A Little Background

So from my side of the picture, our story really begins about a year before I ever met Ben. And to catch you up to speed at that point let me give you some details prior to that:

1) My first, ever dating reltionship started just before my sophomore year of college. Though that relationship wasn't horrible, I knew within months we weren't supposed to be together. However, I was stupid and dragged it out because I thought maybe we could make it work (I was also listening to his pleas), so that when I finally cut it off, we'd been dating for 2 1/2 years. And the entire time we lived 500+ miles from each other. (We met at Keynote's, the music ministry of Campus Crusade Ministry, Summer Project.)

When I broke up with him just a month into my Senior year of college, I said I would never date long distance again and I would have to know my husband as just a friend for at least two years.

2) When I broke up with Guy #1 (yes, I'm leaving names out on purpose here), I hit the end of my anger rope, turned my back on God, and had an extremely unhealthy and by-God's-grace short relationship with my closest guy friend (Guy #2). He ended whatever it was we were, which I would guess was BF/GF though we never officially titled it, by the end of fall semester. (Funny how I used to define life by semesters. Can't do that anymore. :/)

I thought for sure I was going to die, that my heart would never fully recover from him leaving me. Keep in mind, at this point in my life, my relationship with Christ was meaningless to me and I could have cared less about what God thought of our relationship. I did not have the Rock to stand on, which I now seek to be my daily Anchor.

3) After I broke up with him, God slowly began to recapture my heart. In that time a few things happened:

   a) My friendship with another guy (Guy #3) in my circle of friends really began to take root. He honestly was the best of any of the guys I'd been around for me. Before the semester was over we had gone on a few dates.

   b) I was frantically searching for a job, hoping I could land something in Little Rock, AR, as I had called it home for 12 years. Plus, I love Arkansas, you guys! It's state motto accurately defines it as it is so full of natural beauty! I miss it and would love if Ben's job ever sent us back, especially if it sent us up to NWA where my sister and uncle's families are! Plus, I was curious to see where things were going to go with this Guy #3.

   c) My dad found out his job would be moving the family back to Baton Rouge. I, however, was adamant that I was not moving down there! I would find a job in Arkansas and I would not be moving down to Louisiana. (Hmmmm...maybe I can just start telling people I'm from Arkansas. I've not known how to answer that question because I was born in Baton Rouge, didn't move to AR until I was 10, but stayed there 12 years before going back to BR. Ooops! I'm getting ahead of myself.)

And that catches you up to speed. I'm not going to start the story in this post, you'll just have to come back for more later :) (Plus, I think it'd probably become a ridiculously long post, which I am not always a fan of.)