💙 The Beautiful Providence of God

 I started on the internet back in 1998 using free AOL dial up monthly passes and also using my Juno email account. In June of 2000 I posted an ad on Excite.com a singles classified website. Anita answered my "want ad". I thought "Okay she seems nice". So once or twice a month, we wrote each other emails. I wrote from Indiana to her in Ohio.

                              
                     Not the actual ad

 That September I was going for training in Ohio for my new job. So I figured “Hey, maybe we can meet there”. It would be about half way for both of us. Long story short, she didn't meet me there, didn't call and I was very upset driving back to Indiana. A little bit after I got home she called me and we were cool. In hindsight, it wasn't a good idea for me to ask her to drive that distance anyway for someone she met only on the net. Shortly after that she stopped writing me. I found out later her old boyfriend came back. We started back emailing again that December. Anita told me about a big multi-church singles mingle coming in February in her city. So in February I came to her city for the get-together. At her parent’s house was the first time we saw each other in person. After that, once a month, I would come to her city to see her bearing gifts and spend the night in a hotel. 


 After I came to see her for Easter, we decided to go to another level with our relationship and start talking about marriage. I knew she was the one because God's sovereign hand allowed our relationship to progress the right way. We started talking about theology, which city we would live in, marital covenant, etc. While we were talking, I was getting her ring custom-made and saving what ended up being the most money I had ever saved just at the right time. That Memorial Day weekend I came to see her again and I had it planned to surprise propose to her. So I brought the ring box and a dozen peach colored roses. Our plan was to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When we stopped in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame parking garage I proposed to her. She said yes and we brought the good news to everyone. 

We set our wedding date for July and I gave my job a two-week notice. I was the first to move to our new apartment in the city where Anita was a week before the wedding. After the wedding and first consummation, two weeks later we went on our honeymoon cruise to the Bahamas. God's hand has been strong in our marriage and after all these years we are still "Walking together towards God".




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