Her Side:
Big and I met through D&D. Yup, you heard it. D&D. I decided to join a campaign that his roomate Drew was running at their house. At first he was just a cute guy who was not a Christian and in a relationship aka totally off limits. After a few months of playing together though, I learned his relationship had been over for a while and started wrestling with whether or not I would ever date an agnostic. I thought, prayed, talked with friends about it for a few weeks and decided I would be up for something casual. I would never get serious with someone who didn't share my beliefs, but that didn't mean we couldn't get to know each other and date a little. The same evening I was considering asking him to coffee he offered to take me to the airport for the weekend trip I had coming up and to take me to the Flying M for coffee first. Just over a week after our first date, we decided to be "in a relationship", thank you Facebook for being such an easy segue into the DTR conversation. My plan to keep it casual didn't turn out so well in the face of how good we were together, how much fun we had, how similar our interests and values were, despite the religion issue. Seven months into the relationship we had to make a big decision: break up or stay together in a long distance relationship. Big was going to grad school all the way across the country for five years. We stayed together. I did a lot of soul searching and praying. I had one question looming over me that had weighed on my heart from the moment I fell in love: could we stay together? how would I reconcile my life-long belief that Christians and non Christians shouldn't be together with the love, compatibility and openness we shared, and the sense of blessing and rightness I felt. It wasn't easy and it wasn't quick, but I eventually came to the conclusion that even though this might not be the simplest path, God had blessed me with this man and that despite the challenges we would face, our life together would be beautiful, blessed, and full of God's love. On June 2nd, 2010, on a picnic at my favorite spot in the world, Big asked me to marry him and I said YES YES YES! We set the date for January 9, 2011, two years exactly from our first date. I know from there, the adventure is just beginning.
His Side:
So, there was this cute girl. We met in my basement, which was the site of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. It was September, I was then in a relationship. But there was certainly no denying that she was a cute girl. We saw each other every time we played, and that was that. Fast-forward to December. I have in the meantime become single again, and Anna has in the meantime remained super cute. I first thought of her at a meeting at Fuddruckers, where the D&D group had gathered for some reason or another, likely one that involved milkshakes. There it entered my mind that - hey, she's a cute girl, I'm a cute boy; maybe there's something here? We spent much of the d'Orange Holiday party chatting (while not cringing at the terribleosity that was Dungeons and Dragons 2: The Movie), and we spent much of the following week chatting on Facebook, a lot. I gathered up the courage and asked her if she wanted to get coffee before going to the airport. She said yes, I immediately did an embarrassing dance (she couldn't see me, of course. Alex on the other hand...). Two years on the day of our first date, we'll be married. I'm sure there's some stuff in between, but that's for another day (and you know it'll be all gooey, and yes, it involved singing the Banana Phone song quite a bit).
