God has a plan. And a sense of humor.


With a spin class room.  Yup, that's right.  I am unsure how to tell this story in a short enough way so that you will all keep reading, but it's a special story.  A story of God and how He keeps His promises.  And reads boys' emails.  And has a sense of humor.  

On May 28th 2010 I was working out pretty hard on a bike at the Courthouse Athletic Club in West Salem.  This was an unusual workout.  I had a duathlon coming up in about a week, and needed to get some extra training in before I started the taper/eat-lots-of-spaghetti window (pre-gluten-intolerency awareness, by the way).  The reason this particular gym visit was so peculiar for me?  I was a cycling instructor who taught twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 5:30pm.  Aside from these classes, I only EVER went to the gym in the mornings.  And it was a Wednesday.  Nothing was usual about this gym visit.

No more usual than the late-night visit was the boy I saw walk into the otherwise empty cycling room with his roommate.  "Whoa", I thought to myself, "that guy is soooooper hot."  Not even kidding.  And just to prove to myself that I was thinking this... I took off my purity ring and chucked it on my workout bag behind me so that he wouldn't think I was married, if he happened to glance back over his shoulder at the drooling girl in the corner.  I thought it was so odd that I had never seen this man before.  Why hadn't he taken my spin class?  Why hadn't I even SEEN him at the gym?  How old was he anyway?  So many questions.  But, because I was taught not to be the pursuer by my church leaders, I did not approach him.  I quietly left and figured I would never see him again.

The very next day (May 29th) was my last shift at the Governor's Cup Coffee Roasters (my current place of employment - new owner.  Much better owner).  I was excited to be moving on from that part of my life, so I dressed a little extra nice that day for fun.  To my extreme delight, the same mysterious man who had been in the cycling room the night before was suddenly sitting at a table with his friend - in my coffee shop!!!  I couldn't believe it.  He was dressed in slacks and a button up and fancy shoes and working on a macbook... seriously, how am I supposed to resist that? 

On my way out the door to make a deposit at the bank for the coffee shop, I casually tapped him on the shoulder.  He turned his head and I melted.  He has so freakin' gorgeous it wasn't even fair.  Me: "Oh, hey, were you the guy at the gym last night?"  Him: "Yeah! .... were you the girl in the back corner of the cycling room?"  Me: "Yeah!  That was me."  Him: "Are you an instructor or something?  See, the class I always take at 7am just got cancelled so I'm looking for a new time to take spin."  Me: "Actually yes I am an instructor, and I'm teaching tonight at 5:30!  You should come."

That night..... he came.  HE CAME!!!!

And then on the 30th I left for Mississippi to visit my dad.  It was a BRUTAL few days as I wondered and wondered and wondered what the HECK his last name was so I could at least stalk him on facebook.  No luck.  I didn't know a thing about him, but I knew I wanted to marry him.  Or somebody exactly like him, at least.

When I came back, he kept showing up to my spin classes.  Eventually he asked for my phone number and gave me a 30 minute warning via text message the first time he officially asked me on a date.  
We ate lunch were too nervous to eat our food and talked for almost 2 hours.  

By June 8th (our official day of "we started dating") we were together.  By June 10th we were writing facebook messages about what we wanted our long term goals to be in both our relationship and in our... yup... marriage

Now, all that is already pretty awesome.  I mean, God must've REALLY been trying to get us to bump into one another.  Gym, coffee shop, both living in West Salem.... it was perfectly planned.  And as if that weren't enough....

About 1 week or so into our newborn relationship, Matt re-read an email he had sent to his friend and mentor.  He had questioned his friend about how to strike a balance between being patient and proactive in finding a wife, and his closing line was, "I mean, it's not like some girl is just going to walk up and tap me on the shoulder and be the one for me."

Boom.  God not only answers prayers, he reads your emails.





[always holding hands]


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