Our First Date

I don’t know if I mentioned to you that Melissa and I are seeing each other. I was rather nervous when I asked her if she was willing to pursue a committed relationship because I had been praying for weeks that if this wasn’t right, that she would say no. So, I wasn’t sure what exactly that she was going to say. I talked to her on Friday, and asked her if she was still planning on going bowling with a bunch of friends on Saturday and she replied that most of the people that she had talked to didn’t want to spend the money. So, I asked her, “What about rollerblading?”

“Well,” she replied, “not everyone has rollerblades.”

“What about just you and me?” She looked at me blankly, not sure what to say. “Think about and let me know.” I told her before saying good bye and heading toward my dorm room.

Well, as I’m sure that you have guessed, she came to me later that day and said that she would like to go. It was set, just she and I. I didn’t want to make it too serious of a thing, so I thought rollerblading would be fun, but as causal as the “date” seemed, I was still nervous. I took a shower, combed my hair just right and even pulled out the Tommy Hilfiger bath set that I had received for Christmas. Seven o’clock came around and I went on over to the dorm room that she was at and knocked on the door. The door opened and there she was, though causally dressed, she had just gotten her hair cut and was looking rather attractive. The night had begun. We rollerbladed and carried on a normal conversation for a while, before driving on over to Lake Hollingsworth for a starry walk around the lake.

The lake was perfect. I saw a cute little dock jutting out into the rippling water, and thought it looked like a great place to sit down and ask her about a serious courtship. I led her over to the dock, sat down and swung my feet over the edge, when suddenly, SPLASH! Though I couldn’t see it very well the murky black water was at a very high level, almost up to the edge of the boards. I jumped up, thoughts of alligators jumping into my head. No, no, this dock wouldn’t work. After a few more minutes of walking, we had found the perfect dock. I sat down. She sat down. After a few minutes I turned to her and began the conversation.

“Melissa, I’m strongly attracted to you and I have been thinking a lot about you . . .” You should have seen the smile on her face. Her eyes were practically sparkling. I went on to ask her if a purposeful relationship was something that she was sure about committing to.

She said “Yes.”

So, now we’re together and we’ve been having a lot of fun over the past few weeks getting to know one another, planning our relationship, setting boundaries and working together. We’re even working on a mission statement for our relationship. So far we have: “To exhibit a godly relationship of moral excellence, respect and commitment as we value, enjoy, discover and learn about each other while exploring the possibility of marriage.”

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers Alayna. I wish that you could be down here, along with the rest of the family, getting to know Melissa with me. I really miss all of you. Tell everyone that I said hi. I love you.