My love story was years in the making , before the both of us even knew it . He saw me at his job and was too nervous to talk to me . He saw me months later online , and that is how we finally met . He and his family had been into my family ’ s restaurant plenty of times prior to us meeting . He lived less than a mile from my house . His Sunday school teacher was my childhood best friend ’ s father . There are so many wonderful ways that we were connected , without ever knowing each other . I truly believe that the reason we had not met is because neither of us would have been ready for the relationship any earlier than when we met . God knew exactly when we needed to meet and He orchestrated it all . I am so thankful for how it finally happened , but I have no doubt that somehow we would have met at some point .
I didn ’ t know it until much later , but Jody saw me at a health fair that I was working and wanted to come talk to me and ask me out , but his nerves got the best of him and he didn ’ t . Months after that , he saw me on match . com and “ winked ” at me . Being completely honest , when I got Jody ’ s wink I almost deleted it . I was in school full time , working full time , and had started selling Initials Inc . I had been online dating off and on for years . I met a lot of different people and honestly didn ’ t think that this would go anywhere .
When I was about to delete his wink , something told me to glance at it . When I saw Jody ’ s pictures on his profile , I thought he was cute , so I winked back , not really thinking it would go any further than us chatting a bit . One picture I can still remember was the picture of him and his daughter . It was cute and you could tell she adored him . This made me think that he was a good dad . Who can be that good of a father and not be at least a decent person , right ? I guess that was what made me originally wink back at him .
After I “ winked ” at him , I continued to read his profile . The very end of it said , “ ask me a question , I dare you .”
ashley
This piqued my interest and I thought it was funny , something that I would say . So I sent him a message . At the same time he was actually sending me a message and we started chatting that night . We met later at Starbucks to meet face to face and then went on our first date on March 20 , 2015 .
According to Jody , he fell in love with me when he saw me through the window at Starbucks that first night , and knew he was going to marry me on our first date when I let him beat me in putt-putt .
Within a few days after that first date , he asked me to meet his daughter . I didn ’ t want to take the chance of his daughter or me getting attached to each other , and I felt bad telling him no . He said Eliza really wanted to meet me . I knew that I liked him , and he had clearly talked about me to her , so I went . We really hit it off — so much so that the following night I agreed to go to Eliza ’ s birthday party where I met the entire family .
We met in March of 2015 , and within a couple of months we knew we wanted to get married . By September of that year we were engaged . I tried to deny it for the longest time , and I needed a little push in the right direction , but I finally did realize he was the one . I remember I was at his house one night and all of a sudden this overwhelming feeling came over me . I felt like I couldn ’ t breathe and just felt anxious . I had NO clue what was going on , so I left his place and went home . I was working full time at the hospital , a full time college student at FMU and I was dating this really great guy . I just thought I was doing too much . >> young jody
SHEMAGAZINE . COM FEBRUARY 2017 43