Our Story: Part Two

If you missed part one you can read it here

When you’re in a third world country for a year you kind of just have to assume you’re going to continue to be single, and honestly, I was more than ok with that. In fact, I took advantage of it. I grew closer to God, I had crazy adventures, I struggled, I figured things out, I grew up, and it was all kinds of wonderful and hard. Taking that time to work on myself and figure out what I wanted made everything almost easier when it came to my future man candy. Which just happens to be the name of the word document that I created in Rwanda after listening to a podcast sermon on relationships. I sat down and wrote out a list of characteristics I wanted my future husband to have. While I knew what I wanted I kind of didn't believe he actually existed. I thought that I would have to settle and let somethings slide. I believed for a more than a split second and on several different occasions that my expectations were unrealistic. But then I started talking to Vince. 

As Vince and I continued talking over the course of several months I began to learn more about him, his personality, and his values. Guys, I wasn't hating it. In fact I was getting pretty excited. One specific night he messaged me and started talking about how his long term goal was to become a missions piliot. That was it. I messaged my mom, sister, and best friend and told them I had met my future husband. Kidding of course, but kind of not. This is also around the time that I started referring to Vince as my "fake boyfriend" to my Rwandan roommates. (Telling your mom, sister and best friend he's your future husband is ok, but telling your roommates you've only known for a few months he's your future husband is a little risky.) Little did I know Vince was busy calling my his "cyber girlfriend". Vince and I continued our Facebook romance up until July 1st 2013, and on July 5th we officially met in person at Stephanie and Moises’ rehearsal dinner.

Nervous was an understatement, because at this point, even though I technically hadn’t met him, I was full on crazy crushin'. The night before I dyed my hair in a panic, ended up borrowing a dress, and took a good two hours curling my hair and getting my pretty face on. First thing I did when I saw the man of my dreams? Shook his hand like we hadn't been talking for almost a year. I knew it was weird even as I was reaching my hand out, but I decided to go with it anyway, after all, I had shook everyone else's hand, and I didn't want it to be obvious I was playing favorites. 

Nothing significant happened during the actual rehearsal part of the evening but dinner proved to be a little more interesting. We did not sit next to each other or directly across, but we were near enough to carry on a conversation/listen in on conversations with other people. Well, around this time his friend Winter decided to be pretty bold and flat out ask me if I would ever marry someone in the military. Knowing that Vince was listening, and not being smooth at all, I tried to casually say I was open to it. 

As the evening was coming to a close Vince was trying to figure out how to get back to the hotel. I came alone so my car was wide open, but I wasn't actually staying at the hotel since I only lived 40 minutes away. But I decided to do the right thing and offer to drive him. As everyone was leaving it was pretty obvious he could have ridden with someone else, but I'm not one to complain so I kept my mouth shut. 

This is getting to be a pretty lengthy post so I'm going to call it quits for now. Until next time.

And just because this post needed a picture