Our Story - Part 1

Hello all! Since I still seem to be suffering from a little writer's block, I thought I would share the story of how Cline and I got together. I figure that a lot of you don't know the details, and the ones who do may have forgotten. Besides, I always enjoy reading these types of things on others' blogs. So, in honor of our 4th anniversary, I give you... Our Story.

Our story starts as I was graduating from college. My life's dream has always been to be a wife and a mom - preferably of the stay-at-home variety. I never enjoyed school and thought of college as a way to pass the time while I worked on my MRS. degree. My dating efforts in
college were hinedred a bit because I wasn't a clubber. I tried to be, but I was not a night-owl, a dancer, or a drinker, which pretty much made club-hopping a miserable experience on the few nights I tried it. Nonetheless, I found a few boyfriends during my college years, and kept my eyes set on the gorgeous diamond ring that I was sure to get by the time I graduated.

My senior year of college was the worst year of my life, so far. A variety of things seemed to be going wrong, but I really felt like I was going over the edge when graduation came and I was sans fiancee, sans boyfriend, and sans any young person of the opposite sex to have regular conversations with. As I transitioned into the "real world" completely scared and alone, I had a bit of a nervous breakdown. After a few months of misery, I picked myself up and decided that I was going to have to learn how to take care of myself for a while, and I might as well make the best of it.

I focused my energy on being the best pediatric nurse I could possibly be, since I had somehow managed to land my dream job at a children's hospital in Atlanta. That seemed to be one of the few things in my life going well at the time, so I took that as a cue from God that I needed to start there. I commuted from my college home for a while, then moved in with a friend's mom closer to my work. That was a really fun time in my life, and I had some great adventures. I was single, making a little money with few obligations, and traveling as I pleased. Better yet, I was learning how to do things like pay my own car insurance and manage all of my own finances, and I was gaining confidence by the day. I prayed diligently about my direction, and a funny thing happened. I started viewing my husbandless state as less of a huge problem and more of a treasured and temporary season in my life that I should cherish and enjoy. I eventually decided that I would "celebrate my singleness." I hung out with girlfriends and did whatever I wanted to with my free time - which I had a lot of, since my full-time job only required 3 days of work each week.

I pretty much hated the whole dating process after college. In high school and college, it's so easy to meet people in class or other activities, and there are many convenient times to casually make plans to spend time together. Not so after college - it's difficult to set up and coordinate schedules for one date, and then you have to have some sort of follow-up... which requires someone to pick up the phone and make a call, and the whole set-up is just awkward. But I did have fun flirting with the medical students at work, even though I was determined not to marry a doctor - those guys do not have family-friendly schedules! However, they were the only males with whom I interacted with regularly, and I managed to score a few successful dates. Nothing serious ever materialized, but each new guy seemed to be better suited for me than the last, and although I was truly enjoying my single freedom, I couldn't help but wonder if God really did have a terrific guy for me out there.

The following Spring, I made arrangements to move into a condo with a nice girl I'd met at work (Hi Megan!). She got to know some of our neighbors while I was preparing to move into her spare bedroom, and quickly informed me that we had two young, not-bad-looking medical student neighbors. That sounded fun! I was all set to move in, right after a 12-day babysitting job I'd agreed to do in a little piece of tropical heaven known as Hawaii.

To be continued...