The Best Story So Far: Part 2 (You're A Real Person)

If you haven't read part 1 of "The Best Story So Far"... You need to do that!

The Best Story So Far: Part 1 (The Meet & Greet)

Hopefully you're caught up on the events that unfolded last summer that took me from Single-and-ready-to-mingle into a quick bout of Mingling and right into Can-I-have-yo-number?

If my memory serves me correctly I left you by saying I sat on the phone

for 3 hours chatting up a random Californian guy who I'd met on handy-dandy Facebook two weeks prior to said phone call...

Yes... That's about right.

We talked about the most random of small-talk topics; from comedians we laughed at, to where we’ve lived, to the go to don't-know-what-to-say topic of ... the weather.

The incredible intentionality shown on his part at the end of the call was what really got me interested. Wrapping things up he said, "I'd really like to call you again. Is that ok?"

After an affirmative from me, he went as far as to tell me the day and time that he intended to call again. Umm? Talk about considerate, especially for a girl, who by nature asks a thousand questions a day about why, when, where, and how for just about anything.

Being Pursued.

Just like the first call, he again called when he said he would.

Maybe it seems really tiny, but this impressed me.

And he continued to impress me as I began to feel, dare I say, Pursued.

Had God heard me? Hadn't I prayed to be pursued? But as it happened, I couldn't help but try to suppress the excitement. I was still in constant prayer, "If this isn't for real, just cut it off now. I'm not messing around. I'm looking for a husband, Lord!" But at this point I was at least gaining a friend. I hadn't overly invested. And I was doing what any cautious-with-my-heart girl does: checking in every so often asking myself, "If I stopped talking to this guy today, would I be hurt?" I looked back in my prayer journal just now, and I literally wrote down a prayer, "Protect my fragile heart, Lord. I'm trying so hard to trust You."

I could read on and on in my prayer journal to remember every word that I prayed, but I don't have time to type them all out. But I will say this, God answers prayer so much!

As I prayed against fear of making myself known to someone new, the Lord opened the Word and showed me 2 Timothy 1:7 and I was reminded that fear is not from the God I serve, but from my enemy. So as this guy pursued me, I see now … so did God.

Real People.

After a few weeks of chatting online, phone calls and Skype calls, the conversation turned to the thought of an in-person, real-life meeting. There'd been jokes all along that this was some elaborate prank on our friends part and that the other person didn't actually exist. Although we laughed at the thought of a giant practical joke, the reality was that we hadn't actually met each other yet and knew that phone calls between two people are much different than in-person interactions or even group interactions ... so there were a lot of unknowns.

We'd both been straight forward that this friendship couldn't really move into being more until we'd met in person. And, just 2 months after my post on Singleness, a friend's-friend's guy friend  (yeah, I meant that) was flying up from California to meet me. Shock didn't set in until the morning he was going to arrive.

Were we insane?

No, we'd both been praying this whole time ... And as I'd been shown over and over, God answers. So on the way to the airport to pick up my new friend, I zipped by the house of the girlfriend who connected us for a quick, Get-It-Together-Naomi pep talk.

The evening was fun with the couple that is half to credit for introducing us, and was followed the next morning by a hike of a local waterfall... During which I realized I was a total lunatic for choosing to take him on a hike and become a sweaty-hot-mess for our first in person date we'd ever go on. But sweaty or not, it was nice to not be on the phone for these conversations. (Photo above)

The falls was followed by many conversations with much deeper getting-to-know-you than we'd been doing on the phone. The weekend was great. I had actually accepted that I'd started to like this guy, and by the time he flew home I was now in shock that we had officially assumed the title of "Dating" each other exclusively.

Yep, I said it! I had a boyfriend... In SHOCK?

I was!

Can't Stay Away.

Well, it wasn't even 2 days after he'd visited that he was booking his next trip. The shock continued. He already wanted to see me again? I was just adjusting to being pursued online, but this was a whole new level. Only a month after the first trip, I once again found myself at the airport picking up my ... boyfriend.

The weekend, again, was so fun. Long distance was tricky, and because the opportunity didn't show itself very often, he braved the adventure of meeting my parents. I was darn proud of him for doing this on his second trip. I'm not sure I'd have had the courage quite yet. The 3 days passed too quickly and I was saying goodbye already as I dropped him off for his flight.

Talking a bit more we decided that I needed to meet his family as well. We started planning for me to fly down. Both of us were disappointed that we were going to have a 2 month gap in seeing each other. But at least we could call every day, and Skype fairly often.

I'd been getting excited for a weekend with my mom about a month after his 2nd visit. It was my mom's idea, and I jumped at it! My mom and I are pretty close and we hadn't spent much time together lately so she told me to block out the entire weekend to go have fun together, but she kept the rest a secret.

I showed up at her house that Friday afternoon. I had no idea what she had planned, but I was ready for a yummy lunch out followed by some sort of girly adventure. Little did I know that my mom is very good at being sneaky. I walked into her dinning room only to jump back and hide around the corner out of shock. HE was sitting at the table. Just smiling. I turned to my mom... Just smiling.

"Surprise," They both said.

Have I mentioned, I love being surprised... He nailed it!

(He had even texted me that morning to say he was out of the office again like the day before, and wouldn't have service if I tried to reach him...What a sneak! It was because he was flying to see me.)

They all got a good laugh. He and my mom had been scheming since they met a month before this little surprise.

And so the third visit was again, more fun than the ones before.

The month after flew by and I climbed onto a flight to California, ready to meet the family. We'd now spent 3 weekends together, going on 4. My “liking him” had turned into more.

Where was this going? What had we started?

Like I said last time, I could say so much more. 

I could type every detail (but won't). Come back soon for the rest of the story. 

It really is the best I've ever had the honor of sharing and being a part of as well.

2Timothy 1:7
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.