Throughout my life, I've always looked forward to finding the woman who God would bless me with for the rest of my life. And so I was always keeping my eye out for that woman, and checking every one to see if they might qualify. However, when I first met Becky, she did not seem to be that one. There was a small, weekday Bible study at our church for college-age folk, and even though I was still in high school, Dr. Bob gave me a special invitation to it. Although, I hadn't been going that much because of work. It was 29 March 2006 and it actually turns out that she had been going to Bible studies at our church for quite some time before that, but somehow we hadn't met. On that night, she seemed quite dark, boring, and distant. My best friend, Chase and I invited her to carpool to church with us because we learned that she lived out in our area, but that's all the conversation we were able to have with her. I can remember thinking to myself, "She's pretty, but there's no way I'd be able to be her friend, much less ever marry her." I didn't go to the College group for a while because of work and school, and I still didn't see her around church, even though she had been going.
I soon forgot about her, until I saw her at church finally. This was on 25 June 2006, the day of my graduation/18th birthday party. I knew who she was, but she seemed even more distant, and perhaps didn't even know who I was. Nevertheless, I invited her to my party. She didn't go, and who knows what would've happened if she did. I still wouldn't have believed that I'd ever be engaged to her.
I didn't see her again until 5 July 2006. Chase and I were carpooling to the College group; he said we were gonna stop in Riverside to pick someone up. He told me it was Becky and I was like, "oh yeah, I know that girl." She seemed like a totally different woman. We were talking all along the way; she was fun, intelligent, and just a delight to talk to. I was thinking, "she is in no way like the dark, boring, distant girl she was at that one College group" and I can tell you, I know now that she is definitely not like that, at all. I had never enjoyed talking to someone that much. And she invited me to a midnight showing of Pirates of The Caribbean 2 the next day (or technically on the 7th [but the event started on the 6th]). I gladly accepted.
The next day, I headed over to her house where a bunch of us watched the first Pirates movie. She really got into the spirit of it all. I remember seeing her come out of her room in a pirate costume and I could only think, "she's so cute!" I just wanted to get to know her. After the movie was over and I was ready to go home, it was about 3am. I remember being so tired, and I had work the next morning. But we started talking on her driveway, first about prayer then God's will. She was so deep, and I could feel her love for God; it was amazing. Seemed like we had only been talking for a few minutes, but it was almost 4am when I got in my car to go home. I didn't turn on the radio like usual. I just started praying, "Lord, You know that, for all my life, I've been looking forward to meeting the woman You put me on this earth to marry. Is this her? Lord, if this is her, thank You. She is so amazing! If this is Your will, Lord, allow me to be friends with her. And if it is Your will, Lord, let us get married when it's the right time. And Lord, allow me to treat her right. Please just let me glorify you with my relationship with her, whatever your will is. In Jesus' name, Amen." I was never so sure of anything in my life.
From that point on, we both hit it off very well. We became fast friends. It seemed like instantly we were talking for hours every day, whether it be in person, on the phone, over email, or instant messaging. We would carpool together to church, bowl, visit amusement parks, witness in Santa Monica, and more. I even did all I could to try to make sure that her 22nd birthday was the best she had ever had. We became such close friends so fast that people thought we were dating. We went through all sorts of things together, but nothing could shake my feelings for her. I found out that she had a MySpace, and despite how much I despised MySpace, I found myself making one one day. Then I learned that she had read a book called "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and I thought that it would be helpful for me to read it. I had never read a book that fast. I was mostly persuaded by his arguments, but I still actively tried to be her bestest friend ever. However, I vowed to treat her as I would want someone else to treat my future wife, whoever God had for me.
By February 2007, we were solidly close friends, but she didn't know that I liked her. I always had her on my mind. I was crazy about her. Nonetheless, it was causing problems for me, we had all the downsides of courtship but it lacked the romantic aspect. I sought advice from the wiser men I knew and resolved to talk to her about it. We planned to talk on March 10th. I didn't quite know what I would say, but I was going to make my intentions known and try to figure out what we should do.
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