Finally I am back with 8

I was attending college and heading toward my radiology degree. I was making good grades and feeling so good about it all. Tina Got married and moved off and I was living a wonderful life with my new family. Wow, in a way I feel like I was adopted. They even called me by my first name maiden last name and their last name (joking around of course). Now they call me by my first, maiden last, married last and their last. hahaha I feel so loved.

about a year later I met this guy (A) in one of my classes and we started hanging out every once in a while. It turned into a lot more and finally we were moving toward something more serious than need be. I was saved, he was not. My now friends kept telling me, "you can't missionary date"... meaning that you can't lead a guy to salvation through dating him... hahahaha and believe me you CAN'T. He meant well enough but he was just so full of the world (which is probably why I was so stinkin' attracted to him. That and he drove a yellow jeep wrangler... my dream!). I prayed about it a lot and every time I felt like the Lord said to "let it go" (I was always given the same vision of the cheap dollar store pearl necklace the little girl doesn't want to give to her daddy when asked because she adores them so much. But finally one day she tearfully lets go and he gives to her a real pearl necklace to replace and reward.) I let go of A also, tearfully!

My little "sister" Amy (the youngest sister in my new spiritual family) came to me one day and told me there was someone she wanted me to meet, her friend's brother. I just laughed it off and continued on about my day.

Amy had this friend, Angela, that she hung out with quite a bit. Amy and Angela were always between houses spending the night with one another on the weekends and I would drive them around from time to time to the random places they wanted to go. Sometimes we would just hang out together and be. I had taken Amy over to Ang's house one day for a pool party and such for the high school. I dropped her off and went back home. She called me about 3 hours later just to "see what I was doing". I was laughing at her...(she's a nut sometimes... If you could just hear her voice when she's up to something, you'd laugh too).

"Nothing Amy, Why?"

A: "Oooohhh, just wondering. Hang on!"

Me: "ooookaaay...."

(guy's voice) "Hello?"

Me: "Hello?....AMY!!!!!"

Guy: "she put me on the phone and told me to talk to you"

Me:"WHAT!... ooooh that girl!"

Yep she tricked me into talking to Angela's brother on the phone. Then she calls me later to come pick her up from Ang's house. I go to pick her and another girl up and we end up making a date to go to the movies in our jammies. Amy invites J (Angela's brother) to come along and we go to watch Finding Nemo together.

***Sorry I am all over the place right now as soon as I sat down to type this at 9:45 my phone has rung 3 times and two of those times I had to answer it. Then the cat needed in and to be fed as well as the dog. My day is not my own! Just bear with me and I will eventually get to the end of this story!***

He seemed nice, I thought he was just a dork because usually all men are when they are single (and still...hmmm how can we say this discreetly... PURE!...can I say that on public blog!) hahaha, so I overlooked that part (kinda). Oh and he was saved... ACTUALLY, his dad is a pastor. So anyway we leave the theater after the movie is over and go our separate ways. The next day Amy calls Angela to see what her brother thought... you know that whole high school thing..."what'd he think of so and so?" I was right there listening in on the conversation, haha. J was talking to Amy and said that he was kind of talking to another girl and wanted to make sure there was nothing there before moving into a different "relationship". "WHAT!!!" whatever, he's a dork anyway! I walk away, just like that.

Eventually we end up talking again and hanging out more and more. He would talk to Frank as my spiritual father to better know how to protect and guard my heart in our "friend relationship". I had never had guidelines to follow before and it was pretty stinkin' interesting to say the least! I never had a guy that cared enough to ask about them or obide by rules lain out by my "father". WOW! Jesus was dating me! He was captivating my heart and drawing me to this "pure love" in a way that only HE can. This is the love that my heart was seeking and could never find in all the WORLD. It was so strange but so very attractive, dorkiness and all.

Soon we moved into "courtship", yes you heard it right. And that is exactly what it was considered. Courting was just making sure that this is the one I would like to move on into a dating relationship with. We moved on into a dating relationship and were given "dating guidelines" to follow and obey by Frank. We did good, so to speak. (If you want a copy of these guidelines I still have them. I will send you a copy...we actually plan on going over them with our boys when they hit that age. And any girls we have - God willing.)

We then move into dating on into engagement. He proposed at the Dam where we live. It was kind of REALLY SIMPLE and nothing much to it. He didn't even get down on his knee... (he has yet to live that down!) He gave me my ring and it almost made me laugh out loud! Not that it was small, or puny or any of that. In fact it was the EXTREME opposite! It was so "loud" and honkin' loaded with diamonds I thought it was fake! I totally thought it was a CZ. hahaha. I did the infamous hug him and stare at my ring. It was really hard to tell so he thought I was being REALLY affectionate. haha.

Later we went back to his parent's house where Amy and Ang were and they drug me into the bathroom and were squealing with delight... you know young teenage girls. hahaha (gotta love'em). It was there that Amy told me it was a 2ct ring (with 19 diamonds)... "Holy Toledo Batman!" That's a lot of bling for one ring.

I was so torn in the engagement. He was nothing I was used to and it was pulling at me HARD. I wanted to run and to retreat from the whole ordeal. I prayed and felt like I was supposed to marry him but in my heart I wanted something different. I know that sounds terrible but it comes from having all those meaningless relationships beforehand that tainted me and my heart. I didn't want to be settled down to one person I guess. I still had "dreams" of others. I still longed for "my guy" that could play me a smile on an acoustic guitar and write a song for me that would melt my heart. He had come and gone (that guy) and now it was God's turn to write my love story. I had so many expectations of my "husband" that when J didn't meet half of them it broke my heart. I prayed about this too and still felt like God said "go forward, he will grow."

We finally got married after a 6 month engagement. My father walked me down the aisle using his cane (he recovered from the wreck but it messed his leg up real bad). It was interesting, getting married, I am so not a crowd's person (other than bar crowds... 'scuse me... former bar crowds haha). I wanted outdoors but we ended up getting married at his dad's church with his dad and my "spiritual dad" (Frank is an ordained minister) officiating. I was so blessed to have so many loved ones surrounding me in LOVE and SUPPORT!

Now on to the next stream of Rocky mountains and LOW VALLEYS!

(I will be back with pictures later. I have screaming children!!!)