Divinely Guided - Part Three

Monday I woke up exhausted. I hadn't slept well. I wasn't in the mood to go to school. Or do anything, for that matter. But, I had to because Marc was still getting rides from me. So, I picked him up. I don't remember much about the first half of the day. But, I do remember that as we were walking back to my car after school that I didn't want to go home. I wanted to be with Marc. I was too shy to tell him that... so, I was super excited when he suggested we go to a park or something.

We drove up to Rock Canyon Park, just northeast of campus, where they have the big fish-bowl-like grassy area. We walked around the walkway until we found a nice little bench to sit on, underneath a tree. I pulled an apple out of my backpack, along with my trusty pocket knife. We shared the apple slices and talked about so many things. He opened up about his Dad's death, and I was so fascinated by stories of his Dad and the relationship that he shared with his Dad.

Marc also mentioned a Japanese film, Afterlife, which has a very intriguing plot line. You should check it out. The main thing I remember about that day was that we were able to have such a deep, intimate conversation with each other about sensitive feelings... and that it was so comfortable. It felt completely natural. We started seeing more of each other little by little. For our own reasons, though, we were careful to take things slow.

It was Thanksgiving that week. Our first official date was the day after Thanksgiving. Marc called me Thanksgiving night and asked if I wanted to go shopping with him the next morning. I was surprised that a guy would want to be out shopping on the most obnoxious shopping day of the year. I didn't want to go shopping, but I did want to be with Marc.

We went to a couple of random stores and then found a quaint little cafe, where we stopped to have breakfast. We were inseperable that whole weekend... and by Sunday I was starting to freak out. I was worried that things were moving too fast. So, we went on a walk Sunday night and I told him that we needed to just focus on being friends. I expected him to be annoyed and avoid me from then on. But he was totally fine with it. He kept calling and we kept hanging out. For some reason that made me like him even more... which made it hard to hold firm to my "just friends" policy. Ugh, I hate it when that happens. :)

So, you won't be surprised that the following Tuesday night - yes, two days after I told him I wasn't ready for a relationship - we found ourselves standing on my front porch having our last first kiss - with each other. Three weeks later, sitting on the stairs in my apartment, just before he left for Christmas break, Marc told me he wanted to marry me. The moment he said those works, I knew he would be my husband. But, it totally freaked me out.

That next semester we took a Marriage Prep class together... and, it was a good thing! We had a lot of good, healthy discussions that needed to happen before getting married. Plus, it was important to both of us that Marc had the time he needed to go through the grieving process of his Dad's death.

Which brings us back to how I got started telling this story. There were things that brought us together that I just can't accept as coincidence. I just feel bad that Marc had to suffer so much in the process. I'm happy to spend the rest of my life making up for it, though.

We got engaged at Cannon Beach (where Goonies was filmed) on July 12, 2002... and decided on an August wedding. August 23rd. The happiest day... or so we thought. I never would have imagined the happy days we share now. I'm so glad I found Marc... he's the best thing that ever happened to me!