Our Love Story Part 3 (And a Free Download)

{If you missed Parts 1 and 2, check them out first}

I’ve been surprised at the enthusiastic response to our love story. I guess I’m not the only one who likes a good old-fashioned romance. And admittedly, ours is pretty great. So the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the final chapter in our love story. (I advise reading this part of the story with the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack or some such music playing in the background, just for effect).

Two years after moving out on my own, I found another nice guy who persuaded me to date him. I didn’t see any reason not to open myself up for love again. A week into this new relationship, Owen called after half a year of silence. We talked for two hours, perfectly innocently, I thought: just two old friends catching up. But it was different this time. God had changed and shaped Owen’s heart in the same ways he had changed mine over the past three years. We talked about how God was working in our lives and what He had taught us. We talked and laughed until late into the night. I fell asleep feeling refreshed and blessed by the conversation.

But the next morning I woke up and thought, “Wait, what am I doing? I’m dating a guy who I don’t really care about and the man I do care about is thousands of miles away and will probably never call me again because he thinks I like someone else more.” It was Sunday and as I sat down in church next to my parents, I whispered to my mom, “Owen called last night and I’m so confused.” I told my boyfriend about it in the parking lot after church and he tried to be understanding – it was just a hiccup in our new relationship. But I knew it was more. At supper at my parents’ house, I cried and questioned my confusion. But my family knew how much Owen meant to me and they could see how disinterested I was in my new relationship. They advised me to be honest with myself and the men in my life.

I called my boyfriend that night and told him I needed time to figure this all out and broke it off with him.

Then I called Owen. He was surprised to hear my voice again, especially because I was never the one to call first. I told him, “I ended it with my boyfriend and I still care about you, so if you don’t feel the same, then don’t ever call me or write to me again because I need to get over you; but if you do feel the same, then…” There was a pause, but then he said that he felt the same way about me and had never stopped having feelings for me.

Whoa! So what now? We agreed to pray about it for a week and call each other when the week was up. That was a week of serious prayer and reflection. What was I doing? I was not a risk-taker and this was definitely a risk. This would either mean a serious long-distance relationship or another broken heart. But Owen had always been the one I loved, and I didn’t want to settle for less. At the end of the week, after many conversations with godly friends and family and much prayer, it was clear to both of us that we were meant to be back in each other’s lives. After a phone conversation, we decided to start talking regularly again and see what God had for our relationship. Owen was still traveling around the west and only had cell phone service intermittently and I was really busy with my jobs, so we only talked once a week or so, but it was like picking up where we left off. Only at this point we could admit how we really felt about each other and could pursue a more serious relationship.

Finally at Christmas, Owen went back to Detroit to spend the holidays with his family, and during that trip he came to visit me in Wisconsin. We were finally able to see each other for the first time in almost a year. The reunion was everything I could have hoped. A week of bliss with the one I was now free to love. We held hands and kissed for the first time. We spent time with my family. We had conversations late into the night.

Owen was sensing God telling him it was time to settle down and find a place to live. After his visit, he got an apartment in Denver and started working. We talked more now and it was such an encouragement and support to be able to have my best friend back in my life. As much as I had learned about dependence on God, I found that I was making an idol of Owen and becoming more and more dependent on him. This is a battle I will continually face – keeping God as my first love. In some ways I think it’s natural to idolize the love of your life, especially in the throes of new love. I was ready to get married; to leave everything I had known to be with Owen. He had more hesitation and felt like he needed clear guidance from God before we took the next step. But long-distance relationships are not easy. I visited him over spring break and he came to visit me a couple of times and those were such intense moments because we didn’t know when we would see each other again. It felt like we were always saying goodbye. This whole relationship was an area of trusting God with the unknowns, but oddly I had no reservations about it.

Over the Easter weekend, Owen came to visit and took me out on a long secluded hike. Before we turned back to head home, he took my hands and got down on one knee. I was in shock and confusion for the first few moments as he gave a beautiful and eloquent speech about how and why he had always loved me. Then he proposed and pulled out a diamond ring. After all these years of uncertainty and longing, we were finally engaged.

For three months I planned our wedding and longed to be with him. Those months seemed to drag by. Talking on the phone was an inadequate substitute to having him there in person. And finally the day came: on a sunny July day in my parents’ sunroom, I walked toward my groom in my white dress and said “I do”. We celebrated God’s faithfulness with our friends and family under a white tent and began our life of no longer saying goodbye.

{In honor of love, here’s a little download for you! Click on the link below, print it out on cardstock, fold it in half, and you’ve got a sweet little love note for the special someone in your life. I’ve got card sets of these in my shop too!}

LoveNeverFailsCard

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