I had heard about Sarah long before we met. I knew we would be attending a meeting together, so I started to e-mail her to prime the pump a little. (I also started to facebook stalk her a little, but that makes me look psycho.) On the second day of the meeting, Sarah came over to where I was sitting and asked if she could sit down by me. Though she thought nothing of it at the time, I was convinced that it was ON! I became less and less convinced that it was on, though, as Sarah rejected my every attempt to hang out with her the rest of the week.

By the end of the week, I was determined I was going to see her again. She scheduled me in for 9 P.M. on the night before she flew out early the next morning. That 9 P.M. meeting turned into a five hour conversation. I left that night knowing that I had to get to know her more.

This talk was the definition of the awkward stage Sarah mentioned. After Skype cut out (I’m still convinced it hates us), I asked Sarah, “Will you pray about letting me pursue you?” I thought this was a no-brainer, that we would be a couple by the end of the conversation. To my surprise, she said, “I’m not going to say, ‘No’ without praying about it.”

I literally said, “You aren’t going to say WHAT?”

She replied with the same answer. I abruptly ended the phone call and began to throw a pity party. I called some good friends and asked them what in the world had gone on these last few weeks, if I was I totally kidding myself. I mean I knew I didn’t understand women, but how could I be 100% sure she was into me while she is basically giving me a “No way”?

That night and into the next morning, I worked on an e-mail telling Sarah all the reasons that I thought she was into me. I basically worked like a trial lawyer, listing the arguments for why we should be together. After sending it to a couple friends for approval, I fired off the e-mail.

A few hours later (27 to be exact), Sarah replied with the most grace-filled, beautiful e-mail I have ever received. She explained why she reacted the way she did, that she really WAS praying about it, and that she wasn’t saying, “No” but instead, “Not now.” She ended the e-mail with, “I have no idea where our relationship will go from here, or where Father will lead in days to come. But, will you do me a favor? Please always treat girls the way you have treated me.”

When I read that line, I literally said, out loud, “I love you.” I didn’t know how long I would have to wait for this amazing woman to come around, but I was willing to wait as long as it took. I began to pray that God would change Sarah’s heart toward me, that He would give her a love for me and a desire to marry me.

Sarah and I ended up signing up for an evangelism training scheduled for about two months after the “I’ll pray about it” talk. I continued to pray that God would turn her heart toward me, and we scheduled a date for the first night of the meeting.

When Sarah came downstairs to meet me for the date, I was SO nervous. Some of that was due to the fear that we may not like each other “in real life” as much as we did through the electronic universe. The other part of it was that I felt like God was telling me we should be together, but I wasn’t sure where she stood. That night was phenomenal: we laughed, we talked about the most important things in the universe, and we just truly enjoyed being with each other. By the end of the night, we said that we both knew we were “all in” for this relationship. Though we didn’t know how it would all play out, we knew we should move forward.

That week was filled with more and more confirmation. From seeing Sarah loving people in the city to watching her so quickly pick up the stories we were memorizing in another language to stealing away from the crowd and going on dates every night, by the end of the week I felt certain this woman would be my wife. I will never forget the bench where I knew that it would happen.

Now began the process of trying to date from a few hundred miles away…

That night, I was sure that we would be married. The logistics and timing of that were completely unknown to us both. In the next few months, Sarah and I got to see each other more times than we ever thought we would. Both of us would just “by chance” be passing through the same city at the same time. Other times, we would both ride an overnight train, hang out for a day then turn around and ride an overnight train back to our respective cities. Sarah came to the city where I was working, and the people there immediately loved her and asked her to stay. In fact, at one point they asked her to switch places with me and stay in my city while I went to hers.

My love for Sarah grew exponentially during this time. The more I got to know her, the more I wanted to know her. The more time I spent with her, the more time I wanted to spend with her. I kept anticipating the day that we would finally be together.

In October, I returned to the States. When I booked my tickets home, I had NO IDEA that Sarah would be coming to the same part of the country only a week after I got home…

I was originally planning on proposing to Sarah on the other side of the world where our relationship had developed. She ended up coming back in March, so instead I rushed the designing of the ring and tried to plan a proposal in a place I had never visited. A few weeks later, I went to Florida with ring in hand. With A TON of help from her best friend and family, I put together a plan to propose.

The first time seeing Sarah in a few months was amazing. Her family was so welcoming, and I loved finally connecting with that part of her world. On Wednesday, I asked her parents for permission, and they were so encouraging with their “Yes.” Sarah and I spent the day together Thursday, and it was one of the sweetest we had together. I’ll let her tell the proposal story…

I tried to be cool and collected all day, but I was pretty nervous. Sarah’s friends and family had been so great in helping me plan and prepare, and everything went as smoothly as it could have.

After the church, we went to Sarah’s friend’s house where a small group of friends and family were waiting to congratulate us. We ended the night watching a video of my family welcoming Sarah into it.

It was truly one of the best days of my life, and I know it’s a foretaste of many great days to come. Outside Himself, Sarah is the greatest gift that God has given me. She brings me more joy than I ever knew another person could, she challenges me to love God and people more both with her life and her words, and she makes me a better man just be being who she is. I am so excited about starting life together.