One Year Ago: Nov. 30

One year ago today, a series of events commenced that drastically changed our lives (for the better).  I thought it would be fun to take the next week and share part of our love story, remembering the things that happened last year at the official beginning of our relationship.

A bit of backstory: I had liked Joe quite seriously for a long time--as in close to two years.  I had prayed a lot about him and the liking really didn’t go away.  However, I could see in him very little indication of any attraction towards me, especially in the year before our relationship started.  (Ahem...turns out there was a reason for that.)  I found this frustrating, but I still knew that I would absolutely be interested in marrying Joe...if he ever asked.  Unknown to me, Joe had been thinking about me almost as long as I’d been thinking about him.

Sometime on Wednesday, November 30, Joe steeled his nerves and placed a phone call to our home.  Sarah answered.  As I understand it, the conversation went something like this:
Sarah:  “Hello, this is Sarah”
Joe: “Um, hi, Sarah.  Would this be a good time to talk to your dad?”  
Unfortunately my dad was en route to New England on a business trip.  So Sarah gave Joe Dad’s cell number--and Joe had another chance to decide if he was actually going to place that nerve-racking call.

Later that day, I stopped by the Good News Orchestra rehearsal to drop something off. I was no longer in the orchestra by this time, but Joe still was.  I was talking with Sarah when I saw Joe coming in; he actually smiled at me.  That was a happy thing, in my book. :)  That evening there was a CYS rehearsal and I had to meet Rebecca and Daniel at Chipotle to drive them down.  Interestingly, Joe was their ride from GNO. (Report has it that he insisted that he was going to drive them, and then he made some amazingly good time on the way.  He just wanted to see me, he says, to help him to know for sure if he should call my dad.)  I was happy to see Joe, but rather sad that we ended up not having any time to spend together.  We transferred the instruments and were off to the next rehearsal.

Joe, in the meantime, had an important phone call to make that evening. (Apparently seeing me did help make up his mind.) My dad didn’t answer, so Joe left him a message asking for a call back.  And then...he just had to wait.  

to be continued

New blog!

Hi everyone!  I was thinking that blogging would be a good way to keep up with family and friends now that we're married, and Joe agreed.  So...here you go!  A brand-new blog dedicated to the Adventures of Joe and Rachel.  I am not entirely sure what will appear here, but I have a feeling that it will involve various updates in words and pictures.  Stay tuned if you're interested, and feel free to ignore completely if you aren't.  Thanks for dropping by!

Rachel

From our honeymoon--on board the Angelique, 

a windjammer schooner based in Camden, ME.

We spent four nights on this lovely ship.