The Story of Us

Inspired by many of your sweet stories, I really wanted to write our love story, but to me it feels weird to be writing a love story. I have a difficult time thinking that it’s exciting enough that people would actually read it. And what is a love story anyways? It’s not like the movies, but it’s the story of us, how we came to be a family. I just need to remember that this love story is for us, to preserve our memories and share our story with the future generations of our family. I really wanted to do this for our 5th anniversary on July 19th, but I didn’t get to it until now.

The Preface

I wasn’t a dater. I had several friends in high school, but no boyfriends. I was just never the flirty type. I did, however have an obsession/ friendship with Detour Man. Our relationship was one of convenience; basically, convenience for him. I helped him with his papers. Then we became friends and I think we both liked each other, but it was more like a 6th grade thing. He would drive by my house at night in his dad’s low rider and honk. And of course, my friends and I would drive by his house and reciprocate the gesture. We had several classes together also where he would relentlessly tease me. I went to formal with Detour Man my senior year and it went downhill from there. I think that was a little too serious for him, so instead of flirty gestures like honking, he started doing mean pranks. One time he egged my windshield (and a couple others friends) and put dog poop in my door handles. To say the least, slowly my obsession was ending.

*I only mention this so you know how naive I was, and because Detour Man is in the first part of our story.

The Beginning

It all started one evening in the fall. Our church was having a debt-free picnic to celebrate paying off the building. At this point, I was pretty involved in the college ministry and had just begun serving the junior highers. Although I had been attending this church periodically since my early high school years, I still considered myself a baby Christian. My understanding of the Gospel and my testimony were weak, but my faith was strong. I was excited about my new found freedom in God and apparently the leaders of our church saw that, so they put me into leadership. (Looking back, I realize I should have been absorbing knowledge about God, not teaching it.)

I got my plate of food and went to sit near Megan. I don’t really remember how it all happened, but along came Justin, who used to be Megan’s small group leader (this is VERY difficult for me to imagine because Justin is not big on the social aspects of church ;) ). Anyways, at this point, Megan is working at the church and Justin is busy with work and school and really isn’t involved in the different ministries. Megan, being the amazing outreacher she is, invited Justin to come and sit near us. And he did. He sat right next to her, which wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Megan was dating *mistake man* and that was where he was supposed to sit. It was kind of funny/awkward, but it ended up working out just fine. Mistake man sat somewhere nearby and we all chatted away the evening.

This is where the story of us begins. In our conversation, Justin mentioned that we were in the same history class at Cal State, surprised by this knowledge I said that he should come over and sit with us sometime. The next week he did. It was actually an interesting arrangement that Justin and I joke about often. *Detour Man*, my high school obsession, was also in that class. Before Justin came to sit with us, it usually was my friend Brooke, me and Detour Man. When Justin joined the group it became Brooke, me, Justin, Detour Man. I didn’t mind Justin sitting there because I was pretty much over Detour Man, but Justin also knew Brooke… Now that I KNOW Justin, I realize that he socializes by teasing, but at the time I used to think this was flirting. Every day in class, Justin would reach over me and poke Brooke or write on her paper. Annoyed by the flirting that I was obviously in the middle of, I told Justin to switch seats with me. Justin remembers this class differently. He only remembers the time that I asked to borrow a pen during class. Justin is obsessive about his writing utensils, but he graciously loaned me one, not realizing I was actually borrowing it for Detour Man. He still complains about his “lost” pen that I gave to Detour Man.

As I got to know Justin in that class, I can remember looking at him and thinking about whether or not he was husband material. (In the meantime, he was still poking Brooke, so I don’t know where my mind was ;) I was in no hurry to get married, but I just figured I would probably meet my future husband in college, so I better check out all the details ;) In my naïve young mind, Justin’s husband status came down to his shoes and fingernails..LOL. I remember that I really liked his shoes (brown Docs), but thought his fingernails were too dirty (he had a ’58 truck he worked on a lot). Funny that I was measuring husband status on shoe style and fingernails. Besides his shoes and nails, Justin would meet up with this other girl after class to walk to another class. I figured he was taken, and if he wasn’t, he was way too flirty for me.

Justin ( a couple of years before we met) in the truck that gave him dirty fingernails ;)

God had a plan beyond nails and girls. Soon he would move the process along with some help form Justin’s little brother Kurt.