Mr. T and I started dating on January 19th, 2008! The Lord blessed our relationship even before this point. I in true girl style would always think and wonder about guys do they like me, hmm do I like them, and the like. The true blessing is that I never really did that about Mr. T. The Lord was guarding my heart. That does not mean though that our good Lord was not preparing my heart. Since the fall of the year prior I had started to notice Mr. T at different gatherings including at my 30th birthday party that year, for some odd reason I have a lot of pictures of him! :-)
Once we started dating we had a beautiful courtship, we always included some type of sacrament or adoration into each of our dates and would have marvelous conversations about life, marriage, and children. As that was all going on I would have my fair share of what I called "freak out sessions" where I would basically "freak out" about the relationship get scared or apprehensive about Gods plans or our plans in regards to the relationship. This especially happened when I realized that courtship and love is not all a fairytale like it is in the movies. At those times though I would pray and would be completely at peace at the end, hmm, was God guiding the relationship or what!
Over the course of about 10 months I came to realize that yes, Mr. T was the man that Christ had chosen for me to marry. So by November of 2008 I was ready for him to propose and was pretty sure that it would be any day. This was confirmed when Mr. T and I were out one evening and I realized that he, in a very smooth way, took off one of my rings and put it on his finger, he was getting my ring size. :-) By this time I had a list of 4-5 dates in my head when I thought he would propose.
Well, soon the next two months passed and I still did not have a ring on my finger - everybody else knew that as well. People were always looking at my left hand, and not always very discreetly. At one point I even told Mr. T that I was going to start wearing gloves all the time.
By this point we were a week away from our 1 year anniversary of courting, and that was the only date left in my mind when I thought that he would propose.
Well, Mr. T, decided that it would fun to play with my mind, and totally throw me off track. Little did he know he was playing on dangerous ground.
During a conversation a week before he told me that we should begin to discern our relationship and maybe think about taking the next step in a few months. I was clearly upset, and was thinking what do you mean BEGIN, I thought that is what we were doing the last few months. As I read over a few entries in my journal I am reminded of how irritated I was, and then how humbled I was. After becoming upset and frustrated I realized that if I truly thought that Mr. T was the man of prayer that I thought he was then I needed to trust his decision as well as his timing. So with that in mind I spent the next week trying to be content with where are relationship was or was not, for that matter. At one point I even became relieved that he was not going to propose on our one year anniversary, I almost told Mr. T that.
On January 19th though we had made plans to meet for mass, go to confession, and than say the rosary in the Marian Chapel. During mass that evening I started to think that Mr. T was going to propose, and had an inner struggle about it, for I knew that he was not going to. Needless to say that was part of my confession, as well.
After mass we went back to the Marian Chapel, which was still beautifully decorated for the Christmas season, and so gorgeous that a few weeks prior I had the thought that it would be a great place to become engaged in. We knelt down to say the rosary, but, Mr. T took off his coat I thought that that was a very odd thing to do. I remember having a hard time concentrating, I think I even said a few prayers wrong. After praying the rosary, we stood up and Mr. T let go of my hand and preceded to move from my right side to my left, give me a brief hug and than take my left hand, kneel down in front me and proceeded to ask me to "Marry Him" after a moment of complete shock I replied yes.
Later, Mr. T told me that he needed to throw me off track, because everybody expected it. Yes, he most certainly did and made it one of the amazing adventurous in our journey of love,
We were happily married 7 months later, on the feast of the Coronation of Mary.
Thank you for letting me share a story that is very dear to my heart and one where I can sill recall many images, ones that I hope to never forget.
God Bless and Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Pray for Us!
Joy
Please tell me you are not wearing my dress!!
ReplyDelete