In honor of our anniversary

In honor of our 4 year anniversary I thought I would retell the story of how we started dating.

July of 2005 I started attending Lakeside. Robert & I met through our Sunday school class. In November, he asked me out. We went for coffee at Starbucks. To his credit, he did offer to take me to dinner, but I declined and went for coffee instead. Honestly, the only reason I went out with him is because a friend told me to "Keep my options open". In my defense, I hadn't dated anyone in 5 years and was not expecting that to change. I was so inattentive to getting ready for the date that I wore two different tennis shoes. The date was ok. Conversation was easy but I just wasn't interested. After the date he asked for another one and I gave some lame-o excuse as to why I couldn't.

After that we started to become pretty good friends. From time to time I would sense that Robert may still be interested in me. Being the kind & gentle person I was, I said "Hey, we are just friends right?" Apparently, that is like outright rejection. Robert still remained my friend and our friendship continued to grow. At one point I had prayed "Lord, I want to marry my best friend and be surprised by the fact that I've fallen in love with him, but the only guy I'm close friends with is Robert. I don't want to marry him."

Somewhere in the midst of all that I started to fall in love with him although not consciously. I would get a little jealous if I'd see him talking to another girl, little stuff like that. He was always a gentleman, kind, and patient. Only recently we found out that there was a little bit of a conspiracy amongst our friends to get us together. Rachel Crissman to you we owe the final missing piece of the puzzle. You got Robert to spike his hair. Once his hair was off his face, it finally dawned on me that he was really attractive (talk about the scales falling from your eyes). The issue was never our compatibility.

For a solid month I kept dropping hints to Robert that I liked him. None of which he pick up on. Somehow, we ended up going on a non-date together and it was that faithful night we had this conversation.

"Robert, I didn't really give you a fair chance when we went out on that first date."
"Oh, that's ok! I forgive you."
(Darbi thinks to herself 'He is not getting this at all, I need to be more direct').
"Robert... I like you."
Silence fills the car
"I don't object".

We said good night and went home. The next day Robert asked me out (our second attempt at a first date). One year later we were married. When I asked him what "I don't object" meant, he said that he didn't object to dating but wanted to pray about it first. Although the only thing he was able to articulate was "I don't object".

I praise God for an interesting but amazing journey we've had together. We have cried (a lot), laughed, and grown up together. God used us as co-creators of three beautiful souls whose short existence here was a gateway to heaven. We are the opposite of each other, bringing out the best in each other.

We eagerly wait to see where the Lord is taking us next.