Eight months or 242 days until I become Mrs. Nearhood. I still have to pinch myself every time I put my engagement ring back on my finger every morning. With every pinch I yell, verifying that I am not dreaming but infact living, and living richly.
On our wedding day, Ryan and I will have been a couple for 1200 days but we have known each other much longer than that. Much, much longer according to him, but then again please don’t ask us how we met because we both have a different story.
However, one thing I know to be true is Ryan asked me if I liked Olive Garden (thus asking me out on a date) in 2009. After turning him down, he made his intentions known and asked if I would consider a friendship, thus a wonderful friendship was born. When I looked at him, I saw him as a faithful friend, a brother of Christ, and nothing more. He wooed me with giving me space, sweet words, and just being there. When I left 
for Bluffton, that spring semester of 2011 on February 10, 2011 is when I knew I liked him a little more than I originally thought. It wasn’t a lightening bolt that struck me, it was actually the day of our first huge fight. It was also the day of his 17th birthday.
From then on (after calling him crying at 2 a.m. in my dorm’s lobby, and writing him one of the most heartfelt letters I’ve ever written, we made up). We started again. This time, God opened my eyes to how much God had molded and shaped him the past 3 years. Until now, he was just my good friend, but that week I started to see myself with him. A college junior and a high school junior didn’t seem so strange to me as it once did. A light kiss on the cheek that summer before returning to Bluffton is by far one of the greatest gifts I have ever received short of his time. Ryan always was willing to give up his time to be with me, and treated me like I’m the only one in the room, it’s by far the best gift he has ever given to me. I cherished it so and still do to this day. It means the world to me.
Flash forward a year and February 14, 2012 we became girlfriend and boyfriend. Both seniors in different stages of life made for an interesting topic among our friends, but we didn’t care. Day by day, I learned how to love him more. I began to trust God more and learned to love my Creator more, which then led to me learning how to love Ryan more. A month after Ryan said the three little words to me, I was able to return the favor. Finally able to say them with 100% humility and not for the famous response. Something I had never done before short of saying it to family and close friends.
Until about a year ago I never realized how much Ryan waited for me. How he prayed for me and was so patie
nt with me, not knowing if I was supposed to be his or not. He was busy following God’s will with his everything, all while his heart still bent at knowing me. There’s a song called “When Did You Fall” by Chris Rice and the desire of my heart is go back and have my eyes opened to all the little signs. But my head knows, it’s better this way. After all, I did give up my pen of my love story to God and it’s best to leave it there. Our story is proof of that.
I am so happy I surrendered that pen. As much as I wanted to write my own happily-ever-after, I don’t think I could have written a better one even if I tried. So, in 8 months, we become one, but until then I plan to enjoy this chapter. This chapter of preparation, wedding cake testing (yum!), dress fittings, and studying and learning from my Creator about how to love Ryan even more than I do today is by far the best one yet. And somehow I have a feeling that truly the best is yet to come. But even if not, for better or for worse, I’m ready.
