Our Love Story | Dating Days
I wish I could remember the exact text George sent me that day. I’ve thought many times about trying to recover my ancient old phone to find it, but I’ve never gotten around to it so far.
Here’s what I do remember about the day.
At this stage in George in I’s relationship we had started texting each other every day, and were playing a “game” of sorts where we asked each other questions about life, preferences, etc.
Some of them were as simple as favorite foods, or movies. Others were deeper questions about faith, family, politics…you name it.
My mom and I are super close and we would often set and chat about the questions that George asked, or the responses he gave.
Then the day came that he asked me a question that was very much probing for whether I was interested in a relationship with him. Neither of us or my mom really remember how he phrased it. We all remember that it had something to do with taking risks, but it was also very clearly a fishing expedition.
I can remember I was sitting at our dining room table chatting with my mom when he sent the text. After freaking out for a couple of minutes, and then getting her blessing on the matter I responded back that I was interesting in pursuing a relationship with him.
And then the turd ghosted me.
Just kidding. But it seemed that way.
As it turned out his grandparents had just shown up for a visit from Ohio and at the time I responded back to him he was playing his guitar for them and not able to answer for a while. He told me a few weeks after the fact that he was internally freaking out and barely keeping himself put together because I’d actually said I was in fact interested.
A few hours later he finally responded that that’s what he wanted also.
Then came an awkward few days where it was very unclear whether we were beginning a relationship or not. I mean, we’d had that chat but he hadn’t actually asked me out XD
Then one afternoon while I was at work he texted me and asked what I was doing that evening because he was hoping maybe we could go do something after he got off work. I was already scheduled to watch my younger siblings, but he sweetly got permission from my parents to come watch them with me…and that’s how our relationship began.
My first official day as his girlfriend we babysat 6 kids and I made him supper and prayed he would like my cooking 😛
A few days later he called my dad up and they had a talk in which my father walked away from telling me “Well I’m not sure if I just gave him my blessing to date you or marry you, but either way I’m good with it”
And so began our season of dating which seemed simultaneously incredibly short and incredibly long.
My family did not do traditional dating so technically we were in a courtship. This meant all our dates were chaperoned, and most of them were just him making the 45 minute drive after work to hang out with my family in the evenings or me going to his family’s house on Sunday afternoons. During this season we also performed some music we wrote together along with several of his siblings at a family band festival, I went on vacation to a family camp in Texas with him and his family, we went on a mission trip to Zimbabwe Africa, and during harvest I came out a few times with my younger sister and rode with him on the tractor.
We started dating in early March and both of us knew it was only a matter of time until we got married.
The only true “date” we ever went on was in late June of that year. I found out George had never rode a roller coaster and I wanted to take him to Frontier City. One of my brothers was supposed to come with us, but it didn’t work out at the last minute for some reason and my parents let us go by ourselves. That day we went and looked at engagement rings.
4th of July was about a week later. A few days before he invited me to a local fireworks show with his family on the 5th and told me there was something really important he needed to talk to me about that evening.
The day of I headed out after work and not two miles from my house completely blew a tire. My family was gone that day so George and his brother drove all the way from their house to help me patch it up and get my truck back home and we headed to the fireworks show from there.
Anticipation was boiling up as we drove, because to be perfectly honest I was expecting a proposal.
It made perfect sense. We knew we wanted to get married, we’d just looked at rings, and what would be more romantic than a fireworks filled proposal on my future husband’s favorite holiday.
But, the show came and went and no such moment happened. The closer we got to that grand finally the more nervous I got…maybe this wasn’t what I was expecting at all?
Then the show was over. Everyone began gathering their belongings and loading up in their vehicles. I set in the passenger seat of George’s truck as he stared grim faced out the window waiting for him to finally break the silence.
Eventually he turned to face me an said “I got a really great job offer. I think it would be a great opportunity. But it’s in Montana and I only have one week before I have to be there if I want to take it.”
Continued next week in pt 3
P.S. For anyone curious, after a long intense google investigation I finally figured out what the game we played at our first meeting in the story from last week and George concurs : Scotland Yard
In the meantime if you’d like to get to know more about me...click here
If you missed last weeks story you can read it here: Our Love Story Part 1 – How we met
