Our Love Story | How we Met
When a 17 year old boy walked into church one Sunday with his parents and 11 siblings, I never expected it would change my life…..
I can clearly remember the day. That morning I was sitting with an older lady in our church named Shirley. Shirley was well known for her somewhat eccentric personality, and for saying exactly what was on her mind at any given time. As the family filed into their pew she leaned in close to me, pointed at the boy, and said “I think your gonna marry that boy”
I chuckled, blushed, and immediately said “I highly doubt that”
Of course she was actually right, but that’s getting ahead of the story.
Before that fateful Sunday when I caught the first glimpse of the boy who would one day be my husband my mother came home one day from her monthly Azure pickup (an organic food supplier that makes monthly drops to our area) and announced to my dad and I that she’d met a woman who had a large family and was relatively new to the area, and she thought we should get to know them.
My dad and I being the major introverts that we are, immediately said “mmm…no thanks”.
Mom went on to explain that they hadn’t made many friends in the area and were looking to get plugged into a church and she wanted to have dinner with them in the near future. We reluctantly agreed and set a date.
But of course before that date came the Sunday that they came to our church. I spoke to some of the girls around my age and our younger siblings immediately got along with each other.
A few weeks later the arranged dinner finally came and we went to their house. It was awkward and quiet at at first. My two eldest brothers (I have 6 younger siblings total, I was 19 at the time they were 10 and 12) and I along with the oldest 5 or 6 Emmert teens (minus the very eldest daughter who was already grown with a family living out of state) all set in the living room making awkward, barely existent, small talk.
Eventually we decided to play a board game to break the ice. I can’t remember the actual game we played (I’ve asked my husband many times and he has absolutely no remembrance of said game 😅) but the gist of it was most of us were policeman, and one person (George…my eventual husband), was a thief we were all trying to track down.
As the game went on and personalities started to come out I could easily see myself making friends with some of George’s sisters. But one thing was certain, I found George to be absolutely insufferable.
He was rude, a bit cocky, and overall just a giant pest (or so I thought)
The evening ended and we went home. The following night as my 12 year old brother and I cleaned the kitchen we talked about the new family we’d met and what we’d thought about them so far. I confided in him that I found George to be super annoying and he chuckled. Little did I know my 10 year old brother was listening in…cue some future drama.
As time went on we continued to get to know the family more, and I became increasingly off-put by the jerkish teenage boy who was dead set on antagonizing me every chance he got. I even remember ranting to my closest friend about him on end.
On a few different occasions my dad mentioned him as a potential suitor and my response was, quite literally, “over my dead body”
But then there was a shift…..
I was leading worship for church at the time (solo) and was having some serious issues with my guitar. George noticed and approached me after church one day and told me he knew how to fix it, and offered to work on it for me.
I said ok, and to let me know what it would cost.
He took the guitar home and returned it the following week. I tried to pay him and he wouldn’t hear of it.
I don’t really know how to explain the reasoning but for some reason I just had a feeling he had bit of a crush on me, so I slipped some cash into a thank you card and wrote him a note solidly “friend zoning” him.
A couple of weeks later he mentioned to me he actually played guitar and if I ever wanted any help with the music he’d be happy to lend a hand.
At some point I had him play for me, and he was incredible. Eventually he and a few of his siblings started joining me in leading worship and from there we added a few others formed a complete worship team for the church (all of 16-19 somethings aside from my cousin who was 14 ish at the time).
As a group we spent a ton of time together. Between weekly practices, Sundays at church, and other events we started playing from time to time.
Quickly I’d began to realize I’d misjudged George, and that he was soon becoming one of my closest friends. We started writing music together and I started to realize he was actually a pretty great guy. He wasn’t cocky or arrogant like I’d originally thought, he was honestly super humble and kind of sweet. He was ornery as all get out, but not in the antagonistic way I’d thought.
I eventually confessed to him how much I’d disliked him when we’d first met, and thought he was kind of a punk.
He laughed and explained.
As it turned out my mom had jokingly told his mother about my dad and I’s apprehension to meet new people and how she’d had to finagle us into coming.
George’s mom told the oldest kids about it before we came for dinner that first time, so George and I’s first interactions with one another were built on the premise that I didn’t want to be there and he was rather offended by it.
To make matters worse after that first meeting my 10 year old brother (who’d over heard my other brother and I’s talk) told George’s little brother that I quote “hated his guts” (which for clarification I never said…but, 10 year olds 🤷♀️ ) which was relayed to George, and only made him want to pester me even more.
Eventually we both realized the other wasn’t so bad, and so we became friends.
What transpired from there happened fast and is still something I laugh about to this day.
My red flags assuaged I decided George would be pretty much the perfect match for my best friend….and I tried to set them up 😂
I told her about him at length and the next time she came for a visit I purposely set up a scenario for them to meet.
Then a few weeks later I called her and said, never mind you can’t have him 🤣
I was beginning to realize I had feelings for the boy I once couldn’t stand, and I was pretty sure he felt the same.
We texted each other constantly, talking about everything under the sun, and he’d occasionally stop by the Cafe where I worked for a coffee just because.
Then one day he asked me a question…
Continued in part 2
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