MM & M: In the Words Of Michael Buble...

So...my bloggy friend Rachel at Musings of a Future Pastor's Wife has this neat little carnival she hosts every Monday. She {and anyone else who is interested} writes a post documenting her love story -- from first date to wedding and all the drama in between.

Last Monday she totally laid a guilt trip on me persuaded me to join in the fun :) If you have a chance, you should really stop by her blog and catch up on her love story {although I have to ask that you lower your expectations when you return here to read my story -- she's a published writer...I'm an amateur}

Anyway -- here goes.

I tried to think of the best place to start our story, and came to the conclusion that before I jumped headfirst into telling our love story, some background was needed. So come back...waaayyy back with me to my life B.D. (Before Dave)

I grew up the daughter of a Baptist preacher, and though I know preacher's kids often tend to have the worst reputations, I think I was more the exception to the rule. That's NOT to say I was perfect -- I wasn't. But I think if you asked the people I went to high school with, they'd probably best describe me as a goody two shoes. Betty Baptist. Whatever. However you want to put it, I was anything but a wild child.

From the time I was in 5th grade until I graduated high school I attended a small public school in a rural Kansas town (although we were just minutes from the suburbs of KCK -- and NOT a hick town, thankyouverymuch ;) Needless to say, the dating pool was a small one -- not a whole lot of fish in the tank if you will. The selection of godly Christian guys was slim to none -- and most of the ones who were there had already been snatched up.

I watched as many of my friends dated around, going from relationship to relationship. From head over heels to heartache over and over and over. In my heart, I knew that's not what I wanted. I knew I wanted more than just a temporary fling and I knew the odds of me finding my soulmate in highschool were very, very small {though it does and did happen for a couple of people I know!}

Even so, I couldn't help feeling a little sad each February when Valentine's day rolled around and I was one of only a handful of girls who didn't get flowers or candy, or have some {hormonal} high school boy making eyes at me during fifth period.

Don't get me wrong -- there were guys I was interested in -- but none of them returned the sentiment. And there were guys who were interested in me -- but never anyone I cared to have more than a friendship with.

Looking back, I can see the fingerprints of God all over this time period of my life. But when I was in the thick of it, I, like so many highschoolers had what I would call "tunnel vision". The idea that "this is all there is" and the inability to see beyond my present circumstances often discouraged me.

The summer of my sophomore year of high school my family spent a week at a cabin in Minnesota with my cousin April and her family. Every morning April and I would take the canoe out on the lake and spend some time reading our Bibles and praying. I remember one morning when the rain kept us from the canoe we sat on the front porch overlooking the lake and started talking. As it often did, our conversation wandered to our futures, more specifically our future mates and what qualities were important to us. We decided to make a list of things we thought were important.

I remember us giggling a lot, "Um, like, he totally has to be cute of course," and talking about a lot of superficial qualities that we knew didn't really matter. But deep down we both expressed the desire to have a relationship with a guy who was committed to God above everything else.

I stuck that list in my Bible and every once in awhile pulled it out to remind myself what I was looking for. Sometimes I wondered -- was I setting my standards too high? Did a guy with all of these qualities even exist? I wasn't sure...

Little did I know that thousands of miles away in upstate New York there lived a guy who fit every single qualification on my list -- even the superficial ones. I just hadn't met him yet...

*****

Tune in a week from today for the next installment in MM&M...I'm sure you'll be hanging on the edges of your seats till then ;)

And if you're a total sucker for a good love story, be sure to head over to Rachel's for more!