Adrian and I are having a great deal of fun reading all the responses to my post and his :-). You all are too funny, though I rather expected just such a response. I think Grace *ahem* and Jessie *ahem* created quite an atmosphere of mystery with their recent "cryptic" (or not so cryptic!) comments, resulting in a rather evident restlessness on our blogs :). The riddle I posted was shamelessly stolen from Emma, for anyone still in the dark on that score, and the answer is "courtship."
As many of you know, Adrian and I both started blogging in fall of 2005, and we began commenting to each other via Blogger after meeting through Crystal's blog (oh yes, she sure has a lot to answer for!) though solely thinking of each other as friends for several months, at least. Over the next year+, we communicated off and on as our schedules permitted, sometimes logging some rather extensive comments (my record for a single blog comment was 41 paragraphs).
The more Adrian and I "talked," the more I grew to admire him, and the more I became amazed at just how much we had in common, both in practice and belief. But, as I told Adrian later, I appreciated our disagreements almost as much as our agreements, for it was often through our times of disagreement that I really learned to respect him. A person's character comes out in times of difference more than in times of harmony, I've decided, and Adrian's shone :). My mom and sister interacted with him some online as well, as did I with his twin brother Lane.
In early November (2006), Adrian e-mailed about a possible visit to Atlanta to meet me and my family. In the next several weeks we exchanged many e-mails of impressive length. He spent December 8th-11th visiting us, and we had a wonderful time! I think my family likes him :-). Oh. . . and I do too ;-). After Adrian's visit, my dad gave him permission to court me. And just yesterday I returned from Minnesota, where I spent 4 days visiting with Adrian and his parents, who are absolutely delightful. Here's a picture I took over my visit last weekend:
We would now appreciate your prayers as we seek God's will in our relationship!
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17 comments:
I was going to e-mail Crystal after I got the pictures loaded, so never fear :).
What a nice story! : ) I'm so happy for y'all. It's too sweet!
And wonderful pictures, I might add. You two make a cute couple!
He looks like his mom, don't you think?
Susan ~ Congratulations!!! Before I started using Bloglines a good while back, I would come to your blog and see that Adrian commented quite frequently and that he was Math oriented like you. I guess I did think...hmmmm...
Then once I started using Bloglines, I seldom clicked over to your real blog to keep abreast of the comments. Looks like I've missed out on some good blog conversation back and forth between you two!
Anyway, many prayers for your courtship. Congrats again!!
Yay! Thanks for posting some pics and giving us more detail. :)
I must say, it even looks like a great match! ;)
God's richest blessings to both of you in the coming months and years.
Wow! This is too exciting! I had to drop over after your hint on my blog, even though I have very limited time here in Africa. I am very excited for you and I look forward to hearing developments!
I've been out of the loop for a few days with moving and all and about fell over when I found this post this morning on my Bloglines. I'm rejoicing at the goodness and leading of the Lord. And I hope you don't mind that my excitement spilled over into a little blog post about it. :)
Blessings to you both.
Susan, Thank you for sharing this with us. I just love the pictures! (o:
How exciting! I enjoyed hearing more details. =) I'll be praying for you both.
Congratulations, Susan!
I don't read your blog often (in fact, this may be my first comment), so of course, I had no clue. ;)
Kara A.
In case you're wondering why I'm not doing much replying either here or at my blog, I'll let you in on the little secret. I'm enjoying too much the fun manouverings of, "I had them matched up first!" too much. I'll just let all you gentle ladies fight that out... in the parking lot. :-)]
In Christ.
Hi Susan,
I'm a lurker who's decided to de-lurk herself at this wonderful news of yours...I correspond (infrequently at best!) with Ashley Borrego, so that's how I came to visit your blog.
Best wishes as you travel this path of courtship with Adrian.
Becky
Thank you for the congratulations, "babygirl_nz." Adrian and I (and our parents) are trying not to stress rules in this relationship, but principles instead, so I'm afraid there isn't much to share on the rule side ;-). Just as the New Testament is short on procedure and long on principle, so is our courtship. We are striving for honesty, respect, and purity in our relationship, but we know that those qualities come only from a changed heart, through the Holy Spirit, though certainly rules can help a bit. I hope that helps explain a little :).
Yeah, being smothered with rules equals bad, but a free-for-all is also bad. I think the key is supportive parents who trust you, and a general stress on respect, honesty, and purity. Adrian and I (with the consultation of my parents) have certainly set up some boundaries/guidelines to help us, because rules are helpful, but they're only so helpful :). But I see little gain in outlining those rules (that will change as needed) because I don't what people to try to use the pattern of our courtship for themselves, because each courtship should be handled based on the individual situation.
Reply to Susan and babygirl_nz:
Babygirl_nz: did you mean that you are a new Christian, or an unbeliever? Your statement would be rather extraordinary coming from an unbeliever.
What Susan said is quite true: principles are better to emphasize than the methods by which you enforce those principles. Methods you must have, but the fact is that they are negotiable. The Bible leaves loads of room for people to carry out its principles in a godly way. One silly example would be washing dishes. People differ on washing dishes mightily (in method), yet the principle of washing dishes remains the same. And so it goes.
Susan, I really like what you said very much. You're quite right that rules can only help so much. I rather think that the best that can be expected from rules is to help prevent situations which would exasperate a given sin. Most sins are internal, and no amount of rules will get to the heart of a man. God's law, indeed, may get to the heart and show him how imperfect he is and how in need of grace.
In Christ.
Paul and I found that with rules it just made us want to "see how far we can go without breaking them". Yeah, that pretty much ruins the spirit of the rules. We handled principles much better.
Babygirl_nz,
Praise God for your new life in Christ! I struggled for many years about being assured that I was in fact saved, so if you would like to talk with me about that, I would love to share. I also am happy to answer your questions about courtship, but I'd rather not do it on Blogger. I'd love to hear from you if you want to e-mail me at susan dot garrison at gmail dot com.
One more thing: Adrian has recently written two very good posts on courtship, one focusing on grace, and the other on law. I'd suggest reading those :-).
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