our love story (part 1)

When I remember meeting Matt, I remember I saw something in his eyes that seemed familiar to me. I really wanted to have a conversation with him...but that was harder to do than I anticipated. We were on the same Mission Leadership team through our church, and still it was hard to talk to him as he seemed to quickly excuse himself from any attempt I made.

So I mentioned to one of my friends, who happen to be married to one of Matt's best friends, that I was interested in getting to know Matt. She was ecstatic and from then on she and her husband were helping us behind the scenes, to have the opportunity to talk. After one of our Mission meetings, they worked it out that we would both ride with them to lunch. I remember talking to him about my major in college, which we seemed right away to have a little different opinion on; but I was not deterred from my quest and challenge to open this guy up. Or so I thought.

I started to pray that the Lord would have mercy on me and just give Matt a little nudge in my direction. Well that prayer lasted about eight months and still, nothing worthy of note happened. I talked to the same friend again after eight months of praying, and she encouraged me to simply change the way I was praying. She suggested that I pray he would have the courage to ask a girl out on a date, since he was really nervous to do so. So for three days, I remember praying that way, and I felt my heart shift from being me focused, to being him focused.

Sunday, March 9, 2003 was an amazing day. I arrived at church, and a little 3 year old boy, with whom I hadn't really had interaction, ran up to me and grabbed a hold of my legs and wouldn't let go. I looked at his mom, and said, "Does he know who I am?" She said he did, and that maybe it was the Lord's way of telling me that He really loves me. Sweet! The service, I remember, was really powerful for me, and again, the Lord was simply reaffirming how much He loved me. A girl came up to me and said she felt like the Lord wanted me to know that God couldn't keep his eyes off of me. This really hit me deep in my soul, just like rivers of living water refreshing me. I went to a bridal shower that day after church, and when I was leaving with one of my friends, I saw I had a voice message. I couldn't stop my excitement when I heard Matt's voice asking if I wanted to go get some coffee sometime. Me? Matt? What??? Again, the Lord was reaffirming how much he knew me and the desires of my heart.

Fast forward 11 months...I had recorded a song I had written for Matt, and I was headed over to his apartment for a Valentine's Day picnic. When he opened the door, I could tell he was acting a little different. Before we left for Montana de Oro, I played him the song I had recorded. He loved it. We headed out to Los Osos and had a wonderful picnic on the cliffs on a perfect beautiful day! We headed back to his truck except when we got there, his truck was no where to be seen. Funny, he wasn't freaking out, but pointed to a familiar looking Suburban...(to be cont'd)