This is a repost of a blog from February 27, 2008. Considering that today is four year anniversary of the talk that started my dating of Jaime my wife...I though it'd be a great to recount the story that led to the talk...after all it is an another amazing God story. So here goes...

I've been meaning to actually update my blog now for a good month, but have just been busy a lot lately. So much has happened since my last post right before Christmas.

Literally at the end of the month of December, I think it was the 30th to be exact, I moved out of the parent's house and into that of a friend of mine's house. Ross had been asking for a year, but circumstances up till that point had prevented it. I felt that the time was right to make the move. As I told my mom on the drive over to show her where I was going to live, "I can't explain it, I just have the feeling that God wants me to do this, that it's the next step in his plan." Funny how quickly I'd see that plan start to progress and subsequent stages come into fruition.

On the way home from work on the 4th of January, I got a flat tire. So nice. My first. So I pulled aside into the gas station and changed it. I was planning on going home to my parents the next day to get some more stuff to move into the new place. Yeah that never happened. Ended up hanging around the area and getting the tired fixed. It just so happened that we got a bonus around that same time that covered the cost of the tires and some moving in costs. Since I couldn't get a bead on prices for tires from my brother-in-law (who works at a tire company) I decided to get it fixed at Sears and hang out with Ross and Dawn. Ended up going for lunch at a Chinese place. So we're making small talk, and Ross works into the conversation, that we were doing some work in the Engagement Room. The room is named thus because everyone who moves into that room ends up engaged within 6 months. I was moving in intended to break up that curse. Well Dawn opens up with, that's right, any prospects, and then proceeds to list every single woman at the Bridge.

Finally the fortune cookies come out. Ross opens his and its something lame. So I open mine and it says – "It's up to you to make the next move." Wow interesting fortune, well Ross goes – "Well now you can ask Jaime out!" That's been his statement for the past year, but I'd been kinda not been paying any mind to it at all. Dawn hears that and starts the whole discussion about Jaime. Asking if I liked her, if I'd prayed about her etc…I kept answering No, she's my friend. One of my closest friends, and I'd never given much thought to actually dating her. Besides, from knowing her, I had the impression she wasn't interested in dating. Finally I agree to pray about it, and Dawn says she'll check in on me in a few weeks. Then Dawn opens her cookie – "It's up to you to clarify."

Well I'm at the church the next morning for SYU and one of the youth kids Brandon goes to me – you and Jaime are the only single youth leaders left, you two should date. I'll get you the hookup. After the lesson he walks over to her and say something about her being single and needing to start dating, then his brother Puffy walks by and he goes, not him and walks away. Then comes the Bridge that evening. Of course I end up sitting with Dawn. Funny cause Dawn and I only had passing knowledge of each other and were merely acquaintances. So I give the whole not filling in the blanks prayer request about what Dawn and I had talked about the previous evening. Fast forward to worship – I'm sitting there and I get the audible voice – "I'll give you an answer but you'll have to do it." Then nothing else. So I start my week initially praying for a no. Wasn't getting anywhere, but it was starting to trend more toward the yes. So Tuesday at lunch I start fasting…

Thursday at noon. God starts talking again. First thing is "man should not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." From there I start hearing stuff like "just keep going. It will be worth it. Trust me. You're focusing too much on the end not the reason." Also got a bunch of stuff on beating back the flesh stuff from. Romans 7:14-25. 1 Cor 9:26-27. Romans 12:1-3 and Psalm 37:4,7. At that point the hunger I had just completely subsided.

Friday on the way to work. I'm listening to a sermon. I finish one sermon and pop the disc into for the other, and it was as if God was riding shotgun. The conversation was just that real. We sat there for what was left of my 40 min ride into work that morning, and he just convinced me that Jaime was it, that I should date her etc. He went through everything that constituted that short list of what I wanted in a wife, and just pointed out how she met that requirement. It wasn't a long list, it contained stuff about having a servants heart etc, having an amazing walk with God, etc…

Then as if that wasn't clear enough I go to work. 1 out of every 3 calls that day was from someone named Jaime. So I just kinda sit on this for about a week. Figuring I'll wait till after the youth retreat to bring it up. What was funny is I'd later find out, that the day before I got that flat tire, Dawn and Jaime had talked about it, and Dawn had actually prayed that if it was God's will, then he'd open a door for her to talk to me about it. And he did. After I got my answer, I went home and made myself a nice dinner. God had given me the answer, now I just needed to carry it out.

Spent a lot of time with her at the retreat. Probably more than I should have, but we'll leave that for another time. So I decide to finally have the talk with her on Wed Jan 23rd. About 5 weeks ago today. Of course I'm nervous and wondering how to go about doing so. The door gets opened earlier in the day by a random comment and a series of text messages where I found she knew to a point what was going on. However as she prayed (from what she would later tell me) she'd get pretty much – "be still and know I'm God." As if God was telling to her to relax, he was taking care of it.

It was funny because I actually opened her Bible 4 different distinct times during the weekend of the retreat – each time no matter if I was opening to the Old Testament or New Testament. I kept opening up to 1 Cor chapter 7. The chapter where Paul is discussing marriage etc. As if God didn't need to confirm it any more, he did just incase I missed everything else.

The discussion was almost too easy. It had to be all God. We ended up sitting there talking about stuff for hours watching GSN the whole time. So I ended up seeing the prayers of Pastor Travis answered. He had been praying for a good Godly woman for me. And lo and behold, God took his time and went and got me an amazing one.