Through His eyes....

***A Special guest blog by Steve***
I know by now you have all heard Deaira’s side of things so I thought it was about time to invade her blog with mine. It’s hard if not impossible to cram the last 2 and ½ years into one blog entry so I’ll just try my best to be relevant. I was sitting around one day surfing MySpace when I came across Deaira's profile. Impressed by her love of Lord of the Rings and her obvious love of the Lord I sent her a message asking if we could be MySpace friends. That quickly became long late night phone calls about Lost and cake. I remember our first date very well! I got up early since it was my day off and went to get a haircut, got the car washed bought new boots and went to Ross and bought a new Shirt. Why did I do all these things? At this point I really wanted to make a good first impression. I had learned so much about her heart. The nervous silence of dinner was broken by our musings over how good the food was and I knew I had found someone special. Sorry to jump ahead but it wasn’t long before we were spending all our time together. Laughing, talking, and eating. It wasn’t long before she told me in tears that she wasn’t looking for a boy friend; she was looking for a husband and a best friend and someone who loved Jesus as much as she did. I was relieved to hear her say that. I felt the same way. I wanted to take our relationship seriously and I do love the Lord. We spent every day after that with that in mind. I know my commitment to her grew strong and deeper until one day we were just watching TV and we both looked at each other and had some kind of mutual “I really want to marry you” moment. It was spontaneous and probably a little silly but we knew. I remember calling my mom and telling her almost 2 years ago that I wanted to ask Deaira to marry me. I called my Grandma Goble that day too! Our trip to Michigan was great. She fit into my family without missing a beat which is kind of scary! She loves my mom and dad she loves my brother Andy and as for my sister they are like long lost sisters that were meant to be together. After that trip we started to plan to think. We thought we were ready then! We really were convinced of it, that we could get married that year and we knew everything. Fast forward to last August when Deaira went to Texas. For me, it was the worst experience of my life. I was miserable and lonely and I felt abandoned. After a while though, I started to realize something. In missing her I started to really appreciate all the little things she used to do. Even some of the things that used to make me crazy started to click into focus. I stopped feeling like victim and started to really let myself lean on the Lord. By Thanksgiving time I was a different man. We had been apart for months and I had struggled and by this time I was even more certain that I loved Deaira and would love her for all my days. That I wanted nothing more than to be her one and only and for us to side by side heart to heart honor love and obey the Lord Our God. The feeling of steadfastness and trust and commitment that I have even now is easily ten-fold what it was before she went to be with her grandma. I won’t say it’s easy to remember that when we fight or hurt each other, but the appreciation that grew out of that time has made it easier to remember how much I appreciate and love her. We are much stronger for it. Now fast forward to January and Dea and I started to go nuts trying to plan and pay for our wedding.. (Did I skip the proposal)? For me being the guy, the best part was picking out and taste testing cake! The one we picked out is 2/3 mine and 1/3 Deaira's. LOL. She fell instantly in love with this pumpkin cake. It’s been a growing experience all on its own this planning a wedding. When we disagree and I think I'm right and we sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk it out and come to an agreement it’s a great metaphor for what I hope is the way we deal with all our problems. Coming to an understanding, finding common ground. Not spending $400.00 on folding chairs! LOL. I know this has been a little scatter brained and all over the map I hope someone got something out of it.