I used to wonder about the woman that God would bless me with; the one who would be my girlfriend, fiancé, and wife. As of today, it has been ten years since I have wondered about this.
Ten years ago, on November 18, 2001, my life changed forever. Other than the day that I asked Christ to be my Lord and Savior, this is the most important day in my life. This is the date when God showed me without a doubt that He answers prayers. In March 2001, through my job as a textile buyer, I met a salesman named Andy. One evening in April of 2001, during a business dinner with Andy and his wife, Angela, at Brookstone Golf Club in Acworth, Angela invited me to their church. I wasn’t attending a church at the time, so I took her up on the offer. I was living in Gwinnett County at the time, so each Sunday I made the 45-minute drive, each way, to AUMC for church and Sunday school.
During the first week of November 2001, I had surgery on my right foot and ankle and was in a cast up to my knee with pins coming out of the ends of my toes covered by a plastic grill/bumper (keep this in mind for later). The Sunday school class that I attended planned a dessert get-together at the home of two class members, Tony and Lisa. I volunteered to bring, not make, a key lime pie, since I had no pie baking experience. I stopped by Publix on the way to Tony and Lisa’s and picked-up a key lime pie. I am not sure how I managed to get the pie from the bakery section to the register, from the register to my car, and then from my car into Tony and Lisa’s house without destroying it, since I was on crutches at the time.
When I arrived at Tony and Lisa’s, with the pie intact, I had a seat on the couch, and Johnny put my crutches out of the way in the corner. The rest of the class was already there and they informed me that they had invited the youth minister to the dessert get-together. I replied, “That sounds cool. What’s his name?” They looked at me, started laughing, and said, “It is not a him it is a her, and her name is Megan.” I do not ever remember seeing Megan before that night, even though she played the guitar during the contemporary church service that I attended with Andy and Angela each Sunday. Megan later told me that she used to stand at the back of the stage near a plant and the piano. That made me feel a little better about my observational skills.
Around 8 o’clock, Megan arrived after the Sunday youth activities at the church. Wouldn’t you know it, the only place for her to sit was to my left, right beside me on the couch. I did not notice that she had arrived because I was talking with Tony, seated in a chair to my right, beside the couch. After a little bit, I did notice two things: 1. Lisa, Tony’s wife was urgently trying to get him to go into the kitchen, so that, later I found out, she could tell him to stop talking to me so I would notice Megan, and 2. Johnny kept repeating over and over, “Has everyone here met Megan?”
After Lisa got Tony into the kitchen and I heard what Johnny was saying, I turned to my left and saw the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen in my life! She was wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops, and her toenails were painted alternating colors. I introduced myself and started talking with this angel. We talked about where we were from, where we went to school, where we worked, and how we ended up at AUMC. We talked about sports; WOW did she know about sports! She told me about being on the University of Memphis Lady Tigers basketball staff in college. I told her about rowing and the friends that I rowed with. I think she missed the first part about rowing because later she told me that she thought I was telling her about friends that I “rode” with, not “rowed” with and was not impressed because she “rode” with a lot of people during college. We talked about playing music, and then we talked and talked and talked some more. I felt like I had known her forever. I felt calm and I didn’t feel nervous, although I did have this voice in my head saying, “ I can’t believe this beautiful woman is sitting here talking to me.” After talking for a while we looked around a saw that everyone else had gone, except for Tony and Lisa, since it was their house.
We said goodbye to Tony and Lisa and left. I walked Megan to her car, asked if she minded if I gave her a call, then asked her for her phone number, which unbelievably she gave to me. As I walked to my car I was floating on air, but made sure to look as cool as one can look with a knee-high cast, pins in one’s toes, with the plastic bumper, while on crutches. On my way back home, my mind started going through my checklist of things that I would look for in a wife. Christian. Check. Kind. Check. Beautiful. Check. Athletic / Loves Sports. Check. Plays Music. Check. Tall. Check. Megan matched them all.
My life is infinitely better since God brought Megan into my life. It has been a wonderful ten years of dating, marriage, and Emma. I look forward to many, many more years together with my angel.
