7 Years of Dating

February 4th was Del and I's "7 Year Dating Anniversary". Wow! 7 Years! 

This picture was taken after our 1st Date. Yep, a date to the Thrift Store! We each had $5 to spend on an outfit for the other person. Whatever we picked out, the other person had to wear it to the mall, where we had lunch!

(As you can see, the "Freshman Fifteen" was in full bloom in this picture! Maybe Del asked me to start dating him in hopes that one day I would grow to love the treadmill! Ha ha!)

Del and I's dating story "officially" began on February 4th, 2002....but in my heart I knew he was the man I was going to marry from our first meeting! 

We met at a leaders retreat before our Freshman Year of college at the UofA. We found out that we were both living in Pomphret (a.k.a. P-Town)...so we automatically had a connection! Little did we know that our paths had crossed many times before that without us even knowing. Little things like: Del's sister, Erin, and I lead Cell Group together for a few years--we both spoke at the same church events our Sr. Year in High School--we both spent an immense amount of time at Matt and Kerrie Archer's House in High School, yet we never met. I always say that the Lord knew that you would have never found me attractive if you saw the bangs I was sportin' in high school.

So, the beginning of our Freshman Year rolls around and our first Pi Phi Function is announced...Date Dash! This is where you have less than 24 hours to find a date. So, naturally who do I want to ask? Del of course!! He agreed to go...and the night could not have been more perfect. When I got back to the dorms I jotted everything down in my journal as fast as I could, so I wouldn't forget anything! At the end of the entry I wrote;

"Lord, I don't want to rush this if there is something there. But one thing I know for sure...is that I have made a lifelong friend tonight! Thank You!"

Spoken like a true Freshman that really wanted write;

"Lord, if he proposed to me tonight...I would say YES!"

We spent the first semester just getting to know each other and then on February 4th, Del called and said, "We need to talk." Yikes! I felt like I was going to throw up all day, I was so nervous. So, that night, he came up to my dorm room and said, "I just got done talking with YOUR PARENTS...and I got their permission to start dating you...and I was wondering if I could have yours?!" You see it had always been my dream (that I never spoke aloud to anyone!) that my man would go and talk to my parents first before we ever started dating. So, right off the bat, God answered that prayer by putting that desire in Del's heart without me ever saying a word about it! So, of course I said "YES", and then he shared this verse with me and said that his desire was for our relationship to be based around it.

1 Timothy 5:1-2

"Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, WITH ABSOLUTE PURITY."

And the rest is history! We spent all four years of college dating, were engaged for 9 months, and have been married for 3 1/2 years! And I can honestly say that Del and I are better buddies now, than we were "back then"!

Thank You Father for bringing this man into my life!!