It all started back on May 12th as I was ready to give up on dating and decided God would provide someone. Later that day, Missy joined ChristianMingle, saw my picture and “smiled” at me after her busy day at school. After we “smiled” at each other and exchanged a couple emails and several phone calls, I asked her for a date on that upcoming Friday night.

Thursday night rolled around and I thought I was just having high anxiety, but as it turned out, the Big Guy thought it would be funny to let me trust Him a bit more. He let me suffer the evening with what I jokingly call “Sal’s manilla” (salmonella) food poisoning from the chicken that Thursday night.

The next morning (Friday), the 16th of May, I reluctantly called Missy about mid-day after not being able to kick the sick. I feared she’d think I just fibbing just to skip out on the date, but I decided it was best to
hold off so I didn’t get sick with her at dinner as much as I hated to cancel.

I prayed and prayed that God would heal me and find a way to get me better. I had spent the night weak and sleeping on the bathroom floor and the day in bed. Someone told me to lay out in the sun to allow the Vitamin D to make me feel better. I had to just completely humble myself and call my parents to bring Advil and sodas. But I remember I told my Dad that I would marry this girl if I ever get the opportunity to meet her.

Looking back, I see that I was able to spend that time really preparing my soul and trusting God would work in my life with His timing, while I was able to also worship Him through Missy’s Youtube of the Christian song “This Journey Is Not My Own” on replay some odd 150 times.

Later that afternoon, it’s like God just flipped the switch after I thought the night was lost and allowed me to have life and energy back in my body. It was like God’s final flush of everything in me so I was entirely newly prepared for that evening that I hadn’t perceived was going to be the evening I met the wife He had set aside.

I called Missy back that afternoon and asked if she’d consider still seeing me that night.  She agreed to the date, but gave me one condition: “If you projectile on me, I’m gonna punch you in the face.”  I happily agreed to that and said it’d so be worth it!

That evening, she says I swept her off her feet as I approached her from the hallway behind the hostess of Bobby’s Jazz Lounge in Scottsdale, Arizona. I had a single red long-stem rose in hand and, after we took one look at each other, we grasped each other for a tight hug like we were long-lost best friends. It was that love-at-first-sight moment.

I couldn’t even resist sharing a couple cheek kisses for Missy during that first hug. What can I say? The date began as I led her up the spiral stairs to the glass bead surrounded, dimly lit jazz lounge restaurant area by the band. I was beyond nervous.

Dinner was filled with long conversation, hand-holding at the table all night long and we finally ordered a bit of food when the server asked if we were even hungry or just hanging out.

When I decided to share part of the food she just spilled on her beautiful outfit she was sold! Dinner was amazing and I never ended up sick nor did I have to be punched in the face, but we did capture our first song that night as I asked her to dance just as the band started into “At Last.”

After dinner, I explained to her that I didn’t kiss on the first date as I almost immediately fell into her lips. We followed up our evening at 92nd Street Cafe to embarrass each other more for some karaoke. Missy totally owned Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why” and stole my heart. Meanwhile, I had picked Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” until I realized it ends with “I love you” and I was sure to freak her out on the first date, even though I knew I loved her the moment I hugged her. So instead, I serenaded her with the oh-so-romantic “Friends in Low Places.” I had panicked so I went with the next thing I saw on the list. It was the craziest thing and all too much a Godcidence (there is no coincidence) when I asked her to dance the following two date nights when “At Last” played yet again. God definitely has a sense of humor!

Three months later, I prayed and knew that God had intended us to be together, so I setup a proposal for August 17, 2014. I surprised her with a flash mob singing proposal mash-up of “You’re Amazing Just The Way You Are” merged with a short bit of “I Am The Lucky One” and I promised I’d sing to her every day if she would “Marry me here in True Foods cafe.” Of all the phones recording in the restaurant, we were able to get one video on Youtube.

We were married in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona at the Windgate Ranch community clubhouse and enjoyed our blessed wedding day on December 21, 2014 where we signed our Arizona covenant marriage license.

Since that day, God introduced His new timeline somewhere in May 2015 to start trying for a baby. We had planned October or November 2015, but He laughed at that and had the Doctor give us an actual prescription to start trying right away if we wanted to get pregnant. We are truly blessed to be expecting a little boy in February 2016!

We’ve seen each other every singe day since our first date, and we’re agreed when we say we are completely without issues or regrets (other than maybe that Karaoke song), we love our time together filled with celebrating each other, practicing the “couples that pray together, stay together,” and loving our Almighty Father God and Lord Jesus Christ!

We ask for everyone’s continued prayers as we move forward on God’s path. The rest is God’s blessed history, may He always remain the center of our marriage and guide us as a team down the road of life. For all the others out there looking, pray that God will work His mighty hand in your life and provide you the person that He has intended. Also, thank you ChristianMingle for providing the means for God to work in our lives!

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