6 years ago today I received an email from Josh's mother in response to a short email I sent her to say hi and check in on how she was doing. In the email she commented on the fall festival held in my hometown, the weather, and included a paragraph on her son. That paragraph opened with "I have been hinting to our Joshua to e-mail you at Geneva, just to acquaint himself with you, but he said if YOU would write and introduce yourself to him, he'd gladly write back." My inclination was that I was NOT going to email him. I didn't want him to think I was stalking him.
Roughly 30 hours later, I emailed him. :) It was a short paragraph saying hi, that I knew his mom, and that I had better get back to writing a paper I was working on. 1 hour and 41 minutes after my introductory email, I received an email back from him, it was much longer than my email (he will always out write me, he's got a lot to say). And so the email correspondence began, followed by our first date on October 23. It was a very memorable night complete with going to the book store to look at baby name books so that we could find the perfect name for my 1992 Mercury Sable station wagon (we settled on Edna), Walmart, Target, and topped off with Sheetz. Maybe someday I'll write about our first impressions of each other and see if I can get Josh on here as a guest writer for his side of the story, I assure you his point of view was very different (ahem *inaccurate* ahem) from mine.
It didn't take me long to be head over heels for Josh, if you've met him you know why. We didn't have a fighting break-up kind of relationship. We just really liked each other, enjoyed each others company and fell in love quickly. In fall 2005, just a few days over a year after we started talking, I had just come back from a fall break trip with my college friends. Josh and I hadn't seen each other in over a week and we decided that for a little date we would carve pumpkins. Josh had never carved pumpkins before. We carved them in his parent's garage because it was cold and rainy outside. Then we took them up to the hill on his parents' land where we would always go to watch the sunset. Because it was raining he told me to stay in the truck till he lit the pumpkins and then I could come and take pictures of them (I documented everything with photos). After about 15-20 minutes of Josh messing with the pumpkins (I remember seeing him throwing his head back in frustration as the rain came down sideways and I sat comfortably in the warm truck) he had me walk over to the fire ring where they were so that I could hold the flashlight and he could light them. When we got over to the fire ring there were several other pumpkins there that we had not carved together. He turned them towards me and they read:
Yep, in that order. They were backwards. It was more of a statement than a question. I said, "Are you serious?" When I saw him down on one knee, I realized he was serious! I was totally blown away and I had no idea what to say, so I patted him on the head. After I asked him a few questions like, "Did you ask my parents?" and "How did you do this?" he said, "Are you going to say yes? I'm sitting here with my knee in the mud!" At that point I said, "Yes, yes, yes!"
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| October 21, 2005 |
We've had many adventures in our 6 years together. If you had told me 6 years ago that I would be married to and due to have our first child on the 6 year anniversary of my first correspondence with this smooth talking Grove City College student, I probably would've laughed.
Tonight, I called Josh when he was in the woods, he could tell I was having a hard time and offered to come home to spend time with me. When he got home, he joined me and laid on the floor of Grant's nursery beside me. He listened to me, offered his advice, and prayed with me. I am so thankful for the man he is, has become, and will be. I am so thankful that I get to walk beside him through life. We are not the same kids pictured above, we've matured, we've grown, we've been stretched, our faith has been strengthened, we've experienced God's grace, and this is only the beginning. To many more adventures and walking this road with my best friend.
