The Game Changer... 10 years later!

Ten years ago my life changed forever.  Besides living a life surrendered to Christ I would say that February 4th 2004 was the biggest game changer of my life... yes bigger than marriage and bigger than children!

*Lest you think I have the world's greatest memory, I wrote the play by play of the day in a journal 10 year ago so much of the information is from there.  I actually forgot several of the details.  It was so much fun to reread them.  Believe it or not, this is the condensed version.

Ten years ago a fresh faced 22 year old girl (me) got a phone call from from a young man named Brandon. He asked me to meet him at the local mall food court at 7:30 to define our relationship.  OK, I am not sure if the time was 7:30 but it was sometime that evening.  I said yes and hung up the phone.

The day was so long.  I had no idea what to expect from our meeting that night.  It sounded like he wanted to talk about the time we spend together.  This is the guy I had a crush on since April 2003.  Man did I like him.  Recently we had been talking more after church and he helped me with an issue I had with my car trunk.  Did I mention that I really liked him?  In the previous months in college group we were talking about relationships.  I knew how he felt about everything dealing with relationships... and guess what it was the same as me.  Guess what?  I REALLY liked him.  The thing is, I was younger than him and he had this great job (ministry) with Cru.  I was pretty sure he was on to me liking him and was going to meet me tonight to tell me to stop flirting... that I was distracting him from ministry.  Oh the knots that were in my stomach.

That day I was working out at the Sabin farm.  I remember what I was wearing... jean overalls and a lavender shirt... nice!  I was cleaning that day and just praying, praying, praying about the events of the night.  I was too nervous to eat.  I talked with the family about the meeting and we tried to figure out what was going to happen.  They of course knew how much I liked this guy!

Finally it was time to drive the boys to Awana and head to the mall.  Is it funny that my stomach gets a little jumpy right now as I type this thinking about the state of my stomach ten years ago?

I walked into the food court and spotted Brandon right away.  I should say that it was a very new and beautiful food court with a huge fireplace and very few people around, so a nice place to meet.  We sat down and had a few minutes of chatting about the boys I cared for and our days and then I said we should talk about the real reason we were there.  Brandon later told me that he wasn't ready for such an abrupt change in conversation, but I was sick all day and just wanted to know what he had to say.

I can't recall many times in my life when I really prayed without ceasing, but that day was one of them and that night I know that somehow I was listening to Brandon and communicating with God the whole time.

Brandon said he had a little story to tell me and then he backed up a year and told me about when he first met me up until then and how he continually liked me more and more until the point he was currently at where he "like likes" me.

AHHH!  I wonder what I looked like as he talked because inside of me was doing cartwheels and jumping up and down and well, almost peeing my pants.  Remember friends, I really liked this guy!!!

Then Brandon told me some things he appreciated about me and each was very well thought out.  Then he asked what I was thinking and I realized I had to speak.  According to my journal I am not sure exactly what I said, but Brandon seemed to like it.

Then Brandon went on to talk about the two options for moving forward.  He said we could continue as friends but if that was the case we needed to quit spending so much time together.  Note: We were not going on dates or anything like that, but he did seem to always be the last one left helping clean up and chat after college lunches.  My heart was hurting as he was talking about option one.  I was so glad he moved on to option two.  He said (according to my journal quote) "The second path would be to pursue a relationship where we could get to know each other which could ultimately lead to marriage. Wow! I can't believe I just said that, but it didn't feel weird."

Again I wonder what I looked like as he talked.  Again it was time for me to speak.  According to my journal I actually remembered what I said here :) "Brandon, for quite some time I have been praying that the Lord would align our hearts so what ever feeling I have for you, you would have for me.  Well, my feelings for you kept getting stronger and I kept asking God to take them away if they were not from Him, but they just kept getting stronger and stronger. I really feel that God is in this and if we don't begin a relationship it would be against God's will."  Brandon just sat there and smiled and then told me that he has been praying something much like that for quite some time as well.

And then we heard angels singing... no just kidding... but it was one of those super awesome Holy Spirit times where we could see our years and years of prayers for the right person leading us to this point... Wow God!!

Actually, because we were in such points of leadership among college students, the first thing we did was make up boundary sheets to share with our accountability partners.  Not a typical thing to do, but we are not typical people.  We talked a long time... and then the food court was about to close... but we were not done talking.  We decided to go to the student union and talk more.  We drove across town in our own vehicles and talked until the student union was about to close.

What a glorious night!!  After graduating from college without a ring or a boyfriend, after people telling me my standards were too high and I would never marry, after thinking Brandon wanted to meet to let me down... God did something incredible.  I was so in awe of Him that night and as I reflect on this I am still in awe of Him for His work in our relationship then and now!

As it turns out the night was young for me, because this was in the era of time before Facebook.  In fact I didn't even have internet in my apartment.  I got home and started calling friends and telling this this incredible news.  They had all been praying for Brandon and I and were so excited to share in my joy!

In the days to come we learned that we had actually begun praying for each other in our prayer journals on the very same day the year before... April 27th.  Only God!  Wow!  Yes, it is a LOOOONG time between April 27th and February 4th, but God's timing was perfect. 

Maybe if time allows I will continue the love story posts with another in August marking 10 years since the proposal (a great story) and in December as we celebrate 10 years of marriage.  Yes folks, we were great friends and once the courtship began things sped quickly to marriage.

Our lives may be VERY different than they were 10 years ago.  Our lives may be VERY different than all we could have imagined 10 years ago.  One thing is for sure, I had no idea how deeply I would love and depend on Brandon 10 years later.  Brandon, thank you so much for calling me 10 years ago!  I love you!!!