To meet a husband, pt. 1

Oh February, the month of looove.  It can be the month to love anybody! (or everybody) - a husband, a sister, a friend, family...  But in honor of this month, and the new changes around here, I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and tell the story of how Ox and I met.

[Rewind to approx. 2010]

My mom and Laura Warnes had a connection through a homeschool emailing list. Our families had both gone to Roundhouse, but had missed each other the years we went. Since both of our families lived far away from where the camp was, we went every other year. What they realized was that the years the Jensens went, the Warnes had their "off year".  To make a long story short, they started writing back and forth and became good friends. They would even skype every so often. 

Somewhere around this time, I grajeeated from highschool, and Laura saw my senior pictures. She was looking through them and thought, "I really like her...I think this girl would be good for Alex. I mean, she even makes his faces!"...

...and I loved Mrs. Laura! I would sit and listen to her and my mom skype, and couldn't help but talk to her.  At this point, I didn't even know my husband to be existed...I'd never even heard his name.  Also, what I didn't know was that the whole family (besides him) were keeping their eye on me!  His little sister Abby and I started talking some on facebook, and then eventually skyping. She was the sweetest thing, and I loved her to death. I heard about her brothers Andrew, Aaron, Ashton and Adam, and even met her little sister Anna on skype, but still never heard about a brother named Alex. 

Uuuuuuntil......some of the Warnes brothers were going to come to Tanzania for a mission trip. *Drum roll* then I got a friend request on facebook from an Alex. "Huh, I've never heard of this one before", I thought to myself.  Like always when I confirm a friend, I started looking through his pictures and info.  Suddenly, I realized that I was going through way too many of his pictures than my normal confirm-a-facebook-friend-protocol called for, and got off. I was being ridiculous, and I vowed not to think about it again. And it worked! 

Uuuuuuntil.....about 8 months until they were due to arrive, word somehow reached my ears that I was being thought of as a hopeful possibility for Alex.  I *happened* (hey, maybe I just passed by!) to come across his profile again.  I'm pretty sure my thoughts went something like this, "Hmmmm...*snort* Nah, like that would ever happen! I've never even met him. He wouldn't even be interested in me. I wouldn't even be interested in him. I'm going to forget about it."...

...and I did. I really did.  Whenever it came up, I'd shrug my shoulders and say "nah".  And I meant it.  My family and I were due to move back to the States just a few short weeks after the Warnes boys' visit, and I even was going to leave early to go visit my grandparents until the rest of my family moved back. It was almost a done deal when it fell through.  You see, the airport was about 10 hours away from our house, so we couldn't just pop up there to drop me off. Our plan was for me to ride up there and fly out when the guys flew in. That way, we'd only have to make that same, one trip to the airport! It was perfect!  I was truly disappointed when it didn't work out for me to go back early.  We found out that a friend of the Warnes was coming along with them, and that meant that my spot for the trip was taken.  I had to be bumped.  You know, the one that fell out when they all rolled over?  I wasn't too terribly bummed, though, because it was still always exciting to have visitors come. 

So they came, but there was still that one thing.  I was determined.  Determined that I would not think of any of them in any funny or even wondering way.  I was going to treat them all the exact same - even in my head - and I was not going to do something dumb like think of this Alex as a possibility.  The funny thing was, word had gotten to back to him about people thinking we'd go well together, and boy that did not go over well!  He wasn't going to Africa to get a girl, he was going on a mission trip and that was all. That was ALL.  So in his mind, this Alex-person was determined that he would not not NOT like or think about this Lindsey-person, and that's just all there would be to it. 

We had no idea that we'd be making our faces together!

Be ready for Part 11, the part where I thought he despised me!

happy weekend, everyone!