Big Changes pt. IV

In Big Changes pt. 1 I mentioned that right away after James and I started getting to know each other I realized that we would end up getting married. Thankfully James came to the came realization quickly after I did. In mid July while James and I were talking on the phone, as we do for anywhere between 3 to 4 hours a day, and we decided that October 30, 2010 would be the date for us to get married. YAY!!!!

Ever since that conversation I've been planning our wedding and preparing to move. My goal was to plan as much of the wedding as possible before I moved. THANKFULLY I have been unemployed and have been able to spend multiple hours a day focused on wedding details. I have to admit that I am somewhat impressed because in 6 weeks I was able to plan a wedding that won't take place for another 67 days.

Big Changes pt. III

Obviously, I have no idea what soon means. Sorry about the delay.

Here are some of the "little" details that God orchestrated in order to bring James and me together:

James put his condo on the market the same month I put my house on the market. My house sold within a few months while his didn't until AFTER I had moved away and come back. If his condo would have sold right away and he would have returned to Phoenix right away we wouldn't have met.

Although we first started talking at his good-bye party, James still wasn't planing to move for two weeks after the party. So we had a little bit of time to get to know each other face-to-face before James moved.

God timed things so that James and I would both be unemployed for his last two weeks living in Iowa. If either one of us would have been employed we wouldn't have been able to spend hours getting to know each other every day.

The weekend before James left, my immediate family was all in town for a niece's birthday party, my mom's birthday party, and Father's Day. Because of that, James was able to meet my family and it gave my family an opportunity to get to know James a bit.

My high school cheerleading coach moved to Phoenix about 14 years ago. Before they moved I was able to get to know her mom, who also moved to Phoenix. After James moved I knew that I needed to follow as soon as I could. My former coach's mom was told that I needed a place to live and offered to open her home to me. Her home is only 10 miles from James' apartment.

After finding a place to live, I needed a way to get to Phoenix. Obviously, I would need to drive. BUT I needed to get someone to make the 23 hour (actual drive time) trip with me. God timed it so that some of my friends from a former church would be moving to AZ only two months after James left IA and I will be caravanning with them.

BEFORE James and I met and after I move back to DSM from CR I had the gut feeling that I would move from DSM again but this time with only what I could fit in my car. Because of that I decided to start selling my bigger household items.

There are a LOT more details, but I'm not going to share them right now. Hopefully this post will point to God as being the one who pulled James and me together.

BIG Changes Pt. II

James and I had two amazing weeks of face-to-face time. Moving day came and he decided to postpone leaving so we could spend another day together. The next day came and he decided to postpone leaving so we could spend ANOTHER day together. Thankfully he had rented a trailer for a week so we were able to have more time without his needing to pay extra.

Since his move to Phoenix we have been able to spend a few hours talking to each other on the phone each day. I’m so thankful for the technology God has given us. I couldn’t imagine carrying on a long distance relationship back in the days of the Pony Express or carrier pigeons – the poor animals would die of exhaustion if they had to carry letters back and forth containing our conversations.

James and I have been praying about our relationship and where God wants us to head as individuals and as a couple. For now James is in Phoenix and I am in Des Moines but on August 29 I will be loading my car and moving to Phoenix. From there we will continue to wait on God’s timing and leading for the future.

God is in the details of our story. I’ve left a TON of information out so far in order to give you a quick overview of what he is doing in our lives. Details will come soon…

BIG Changes Pt. 1

So many wonderful changes have taken place in my life within this last month. My last post was a bit of a teaser. At the time I didn’t want to say too much, but now I can start to tell you what the verses have meant to me these last few weeks.

The first few days of June I was really beginning to struggle again with not knowing what direction God wanted me to head in life. I had been weighing the pros and cons of starting graduate school or of just finding a job and hoping that I wouldn’t hate it too much. But I have to admit that what I wanted most was to finally meet the “right” man. So I basically started to beg God to show me what he desired for my life. I also started to pray more boldly about my desires to marry.

A few days later: enter James.

On Sunday, June 6 I attended a church good-bye party for a man named James who was moving to Phoenix to be closer to his some of his family. I should probably admit that I had noticed James when I was visiting Grace Church before I moved back to Des Moines. (No, he wasn’t the reason why I decided to attend Grace after moving back - but it didn’t hurt.) James and I didn’t really talk much during his last weeks at Grace and my first weeks there. We didn’t even carry on much of a conversation at his good-bye party but after the party we ended up standing in our friend’s driveway chatting for about five hours.

After that night James had two weeks before he was planning to move. During those two weeks we ended up talking, hanging out, and/or Facebooking every day. During those weeks our thoughts went from “I could marry someone like him/her.” to “I’m going to marry him/her.” Wow.

For now I’ll leave the story hanging here. I’ll share more later.