The Game Changer

Greetings friends and family!  Clearly, the move to Los Angeles has interfered with my keeping up with this.  I would like to be able to blame it on a fabulous job keeping me busy, or perhaps countless trips and adventures taken on the west coast.  Alas, I cannot.  I can, however, tell you about what (or who, rather) has been taking up all of my time.

I will start by saying this.  When I moved here back in August, my intention was to simply give it a go for a few months, see some sights, test the waters, and if no job had surfaced by the fall, move back to New York just in time to sign a new lease.  I kept telling people that I just wanted to “get it out of my system before I settle down back on the east coast. “  My, my how things have changed in such a short period of time.  And the funny thing is that I did not see the game changer coming at all…

I arrived here on a Saturday, and on the very next day decided to attend church at a congregation recommended to me by friends in New York.  Arriving ten minutes late as usual, I sat on the very back row, scared to death and with a huge hole in my heart for friends and family back east.  Not too long into the service, I noticed a friend from my church in New York, sitting in the audience with her family.  She grew up at this church, and was visiting for the summer.  She saw me as she was heading to the nursery with her newborn, gave me a hug and told me to hang around after church so we could catch up and she could introduce me to “some people.”  So I did.

You could almost see the light bulb go off in this girl’s head when I told her I was single and had moved there to try things out for a while.  Enter Daniel.  I remember seeing him for the first time.  He was running the sound/lights during the service, turned around at one point, and we made eye contact.  I have never told him this, but I definitely noticed him then.  Anyway, she has known him since he was born, and their families are extremely close.  She pulled him over to me, made the introduction, and then disappeared to breast feed, I think.  We talked for quite a while, and he asked for my number before leaving.  Honestly, at that point, I was just glad to have met someone who was also temporarily unemployed, and that I could befriend during the week when everyone else was at work.  Didn’t think much else of it.

That afternoon while at the beach with my roommate, I sent the standard “it was nice to meet you” text.  The next day, he asked me to go to a concert with him and his friends, which I did.  Definitely not impressed with the band, but I thought his friends were great, and that he was sweet for taking pity on me in my state of loneliness.  The following day, he asked me to lunch, which I had to decline due to other plans.  For the next week, he was in Austin, helping a friend drive and move there.  There were quite a few texts exchanged, and arrangements were made to get together in the coming days.  Still in the friend zone, I found myself getting a little excited about hanging out with him when he got back…which was literally the very day after his plane landed. 

After a few “field trips” (that’s what I used to call dates in high school), I could tell that he was definitely interested and that I was, in fact, interested too.  Since that time, our relationship has moved at the speed of light, since we basically spend every single day together.  Although I am trying to be realistic and responsible with this whole thing, I already feel like God has answered a prayer I have been praying my entire life.  When I am with him, I feel complete (as cheesy as that sounds…I never believed people when they said that before, but now I get it.)  He is kind, thoughtful, ambitious, adventurous, determined, funny, mature, and intelligent.  He loves the Lord.  He makes me laugh out loud, want to be a better person, and treats me like a queen. 

After my 30^th birthday in July, I finally felt like I had reached a state of contentment with life and who I had turned out to be.  I had peace with past relationships being over.  I wasn’t looking for another one.  As a matter of fact, I gave up the idea entirely.  The last week in New York was amazing, and there were definitely things that happened that gave me things to think about regarding relationships and moving back.  I will always cherish those last few days and what happened during that time, but I also am glad I went forward with the move.  I really feel like I have found my perfect match.  Although I do intend to be prayerful and seek God’s direction with this decision, I know He has led me to this place and this point.  And I am so very grateful that He did.