The next weekend: I had gone to church and as usual had gone home afterwards alone. Actually, the past few weeks had been more fun, since I had new friends from the new small group to have lunch with. But today, no one seemed interested in having lunch with me. Tim was away at his 10 year Yale reunion. So, I went home, and sat on my couch, and had for the 100th+ time a self pity party. "Why am I single, when will my life be different....when will someone love me???!!!" At the peak of my tears and my literal crying out to God, I literally spoke outloud "When will you send someone to love me?"...seconds later my cell phone rang. (I am NOT exaggerating for the story's sake! It was seconds!!) I was so shocked out of my self pity just long enough to see who was calling?! It was Tim!! I stopped crying, and said "Ha Ha God, I didn't mean him". (Don't ask me why....I had my "reasons").
Anyway, I didn't answer the phone due to my blubbering, but I pulled it together and called him back. He was at the airport on the east coast, and was wondering if I could pick him up at the airport that evening. Of course....I always love to pick people up! Even as he asked, he retracted the need, saying he could take a cab or something. I was like, NO WAY! It will give me something to look forward to! (Hindsight: Tim didn't even know what his intentions were at that point. I wonder if he too was a little lonely after seeing old classmates; normally Tim would NOT call a friend, he would have totally called a taxi for a pick up. We both believe God intervened to make a better story than what we could have on our own!!)
Fast forward: I did pick him up. I brought him back to his place (now OUR place!), and he hesitated getting out. "You wanna go have coffee?" Oh dear, now I was getting nervous. Coffee, at 6:00PM??? Ugh. I stammered, and he quickly tried to back out...so instead of making him feel embarrassed, I said "you can't just invite me, then un-invite me. Let's go". I truly enjoyed his company, I just didn't want to date him!!! Stupid. We walked down a couple of blocks to the heart of Fremont, and instead of coffee, we ended up having our first date....playing pool at "The Ball room". He paid, we had a drink, we each won one game...it was perfect. No long discussions about life, just good old fashioned fun! On the walk home, he kept trying to plan our next event, he really wanted to "pay me back" for the airport ride with dinner. NO DINNER!!! I told him I didn't need pay back at all!! He paid for pool just now, that was payment enough. Well, his persistence, and our mutual love of food paid off for both of us, and the next Friday we had our 2nd "date", at Ray's Boathouse. Two of his buddies from work ended up coming along....a long story, but one that ended up nice and casual instead of a private date at this beautiful and delicious restaurant. (We ended up getting engaged, AND married at Ray's Boathouse!! Sneak peak at future Memorial box stories.)
So in our box, Tim put a little airplane and phone, for the reminder of the miracle it was for both of us that day: when God answered the prayer of my heart with impeccable timing, and He set the fire of courage in Tim's heart to seek me out with a seemingly benign request! Thanks be to God!!
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