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We were and still are in awe about this whole relationship
"How Alicia got Engaged to a Man being 30 years old, having Freckles and a Kid to Boot"
That’s right, I’m engaged. :) Well, Homer and I are engaged to each other, specifically. April 19, 2008 - that was the day and now, I’m going to tell you about it, because it’s a really cool story, even though I may be a little bit biased.
First, let me take you back...Homer and I ‘met’ in January. I use the word ‘met’ loosely. We met
online - through ChristianMingle.com. About a year ago, Homer, deciding he was ready to put himself “out there” and feeling inside as though he was not going to find someone where he was living (Utah), had gone through a whirlwind of signing up for dating sites. Then, after some odd experiences, gave up and decided it wasn’t for him.
One year later, I had decided I would never find anyone, ever. I saw a link to ChristianMingle.com on the login page of MySpace and decided
“just to look”. Eventually, I decided to sign up for that and one other - not EHarmony. I had signed up for EHarmony once, about two years ago
and they said “no matches at this time”. Nice. Anyway, I checked the matches on ChristianMingle from time to time. There were a few nice looking guys on there and some even sent me a note or two to which I never responded. I just wasn't "feeling it". I decided I was ready to get out of there, but then I got a “spark” from Homer.
On Homer’s end...He was cleaning out his G-mail spam folder one day. Normally, his routine is just to click “empty” and be done with it, but
this day, he opened the spam folder and his eye fell on “We’ve Found You a Match!” Since it had been a year since he had touched any of
these sites, he was curious as to what he had put in his profile and decided to see who the match was. It was me. Liking what he saw, he decided to send me a ‘spark’.
So, back to me. I checked out his profile. Nice looking...Utah...Two kids. I stared at his pictures for the LONGEST time; pictures of him and his kids, him and his family, and him at the office. It was my sister-in-law who encouraged me to send him a “spark” back. I didn’t want to. I had decided I just couldn’t do it. I had decided I didn’t want to start something online. It held such a "cheese" factor in my mind, not to mention...UTAH!
However, I did send him a spark back at her prompting and we started up that way, eventually moving on to paying for the service so we could get each other’s email and communicate in other ways. We instant messaged all day while we were supposed to be working, had numerous phone calls, and, yes, the webcam thing. Ah, the relief we both felt upon seeing each other on the webcam for the first time. I believe his first reaction was something like “Cool". You look exactly as you do in your pictures.” I was thinking the same thing. PHEW!
Very soon after we started communicating, he and I both, although separately, had realized that the other was “the one”. We completely get that it sounds premature to some, but it wasn’t at all.
See, three years ago, at just about the same time, the Lord had spoken to Homer and me both about praying for our future spouse. We both spent a lot of time in prayer from that point on - learning, growing, healing, and waiting. I clearly remember the day I knew he was “The One”. I had asked him if he was Spirit-filled and he said “absolutely.” It seems like a simple question and a simple answer, but at the instant that “absolutely” was
out there, something inside me jumped. Not my stomach. Not my heart. I’ve never, in my life, felt this. The only way I could describe it was
that it was behind my ribcage and it felt large in size. Almost like being pregnant. Something independent of my body moved inside and spoke to my mind and said “that’s him”.
That day, I went and told my parents that I was going to marry him. I was positive. The Holy Spirit had told me. They understandably thought that desperation had driven me insane. I received the obligatory rolling of the eyes, the patronizing nods, and the vague “we’ll see”. I was
completely confident and from that point and I committed it to prayer and I asked my parents to pray too and I decided that even though I knew in my heart, I would wait and see what God would do from there.
Not too soon after that, Homer said something similar to me about his experience with getting that "knowing" that I was “The One”. In ways that would take hours to tell you about, our lives lined up in ways that only God could ever do to bring us to the moment of when we met. We were and still are in awe about this whole relationship and
how well God knows our hearts and how intricately he was orchestrating our lives and our path towards each other while we were crying out,
wondering why, searching and waiting on God. The word that has permeated our relationship from the very first day..."Peace". We’ve understood that things have seemed quick to people who hear our
story, however, we are confident that it is not premature. In my mind, how could it be? We’ve both spent the last three years specifically praying for that ONE person and for us, it had come to the point where it was a matter of saying, “I’ll know it when I see it”. It wasn’t actually as quick as it sounds up front. It was three long years of
preparation.
From my end, I struggled a LOT when I turned 30 in October. I went through a period of depression and sadness and thought that maybe I would need to let go of my hope to find someone and maybe just start to pursue other things in life. During that time, God sent three specific situations into my life where people spoke to me about “The One”. Two
of those people did not know me well enough to know anything at all about what I was struggling with. They simply approached me in faith that God had given them a word for me. They were specific. “HE” was coming, soon. My wait was over. One of the people who spoke to me told me to change my prayer from one of request to one of thanksgiving
because my wait was over and I just needed to start thanking God as if it were already done. I did that. Another person spoke to me and said
that God saw my cry and had sent my answer and that I needed to just let go and stop wondering and trust that my need was met and was in his
hands. The third person was my mother.
One night, I was overcome with the thought that my life hadn’t turned out the way I had hoped and I
was getting older and I honestly, in my heart, thought I may need to give this hope away. I remember crying to her on the phone and her
telling me that God had spoke to her and that he would come to me in 2008. I was soooo mad when she said that. I didn’t want to hope anymore. It was too disappointing. I told her to stop telling me those things. She said she wouldn’t bring it up anymore, but that God had spoken to her and said that it would be soon. She said she had a picture in her mind of me standing in a door way, poised to walk through. That was in December of 2007.
Anyway, there’s more, but it would take forever to tell. All that to say...God did this and we would never dare take credit for any single part of it.
So, for us, meeting in person was basically a formality. It was a great day. After a few weeks, we decided to meet in person. He had a business trip to Worcester, Mass. and I drove up there to meet him. It was perfect. We just enjoyed each other’s company, played guitars, ate, walked around, watched home movies, and laughed, a lot. Laughing is something that we both see as a definite theme in our relationship. We have a very, very similar sense of humor and we think very much alike, so we have a lot of laughs and good times. Having someone know you and understand and "get" you because they basically are "you" at the core, is cool...unless you’re trying to get away with something. Then, it’s just downright frustrating. Although this “same brain” thing we have going between us made the proposal that much more perfect).
He came to NY and went to church with me and met all the family and friends. He’s come several times and I’ve just gone to Utah to meet his
friends, see his church, and spend time with his kids, soon to be “our” kids, Chandler (8),Faith (6), and my son Eldon (7), makes three. :)
It occurred to me that he may propose to me in Utah, but I wasn’t sure. He would of course need to talk to my dad first, and on his last trip here, two weeks ago, he hadn’t had the opportunity. They had talked together alone for a while in the downstairs living room, but I didn’t think anything of it because it was kind of out in the open and I could walk in and out at any time and Homer said he’d lost his nerve and that it hadn’t felt like the right time. Knowing he wouldn’t be back to NY for a while, I was disappointed, but I understood. He had wanted to really do it right. A few days later, my father said, “I thought for sure he’d ask me that night. If he wanted to talk to me in person, I guess he passed up his chance.” I just shrugged. Not ideal,
but there was nothing I could do.
In Utah, on Friday night (April 18), Homer had called the kids to say hi. He told them we were all going out for dinner the next night to
a theme restaurant called “The Mayan”. He and Faith were talking about how cool it was and how many great things there were to see. Homer
said, “We won’t tell Alicia about all the cool things, though. We want it to be a surprise, right? Let’s keep it a secret.” She agreed. Then,
I said, “Faith, girlfriends don’t have secrets from each other. You can tell me the secret.” So, she said, clear as day “My dad bought you a ring.” I laughed LONG and LOUD. Not only did it have nothing to do with the conversation, but it was a real secret, the kind that should be kept. Hehehe. What a kid.
Homer was flabbergasted. He kept insisting that it wasn’t true. He said “You already knew I was going to buy a ring. I told you that. I just haven’t done it yet. I don’t have the ring. It takes a while to get it ordered and I still need to talk to your dad.” So, I let it go.
The next day, Saturday, Homer had organized a barbecue for his friends to come and meet me. We bought all the food, etc. and people came and ate and we played a game of kickball. For those of you who know Homer or me, we are both "extremely" competitive. I didn’t know if I wanted to be on his team and be critiqued or be on the opposite team and be taunted. I ended up with the latter. When I got up to kick, Homer taunted me mercilessly. “Everybody move up, Alicia’s kicking!” Very funny, and top it off, I kicked at the ball and COMPLETELY missed it. I was mortified.
Then, my team put me on as pitcher. Homer was the last to kick. First roll. “That’s not a pitch!” he yelled. (Grr…) He threw the ball back at me. Second roll. “NOPE!” he yelled. “Not good enough!” He threw the ball back again. Now, I was getting embarrassed, and very irritated with his taunting, which was endless. I rolled it again. It was perfectly dead center down the plate. “NOPE!” he yelled again. “You call that a pitch?!” Ok, now I was REALLY mad. Everyone was staring at me. He
grabbed the kickball and walked from the home plate over to the pitcher’s mound where I was standing. “You call that a pitch?” he said,
nice and loud. “Let me show you how a pitch is done.”
I was so furious. I grabbed the ball from his hand and shouted “Get away from me!” Then, I stomped on his foot as hard as I possibly could. When I did that, he got down on one knee, pulled out a little, brown box and opened it up. He looked up at me and said “THIS is a pitch. Will you marry me?”
Shocked? Speechless? Agape? I was completely stunned. Will I marry you? Ummm...YES!
He had set up everything. He had talked to my dad. He had bought the ring a month ago (which makes what Faith said that much funnier). He had set it up so I would pitch. He had been taunting me mercilessly because he knows how to get under my skin and he had wanted my mind to be somewhere else, in a completely opposite direction, so that I would be totally, utterly surprised. (Up until that point, I had been telling him that I am someone that is "very" difficult to surprise and that whatever he would plan, I’d catch on to it). So, yes, he got me good. My parents were in on it. I had asked them 10 different ways, including
sending out spies, to see if he had in fact talked to my dad. All reports came back negative. Some of his friends had come just to see him propose, which I thought was so cool. I felt badly about freaking out and stomping on his foot. I had seriously been ready to punch him and then, nope, proposal, gorgeous diamond ring, down on one knee, and me trying to process what had just happened.
It was hilarious. It was so “us”. I loved it.
So, we’re engaged. I couldn’t be happier. Homer is more than I ever dared to ask God for. Inside of his heart and spirit are things that I secretly dreamed would be there in someone for me, but never thought to pray about because in my limited, narrow-minded head, I thought God couldn’t do it. Somehow I had convinced myself that there were just some things inside of me that another person could never understand,love, or know. Duh. :) God did this.
We’re getting married on Sunday, October 5th. There is more, much, much more to come...
alicialicia23 & MusicbyHomie
She is the best thing that ever happened to me.
I had always been skeptical about the dating website thing and one day just decided I would give it one month. At least then if it didn't work out, at least I could say I gave it a shot, right? I paid for one month and after only three days met my future bride to be.
When we met, I lived two hours away! I drove out to take her on our first date and she was a knock out! I had such a great time that I decided I would forget the whole wait two days response and I drove out to see her the next night too!
Denae is the best thing that ever happened to me besides having Jesus as my Lord and Savior. She is a wonderful partner in ministry, as I am a youth minister. We are set to be married in the Spring of 2009 after 6 months of dating and I cannot wait.
schlub & Denae
I knew I had been blessed the second I set eyes on her.
I'm very glad to announce that I have met my soul mate here on ChristianMingle. I was told by friends to check out this website. Well, I was leary about meeting someone online and basically thought that it was a cheesy way of meeting people. Well, I went ahead and signed up and one of the first women that was matched up with me was Rene. She had just canceled her membership and was about to give up on it when she got a message from me. Well, she renewed her membership and responded to me. After about 100 phone conversations, we decided to meet in person. The second that I set eyes on her, I knew that the Lord had blessed me. We are engaged and planning on getting married in the very near future. I just want to thank you for running a wonderful site and I highly recommend it to anyone.
David
ibdaveisme
We shall live together by the power of the holy spirit!
Alabamian and I began by IM on 1-28-08. We e-mailed back and forth on and off, but we just couldn't let the other go. Then we began to talk on the phone. We just about used 5,000 night & weekend minutes. He wanted to come and meet me and I said O.K., but before he came, I changed my mind and told him not to. We knew that we cared for each other, but I wasn't letting the meeting take place. After three attempts, I finally said Yes. Now he has moved here and exactly 1 month to the day (June 10, 2008), we were married and shall live together by the power of the holy spirit!
Alabamian & Sharronm
sharronm & Alabamian
We made a spiritual connection
We thank the Lord for his kindness, first, in saving us from our sins by his son's death on the cross and resurrection, and second, in bringing us together as husband and wife so that we may serve the Lord together.
We met on (formally called Relationships.com), now Christian Mingle, in the most unusual way. I was tired of meeting the wrong guys and thought this internet dating thing was not for me, so I deleted my profile......but, God had other plans! Many miles away, Allen was surfing the net and he noticed an ad from Relationships.com inviting him to join. He joined out of curiosity and one of the first profiles he saw was mine....just a few minutes before it was being deleted forever! We started to chat and emailed each other and immediately the attraction was mutual. We had the same interests, the same hopes and attitudes, and the same love for TEA and BREAKFAST! We knew we were made for each other because we made a spiritual connection first, so much that we got married before God over the phone and before seeing each other in person! We married legally (in person!) on December 2, 2006. We knew we were each other’s soul mate!
God founded our relationship and is currently helping us maintain it. We pray together every day and read his word and that helps to strengthen the foundation of our relationship in Messiah/Christ.
So, how love can happen so fast? Well, when you find that one special person, you know from the start this is the one for you, the one you had been praying for to God!
We encourage others to never give up hope to find your perfect match. When you are fully prepared for him or her, God will bring him or her to you. God eagerly desires to bring together two who will have a covenant of love with him. He will give them a relationship that will last the rest of their days....not one that will lead to hurt and divorce again.
Love after fifty is wonderful!
In Messiah’s love,
Allen and Ilu Williams
Mina31
