Saturday, August 28, 2004

In Honor of Our Second Anniversary, Part 1

I have decided to share with all of you the story of how Ron and I started our relationship. It's a really interesting story, considering how long we knew each other before we started dating and what we thought of each other prior to our first date. Our second wedding anniversary is Tuesday, August 31.

Ron and I had both started attending the University Lutheran Center's Sunday night Bible studies in the summer of 1999, although he was there a couple of months before me. He was the peer minister, in charge of organizing Bible studies, delivering them, and talking to those who attended regularly about events that were happening at the LCMS churches in town.

In the first part of March, 2000, we went with others from the Kansas District LSF (Lutheran Student Fellowship - a group of college students) to a retreat center in northern Kansas. The guy I and one other person had ridden with was the campus missionary, and he had to leave to come back early. (I think it was to meet up with his girlfriend.)

While we were there, I got really sick. One of the pastors there took me to the hospital in the closest town. It didn't do any good; no doctors or nurses ever helped me in the four hours I was there. It took them two hours to get me into a room, and I waited in the room for two hours before walking out on my own.

I was feeling well enough to return to the group at the retreat, but still had a sensitive stomach. Since my ride was gone, I had to travel back with someone else. Ron graciously allowed me to ride back with him. The whole trip, he said he was thinking, "Please don't throw up in my truck." I was thinking, "Please don't throw up in his truck." Finally, we made it back to my parents' house without incident.

Then in October of the same year (2000), Ron called my house to ask me something that I thought he was calling to ask everyone else since he was the Peer Minister. He said that Holy Cross Lutheran was going to be having a Reformation Banquet at the end of the month and he was wondering if I'd be interested in going.

"Hmmm..., " I thought. "I've never been to a Reformation Banquet before. It could be fun. Sure," I said. "When and where are we meeting?" Because, like I said before, I was certain he was calling everyone.

"Well, can I ... pick you up?" he said.

I paused for a while. "Yeah, sure. I guess so." I mean, he already knew where I lived.

On October 28, Ron showed up at my parents' front door wearing a dress shirt, a tie and dress pants, and carrying a small bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. Ding! The bell in my blonde head finally rang! He had asked me out on a date and I hadn't realized that that's what I had agreed to. Oh, well, I thought. Why not?

We travelled across town to Holy Cross, talking all the way, and when we got there, we sang silly German songs, ate German food, and visited with lots of people. We had a great time. We talked more on the way back to my parents' house, realizing that we had a lot in common with one another and also that we could learn a lot from one another.

Before this date, Ron and I were merely acquaintances. I thought he was way too serious, and he (told me months later that he) thought I was just another ditzy blonde. But while on our date, I realized that he could actually relax and be fun, and he realized that there was a lot more to this blonde woman than he had previously thought. We were both pleasantly surprised.

After he dropped me off at home, we talked a while longer, and said good night. He didn't get far from the door before he came back and asked me out on a second date! Wow! This turned out better than I had imagined.

We kept going out on dates, and about one month later, I was sitting down with my mom in the living room, talking about Ron, and I told my mom, "Don't freak out, but I have a feeling that eventually, Ron's going to ask me to marry him." It stopped my mom in her tracks. She asked me how I knew, but I wasn't sure. I just "knew".

Ron and I dated for a year, after having known each other for a year before that, when he proposed. He put my engagement ring in a bowl of tappioca pudding, and I almost ate it! When I pulled it out of my mouth, he knelt down beside me and told me how much I meant to him and how he never wanted to know life without me by his side. I cried a little, and he put the ring on my finger. That was on October 27, 2001, one day short of our one year dating anniversary.

3 comments:

Devona said...

I think you just blew your husband's "terrible" cover. He might make you delete this. Just kidding.

I love engagement stories, especially when people almost eat their ring, and other blunders like that. When Rob proposed to me, I had just sprayed myself in the eye with bug spray!

Mommy's Resource Closet said...

The "terrible" part of the Terrible Swede is that he isn't really Swedish; he was adopted into a Swedish family. I think it's funny.

You know, the ironic thing about almost eating my ring was that just after that happened, there was a commercial on television about Internet service where a guy was trying to figure out how to give his girlfriend the Heimlich (?) maneuver when she swallowed her engagement ring from her wine glass!

BTW, when is your baby due?

Devona said...

My baby is due Oct. 10th.