You might expect the first time I met this beautiful woman was when we saw one another across a crowded room, but that wasn’t the case. Perhaps knowing both of us, you might have thought we met when staring each other down across the volleyball net in a grueling and tense match. While that certainly sounds more like our speed, you’d be wrong again.

 

My first interaction with Lindsey actually started behind a dimly lit computer screen. I had made the decision that it was time to get outside the box because the traditional methods of meeting someone didn’t seem to be working for me. Living in the same place most of my adult life made it difficult to meet new people so I decided to try online dating. I had dabbled with a couple of online dating sites before but with no success, so I decided to try a Christian dating website and joined ChristianMingle. I thought that would surely be a place where I could not only meet someone with similar likes and dislikes as me but also had the same values. I initially searched within a short distance of my location, which turned up virtually no results.

I decided since this website was relatively new, I better expand my horizon even though I figured no girl would be interested in talking to me if I lived hundreds of miles away. It wasn’t but a few minutes after looking that a profile popped up with this beautiful brunette. Within the first few sentences of her “about me” section, she made mention of how much she loved to play volleyball, even daily if she could. My very first thought was “Wow, a girl after my own heart, who loves God and volleyball!” I had to write to her!

Before I could write to Lindsay, I had to do some adjusting to my own profile. I had forgotten to make mention of my love for volleyball! Soon, we began exchanging a few emails over the course of the next few days. As a side note, I was wrong about distance being a barrier to communication as I lived in Columbia, Missouri and Lindsey was in Lafayette, Indiana.

It wasn’t until I was on a business trip, sitting in my hotel room, logged in and hoping to hear from this girl I was so excited about when she actually came online! We spent the next few hours chatting away and the night flew by.

Once I was back in Missouri, our communication turned to text and then eventually phone calls. The first phone call we had lasted nearly 4 hours which according to Lindsey, was long! She never stays on the phone for that length of time, so I was pretty impressed she found me interesting enough to talk with for almost 4 hours.

Our conversations covered a wide array of topics but it wasn’t long before it came up that she was heading out to Pittsburgh for her twin sister’s wedding, which Lindsey didn’t yet have a date for. As a joke, I mentioned I didn’t get an invitation because perhaps it got lost in the mail, or I would have been her date. She didn’t take it as a joke and she actually invited me! Once I got a message from the bride-to-be with an official invite, I knew I couldn’t say no!

After just a few short weeks of emails, text messages, and phone calls, I was on my way to Pittsburgh by way of a 12 hour road trip to meet a girl I had never met before along with what seemed like 300 of her closest friends and family! Crazy, gutsy, call it whatever you like, it was an amazing trip and I got to meet some truly wonderful people that welcomed me and made me feel very at home. I was able to stay for nearly a week and spend some quality time with Lindsey after the wedding.

That 12 hour drive home from Pittsburgh flew by because my head was in the clouds. I had just been on an amazing trip, had a new blossoming relationship, and met so many great people. I knew that the trajectory of my life had just changed and I was excited to see what God had in store next. The next few months seemed to fly by; trips back and forth between Indiana and Missouri until I made the decision that it was time to take the plunge and move to Indiana so we could really see if our relationship had the potential to go the distance.

Moving day couldn’t come soon enough. Because of many setbacks and delays, it seemed like it was never going to get there. And yes, it was hard leaving a place I had spent my whole life with friends and family so close by, but I was very excited for this new adventure and chapter of my life.

On exactly a year to the day that Lindsey and I started dating, I got down on one knee to ask her to be my wife. The past year has been a whirlwind of new experiences, challenges, and exciting times and I wouldn’t change any of it. I am looking forward to spending my life with this amazing person God has blessed me with!