How We Met
I love what God has done in our lives. A California guy and a Canadian girl starting a life together. Not necessarily unheard of, but I never thought it would be my life. Gene and I met a Christian ministry called Youth With a Mission in February of 2014. He had just returned from a seven-week outreach in Colombia, where I was actually heading to at the end of March. Funny how things work out that way… He helped me and my best friend sweep and mop the floors. I remember meeting, he doesn’t recall it as well as I do. How flattering? Haha!
We reconnected in September of 2016 when he returned to Denver, while I was living a province over in Saskatchewan. We began chatting, getting to know one another, skyping occasionally, and then late one night he messaged me with something on his heart. He was back in Denver pursuing what God put on his heart and that is what he needed to be focusing on, not me. To sum it up, what he said was, “I like you. Now is not the right time. Please don’t friend-zone me.” I was so honored. A man who puts his faith before me, dang. That’s a good man. I will NOT friend-zone him. I too, was actively involved in my church and young adults group and I agreed. God was doing incredible things during my season away from home, and I wanted that to be my #1 priority. So we decided to talk less, pursue more in our faiths, but the funny thing is, He only drew us closer together.
I began to recognize so many qualities that I prayed for in my future husband. I prayed that my future husband would really pursue my heart. I didn’t want to be the girl who was chasing boys and He delivered. We spent many late nights talking, and talking turned into planning, and then planning turned into this wonderful man asking to come visit me and see if we could make a relationship work. Again, he’s a California boy, so if he was willing to journey to the cold north in February I thought, “This guy is something.” That’s pursuit alright!
After months of skyping, phone calls, and texting late into the night, on the coldest day of the year in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Gene arrived! That very same day he asked me to be his girlfriend, we shared our first kiss, and he told me he loved me. He was on a mission! My heart knew I loved him too and I had to tell him.
I love how we found one another. I had never been deeper in my relationship with God, and when I was there, that’s where I found the love of my life. Thank you Jesus!!!
how they asked
Only five trips back and forth was all it took before we knew we were ready to take the next step (long distance relationships, am I right?!). Arriving in San Francisco on September 7th (my parent’s 25th wedding anniversary!!!), he was waiting with flowers. We went to a beautiful restaurant called Forbes Island, just off Pier 39. It’s this houseboat that was converted into a French restaurant with a lighthouse built on top. We took a boat ride to the restaurant, were served a four-course, five-star meal, and dang was it ever good. He ‘ran to the bathroom’, but actually, he conspired with the waiter to help capture THE MOMENT (so cute).
When we were done our meal he asked if I wanted to go check out the lighthouse and the waiter insisted he lead us up and ‘make sure it was unlocked.’ Gene asked him if he would take a few pictures of us on top, and as we posed together I heard Gene take a deep breath and say, “Well..”, he shared some sweet, sweet words, and asked me if I would share the rest of my life with him. I replied in a high-pitched shout, “OF COURSE!”, we kissed, and then he put a ring on it. My man did good.