From His Perspective ~ Part 3

Part Three

Okay, you’ve been very patient so far, so on to the fun part of the story. =) I had sent my good friend Ben to Thailand ahead of me to capture footage for the video project. Somewhere along the way, Ben decided that Anne and I would make a good couple and figured that must be a the underlying motivation for my trip. Of course, I was *completely* focused and hit the ground running: using the few days that we had available to finish the video script and tape the narration. One evening, along the Thai-Burmese border, Ben came into my room and asked me point blank if I was interested in Anne. The first thought that came to mind was, “Lie!” but instead I said, “Yeah…I am. Is it that obvious?” His smile assured me that it was. “Do you think Anne knows?” was his next question. I responded with, “No…I don’t think she… um, yeah – she must know.” Duh, what was I thinking? Anne is a bright girl and must have known of my interest for some time now. Suddenly it dawned upon me that my “secret evaluation tactics” had failed, and the situation had become serious. I had better figure out the next step in our friendship, and quickly.

I had come on this trip asking the Lord to give some clear details for future ministry. Not only did he give me clear direction in that area, but it became quite obvious that Anne was the perfect complement to this plan of action. Not wanting to be swayed by the excitement of the moment, I quietly spoke with my two missionary friends about Anne and then took these thoughts back to my Pastor. He gave some wise counsel on how to move from a casual friendship to a “get to know you” stage, with the purpose of seeing if Anne and I were suitable for marriage. I’m so grateful for his care and instruction, as well as the new preaching series on Biblical principles for getting to the marriage altar. =) It was all very helpful, and I was grateful that those who knew about our situation kept things quiet so that we could move toward commitment without any extra pressure from the excitement of friends.

Now, you have to understand that although Anne and I had known each other for over 3 years, I didn’t know her family at all. That was the big unknown factor: how would I get along with them, and how would her Dad respond to my desire to pursue marriage? Well, the only way to know was to ask. After compiling my “Getting to Know Anne profile,” for my family, and receiving Dad and Mom’s permission to proceed, I took the matter to Mr. Hammond. I asked if Anne and I could talk with each other directly, for the purpose of seeing if we were compatible for marriage, and he said, “Yes!” Well, I didn’t waste any time, but dropped off a book of questions for Anne and I to discuss over the phone. Then I phoned Anne to let her know what I had set in motion. Guess what? She wasn’t taken by surprise. =) LOL, actually, I knew that…I just wanted to make sure that I followed the right order of events.

So, we set off on a mission to ask the most important questions we could without getting our emotions involved (Yes, I can see those smiles). We soon learned that was impossible, so we did our best to stick to subjects that would be ‘deal breakers’ and tried to limit our conversations and interaction to a few phone calls per week. At the same time, I was trying to interact with her family and discuss things with my family, so that they would both be up to speed with our discussions. Anne and I wanted to move toward commitment as soon as possible, so that we didn’t have to stay in the awkward middle-land of close friendship/courtship any longer than we had to. Finally, after much prayer, many phone calls, and seeking counsel of my pastor and parents, I was confident that I should move forward with the proposal. I received the final permission from her Dad and set out for the most difficult task yet – surprising Anne. =)

From His Perspective ~ Part 2

Nat e-mailed me the rest of his perspectives from "The Cliff-Hanger Series" and normally I am all about being efficient, but in this instance I'm going to post them one at a time. That way each part will have its own blog post and for those of you who read this in google reader or blog lines, you won't have "part 4" show up before "part 3" or "part 2." I know, I know ~ call me quirky! Anyway, here is part 2 from Nat's perspective...

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Okay, well I can't think of any good explanation or excuse for the tardiness of these posts, so I'll pretend that these are hot off the press. =)

Part Two

For Anne, things started to "click" on the bus ride to IL. For me, it took the bus ride, casual discussions over lunch break, my sister coming up to visit and staying at Anne's house, a volleyball game and extra time in the Production room to get my attention. =) You can call me dense, but I choose the title "focused." =) I remember sitting at lunch one day and thinking how Anne was the type of person that I would like to marry, in that our personalities were a good match. However, as much as I respected Anne's personality, I really didn't expect anything to work out between us, because the Lord hadn't given me clearance to pursue her. I was simply content to be friends and enjoyed the fact that we could interact without reading between the

lines.

Anne left for Thailand and apart from missing her smiling face in the office, I honestly didn't think much about her until my trip in October. You see, I had set all specific plans for Thailand aside over the last two years, so I was excited to travel with 5 guys from my church and "introduce" them to the land that I had grown to love. Since I had always stayed for at least a month on previous trips, I naturally extended the 2-week time period of the team to have an extra 10 days to spend with Gaudets and Langes. I enjoyed being a part of the office crew for a week, and it suddenly dawned upon me how much Anne really enjoyed being in Thailand. I really don't know what I was expecting, but since I wasn't a faithful blog follower, it took that trip to reveal her heart for the mission field. I was impressed with her ability to thrive in the midst of the struggles on the field, and how God had knit her heart with the two missionaries that I had grown to love and respect. Looking back at that time, I see that my casual interest in Anne spoke louder than I would have imagined. I still remember the look on Pookie's face when she learned that Anne and I had the same birthday. It was like we had somehow conspired that to happen and were hiding some secret from her. =) Well, if a secret was hidden from anyone at that time, it was hidden from me. My mind was busily at work, thinking through my plans for Bible Institute and how I could assist with the work in Thailand, in the midst of my preparation.

I left Thailand with a renewed vision for ministry and a desire to come back soon and help Bro. Tom with a few projects. The Lord knew I needed that spiritual boost because shortly after I returned home, I had to deal with a difficult situation at church that could have set me into a tailspin. However, the Lord was faithful and used this trial to strengthen my ability to stand alone for the truth. So as the dust settled, I pulled out my plans for a short trip to Thailand and started looking for a free space on the calendar. I had originally planned to travel back to Thailand in February, but it seemed that everything was against that time frame. I had several urgent projects to deal with, our yearly high school trip to IL, and a Bible Institute course that was taught only once every seven years. So, although I couldn’t make it at that time, I sent over two other guys to try and be of help, while I was busy at home. That’s when things started to fall into place with my communication with Anne.

In an effort to keep up with Bro. Tom’s projects and needs, I found myself chatting with Anne quite frequently. Anne was a consistent point of contact for the Thailand office, and so when I saw her online, I would stop by to get the latest news from the field. Then one day, I realized how much of a regular habit I had made of chatting with Anne. In my mind, I was careful to keep the conversation limited to prayer requests and projects, but I also knew how much I enjoyed stopping by to say hello. Then it hit me – I’d better pray about whether I should continue to talk with Anne, because I was starting to cross the line from casual friendship into close friendship – serious stuff.

I’m so glad that I didn’t know what was going through Anne’s mind at this time, or I could have been seriously side-tracked from following God’s timing of events. All I knew was that God had placed a desire on my heart to get to know Anne better, and to do so in a way that would not stir up her emotions or the excitement of friends. Okay, so in looking back, I’ve learned that my tactics weren't as secretive as I thought, but I really did try to limit the frequency and content of my communication with Anne. Anyway, realizing the seriousness of the situation, I grabbed a stack of character qualities and set out to do some homework. I have to say that I was surprised by how many situations I could recall that matched the qualities in question. According to my calculations, I actually knew Anne better than I thought I did.

Then the thought hit me that maybe God was bringing our paths together. “No, that must be my imagination,” I thought. “Focus, Nat, focus.” I had been planning a video project with Tom Gaudet, but the timing kept getting pushed back due to our schedules. Finally, I secured a date for August and stuck to that. I was now praying specifically about Anne, but I honestly didn’t think that she had a clue or any desire toward me. That is the beauty of how things unfolded in my mind. Even though it wasn’t a secret to her or to those in Thailand, God kept confirming his will to pursue Anne in ways that were not influenced by others. In my mind, I was embarking on a secret project. To the rest of the world, Nat was slowly waking up to the obvious. =)

Just A Minute... Definitely Worth It!

For Christmas my future mother-in-law gave me a book entitled, "Come Away My Beloved" - 365 one-minute meditations. Now I will admit that I'm usually not very good at keeping up with a year-long devotional book, but so far I've made it 8 days!

The entry for January 4th made me stop as I considered the challenge issued. Here's the brief entry:

"And he said, Take... thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah: and offer him there." ~ Genesis 22:2

No price is too great to pay for the proper care of that which I have given you. Never regard lightly that which is precious in My sight. There is always an alternative to the life of relinquishment, but it is lean and barren. That which is most precious needs to be offered up to Me continually. My grace is as a beacon. It shall shed light on all that is now obscure.

Home Again!

I'm home again after a great trip to Texas - one of those trips that went by way too fast! I really enjoyed spending time with Nat's family and getting to know them better. With a bunch of little kids in the house, there was always something going on:).

On Wednesday we were able to slip away to Fort Worth and visit with some dear friends of ours, which was definitely worth the drive! Saturday night my brother-in-law picked us up from the Philly airport and we were able to enjoy dinner with my sister and her family before returning home. I have off today from work but Nat got to jump back into his projects, so I'm thinkin' vacation is pretty much over:).

Nat's little sister (3 years old) was intrigued with both of our cameras and did a pretty good job at snapping some photos. I just won't show the close-up pictures she took of herself;).

Nat's family (minus his older brother and wife).

Big sister making sure little sister doesn't fall over the fence:).

Rather than stick to the trail, we branched out a little bit and crossed this stream often:). It was definitely an adventure... but a lot of fun to spend time together as a family!

It Was Only A Matter Of Time...

... before the suitcase got packed up and I boarded a plane again!

My brother Phil likes to tease me that I'm always taking a trip somewhere and I have to admit that he's pretty much right:). I do like to travel, so in the morning I'm heading out to the Lone Star State for 6 days. My sweetie flew down to Texas last Monday to spend Christmas with his family, and now I get to join him!

We decided to spend this last Christmas with our individual families, and I must say I greatly enjoyed Christmas with my parents, uncle, brothers, and their families. I definitely missed Nat, and am looking forward to seeing him again as well as getting to spend some quality time with his family:).

So with that said, if things are a little quiet from my corner of the net, just know I'm in the land of cowboy boots and armadillos.... with a "howdy ya'll" thrown in for good measure!

Joining The Crowd...

.... to say Merry Christmas!

Some More Various And Sundry...

I'm jumping on the ever popular bandwagon of delayed blogging by being fashionably late with these pictures from last weekend's snow:

My first snowfall in almost two years! After being in the tropics last winter (with my brain knowing what temperature it was supposed to be outside), my joy was endless as I saw the white stuff fall from the sky:).

My mom's rose bushes... um, minus the roses:).

Snow and my little car ~ two things I greatly missed in Thailand!

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In other unrelated and thereby probably only interesting news to me, Nat is gone for the weekend to Iowa. Usually he is gone for part or most of the weekend to New Jersey, but in this instance I think he is a little bit farther away than normal:). He did mention to me last night that he has finished part two of his side of The Cliff-Hanger Series and is working on part three, so that should be posted soon!

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As I sat in my church's service this morning, I was reminded again of how good God is to me. The pastor was preaching from John 6 about the disciples in a storm on the Sea of Galilee and it just struck me that God is there in every single storm. There's never a time when He is overtaken with the fear of "what to do." It sure was a good morning spent in the Lord's house, wouldn't you agree?

A Beautiful Day For A Picture.

Well we've done a fall engagement picture, so we thought it was fitting to do a winter one:). I say one loosely - there were actually 40 pictures taken by a sweet lady in my church.

Look who slipped into our little photo shoot! My nephew Ethan wanted to see "Mr. Nat" so I brought him with me to church. He was excited to see Mr. Nat inside the church, but after a few minutes outside, he wasn't enjoying being on his own off to the side. Just look at the face he is making!

Various And Sundry News.

As one commenter pointed out in the last post, my time has been taken up with a certain charming young man, in addition to all the other family members that came streaming through our house over the Thanksgiving holiday.

And you know what? That's ok:).

I really did enjoy having all my brothers, sisters and their families in for Thanksgiving though. It's very rare to get all of us together at once - hence the two group shots in the post below. We know to snag the shots when we can! Plus the rest of the family got to meet and interact with Nat... which they did very well:).

In the midst of family visiting, I started a new job ~ which has been an incredible blessing. God completely provided for me and I was -- once again -- overwhelmed at the way He orchestrated it all out. I am working at a bakery and catering place doing all sorts of things. My favorite part is interacting with customers. It's fun to get to see the "regulars" and to help out wherever I'm needed. The days are long, but are definitely worth it:).

The Christmas program at my church has also been snatching my time away, but it has been a great blessing getting involved with it. We took a break for several years of doing this particular program, so it's exciting to be actively involved with it again and to expect God to bring a couple of thousand people across our way!

There, I think I covered most of what I've been up to ~ family, finance, new job, and Christmas program:).

Well, I'm off to the races again! Enjoy your day:).

A (Pitiful) Excuse.

The lack of blogging over the past couple of weeks have been brought to you by:

My siblings:)

And also by:

My nephews and nieces:)