Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the first/most common "getting to know you" question asked of any couple is "How did you two meet?" This week on MHR Fridays - we answer that question. :)
Austin and I met at Freshman Orientation night for the
Emmaus Bible College Freshman class in September 2004.
The fact that two people who eventually got married met at Bible college is not unusual. What is extraordinary is that neither of us had planned on attending until less than a month before the school year started.
Austin had not been planning to go to college immediately after high school, but events in his life at the time made him desire to change his plans. He had been homeschooled for most of his school years, but had decided to go to public school for his senior year. Due to some credit transferring problems, he did not have the credits needed to graduate from the public school, and because he had decided to switch for his senior year, did not have the credits to graduate from the homeschool program either. Therefore, his last-minute decision to enroll in college presented a slight dillema. However, my disgustingly intelligent husband marched into the GED office on the last day that they were administering the tests. Took ALL of the tests in a mere five hours and walked out with the HIGHEST score that anyone who took the tests there had achieved!!! Yep, he was the valedictorian of his GED class!!! (He's pretty amazing!) GED in hand he was able to apply and get accepted in the nick of time at Emmaus.
My story was similar. I had planned on attending performing arts school in California with my best friend Stephani. We had it all set up, my parents had paid my deposit, we had found an apartment to rent together, and I had completed the entire application/audition process months in advance. God had other plans; however, because at Labor Day family camp, I received an offer to have my school paid for if I attended Emmaus. That is not an offer that can be easily ignored. I discussed it with my parents who called the performing arts school to see if they could get a refund on the deposit, and when they could we began the application process for Emmaus. Three short weeks later, I was moving into the dorm room that would be my home for the next year.
So, two kids from different states decided to attend the same Bible college at the last possible minute.
Honestly, I was not initially attracted to Austin when we first met that night at orientation. He was friends with one of the girls on my floor who grew up in the same town as he did, so when we were all deciding what to do for the rest of the evening, he and his buddies were included in the plans. He was also one of the only ones of us who had a vehicle, so I ended up riding with him that night on the way to the movies. He was a crazy driver at that point in his life, and he scared me to death. So much so that I switched places with someone so I did not have to ride in his car on the way back.
Emmaus is a small school, and we ended up having several classes together, and I noticed that he was very funny, and seemed to get along with everybody, but I did not really get to know him until just before Christmas banquet that year (which was in the very first week of December). I had gotten a job as the school receptionist in some evenings and alternating weekends, and the weekend of Christmas banquet I was working the front desk on Saturday night and Sunday morning (the banquet was held on Sunday night). I was also on the banquet planning/set up committee. That Saturday night I was sitting in the little office that served as the reception area reading a book. Austin whizzed by on a tiny little razor scooter, and I stuck my head out of the half door between the office and the hallway. When he had made it to the end of the hall he turned around, whizzed back down the hall and stopped at the door.
Austin has a gift (sometimes he says it is a curse) where he can read people, usually 100% correctly, just by looking at them and watching the way they interact with people. Somehow this came up in our conversation, so I asked him to prove it by telling me all about myself. When he was able to describe me and identify the things in life that hurt me and defined me, I was shocked, and because he had noticed things that I had trouble admitting even to myself, I started to cry. I don't think he had expected that reaction, and he felt bad about making me cry, but we ended up talking until the end of my shift (midnight!), which was also curfew, and he walked me back to my dorm, continuing our conversation all the way. When he got back to his dorm room we picked up the conversation where we had left off via telephone, and ended up talking until I had to be back at the front desk (8:00 the next morning)!
I knew that there was something different about him that night, something that affected me differently than anyone else with whom I had ever come into contact. Although had you asked me to name it I would have been at a loss. And when he visited my home that Christmas break between Christmas and New Year's my family could tell that he was special. In fact, after meeting him, my dad said to me, "I don't think you will be dating anyone else."
Looking back I can tell you exactly what attracted me to Austin. Everything about him is exciting. He is a very passionate person, who knows exactly what it means to live life to the fullest. He does not do anything half-way, and expects nothing less than the very best from himself. He cares about people very deeply, and invests a lot of himself into those he is close to.
These are still character traits that I am attracted to. As with everything, there are two sides to every coin. His passionate, expectant personality is sometimes exhausting, even to him, and he has been hurt very deeply by some of the people for whom he cares so much - which is very hard for me, too. But I still love those things about him, and I would not have it any other way! My husband rocks!
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Be sure to check in with the other ladies who are bragging on their rocking hubbies today by clicking on the "My Husband Rocks Participants" button in the left sidebar.
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(or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!
As always, on Fridays
From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too!
Thank you From*me Tees!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before I let you go, lol, I have a few questions. If you have time to answer them in the comments or shoot me an e-mail at katylinvw(at)yahoo(dot)com, I would greatly appreciate it!
1) What do we think of the prompt/inspiration posts?
2) Any great prompt ideas?
3) MHR Retreat:
a) Speaker suggestions?b) Activity suggestions?c) Time of year/date suggestions?d) Is there enough interest in this to continue pursuing/planning?Thanks for reading everybody! Have a fantastic weekend!
