To all the single ladies and fairytale dreamers....

Despite being married now, I still find myself  nodding my head and relating to the single girls standing up for their single life. The older we get, the more the question is asked "So why are you still alone?"  I commend those who refuse to "settle" because they know that their knight in shining armor is out there. They know someone exists for them and that God will align their paths when the time is right...Some will roll their eyes but my belief in this got me exactly what I was looking for...

I don't just say this because I'm happily married now, but because I look back and see that, without a doubt, God opened our eyes to one another when he knew it was right and not a moment sooner... Indeed there were plenty of chances for us to hit it off sooner.

Just to prove my point....witness this recent discovery by a very close friend............

You'll remember my friend Micah who traveled to Brazil with me in 2010. He and I go way back. We're talking 5th-grade-way-back. 

In the spring of 2006, Micah hosted a get-together at his mother's house for a semi-small group of friends. There were about six of us who'd graduated high school together. I brought a few other friends who knew Micah. My older brother Nic also came with a few of his closest friends.

We hung out in the sunshine all afternoon.We grilled, enjoyed drinks, played yard games and hit up the hot tub. Later that day I made my first (and only to date) trek through downtown Louisville for Thunder Over Louisville at the Ohio River. It was a madhouse but exciting to say the least. Nic hosted the post-party at his apartment. 

A fun, fun spring day in Kentucky. One of the many memorable college events where my camera was overly active in documenting the fun.

Ah, but it documented something else--or someone else I should say--as well. 

Among that group of close friends at Micah's was none other that my Mingus. He's right there in the thick of the fun happening in several pictures. He's there laughing with my closest guy friends. How did he not become a closer friend because of this day? 

Valerie and I at Micah's Party in 2006.
Jon was just over my shoulder when we took this picture...

What makes this 2006 gathering different than the others over the years--besides the fact I never knew he was there--is that this was as small, more intimate group gathering. It really shows that we were staring each other in the face but we were kept blind to each other for one reason or another.

Given, we were both wrapped up in own love lives at this point in time. He had a girlfriend. I was spinning circles with several confusing loose ends in the relationship world. But that never kept me from becomes friends with Nic's other friends. 

Jon and I connected immediately on that day we finally did hold a conversation. Could it have happened had we simply decided to hold a conversation on that sunny spring day in 2006? 

Needless to say, there is no answer to that question, and frankly, I don't care about the answer. 
If we had hit it off that day and started dating? I can't say the course of my life would have followed the path that it did for the next four years and I had a great college career as a single gal living it up with my girl friends. What would he say? Ha, I'm not sure but since I do know a tad about his adventures (thanks to my brother and mutual friends) I'd venture to say he wouldn't trade in those memories either.

We needed those four extra years to explore ourselves and independently grow before we could best begin to better each other. 

My dad once told me that if we would go back and change anything about our lives it must mean we aren't really happy with where are lives are presently. Any one change to the past would cause a ripple effect of changes to the aftermath and alter the present as we know it and everything in between. I couldn't be happier now, so I'm more than grateful to have been single for years and letting God steady my heart while waiting for "the one".

Told to me by my Pa shortly after graduating Bellarmine.