two whole years

sometime during the second semester of my sophomore year in college, i heard about a group of people going to russia on a mission trip who were looking for a few more people to be on their team. this excited me for two reasons: 1) i had been interested in missions work ever since going to a church summer camp in 7th grade and 2) i had studied the russian language for three years in high school. so, of course, i applied to go with them and they accepted me.

before leaving to go to russia that summer, i sort of started dating a friend from high school who was an all around good guy. nothing serious and definitely safe. he ended up emailing me during my five weeks in russia, saying that we probably weren't meant to be together and he "didn't want to hold me back." he was right, and i knew it, but i was still broke up about it. since we were living and working in such close quarters, everyone on our team knew about the "break up" and a few gave me some good advice. one was one of the team leaders and another was one of my roommates who was a few years older and much more mature. they both told me, totally independent of each other, that they thought i should stay single for two years and try to concentrate on what god had to do in my life. funny enough, my dad also said the same thing, but also emphasized that i should concentrate on graduating from college. and no, i hadn't told him what these people had advised and he didn't even know them so they couldn't have told him for me. to top it off, i found out that a guy i had had a crush on since my freshman year in high school was moving across the country for a job for the next two years. i considered that my sign from god that i should follow these people's crazy advice, because obviously that guy was going to move back in two years and marry me!

i'll just tell you right now that that guy was not lucky hubby and is insignificant to rest of the story. not one week after getting home from russia, one of the guys from the trip called me to basically say that he wanted to date me. he had been like a big brother to me on the trip and i had never thought of him that way, and i figured the easiest way to let him down would be to tell him the truth: i wasn't dating anyone for the next two years! ha ha! this was going to be the best line ever. i never could have guessed that god would also have a one-liner for me.

there were three guys i had a hard time not dating during those two years. in fact, i just decided not to give them my line and try to forget about the whole two year commitment thing. wouldn't you know it, every single one of them would get no further than the second date before telling me that they "didn't want to hold me back." when the second one gave me that line, i just gave this sarcastic laugh and then had to explain that i wasn't laughing at him, but at how i knew god put those words in his mouth just to show me that he knew what i was up to and that it wasn't going to work (duh). sometimes it's nice to know that god has a sense of humor, you know?

anyhow, i ended up surviving through those terrible two years. i kid, i kid... it wasn't terrible and i'm so glad that i did follow through with the whole two year thing. i really figured out who i was, who i wanted to be and what kind of man i wanted. i think being single for that long taught me to turn to god in my loneliness and rely on him for so much more. it also really prepared me for having a hubby who deploys and has to work a lot. and it makes me feel better when i don't understand something that i'm going through at the time, because i can remember my two years and think about how it was all part of a greater plan.