Barb said...

Well, Bev's comment cracks me up. Yeah. Our Mom kept making new blogs instead of posts, too. I have a feeling you and Bev and Katrina will all be getting together for lunch or something soon.

It's so cute that he proposed on Groundhog's Day. I really enjoyed this story and I'm glad it turned out that he WAS a guy from your church.

Anonymous said...

Do you remember saying "I want to marry someone just like Daddy"? Well, I believe you did..Mike is thoughtful, a behind the scenes person,takes good care of you, and reminds me so much of Daddy...could we possibly both be so blessed?

Anonymous said...

Great story, and I love your mom's comment, too. I may do this one, too.

Ms. Kathleen said...

Isn't it amazing what God will do to take the blinders off of our eyes! That is such a cute story!

Jeannine said...

Dianne,
That is really a great story!

Beck said...

That's so romantic! What a great story.

Overwhelmed! said...

Oh, this is such a neat story! Isn't it amazing that when we pray to God, sometimes he gives us EXACTLY what we're asking for. That happened with us in our first adoption journey!

Thanks for your comment on my How I met my honey post. I do appreciate you stopping by!

Shalee said...

Oh, you challenged God? That was a sure-fire way to wind up married! I love that you didn't get he was really interested in you. It makes me feel better that my story was the same in that regard...

Hey, we clueless girls have to stick together! (No insult intended...)

Unknown said...

Very cute story. Thanks for sharing!