Thankful Thursday: the one where I met the man I would one day marry

Happy T H A N K F U L   T H U R S A D A Y  folks

i'm so excited it's thursday

for one it means that tomorrow is friday

(insert praising hand emoji's here)

(2) my love comes home from Albania one week from today
and (3) i'm beyond excited for this post

bear with me as i am a bit sentimental at the moment
i think i get that from my dad
(hi dad)

i love looking back on seasons in my life
the good ones and the not so good ones
i love seeing how God's faithfulness
in all circumstances
has never failed
and most of the time that always comes as a surprise to me
i love looking back at times in my life where
my hopes, dreams and hearts desires
were nothing in comparison to what the Lord had in store for me

things like ending up at Cal Poly SLO
(even though i had no desire to go there)
but then i met the most incredible people
then there were trips that i went on overseas that i was terrified to go on
but they led me deeper into a reliance on the Lord
and brought me into relationship with incredible friends
and those relationships have opened up the door for opportunities that would have never
come otherwise
(like meeting more people and traveling to Utah to do wedding flowers)
in all of these situations
Gods plans were so much bigger
soooooooo much
God is always working
He is always up to something
always orchestrating
whether we see it or not

today i am so thankful
that god's plans for my life
are so much greater than the plans that i could ever have for myself

it was 4 years ago
that God began paving the way for something
so great
and so wonderful
gosh and i had no idea what was to come

sunday
J U N E  2 3,  2 0 1 3
this was the day that i met the man i would one day marry
this incredible man

and i had no clue
no freaking clue

i never would have thought in a million years it would have been him
was i interested?
nope
did i want to get to know this man more?
nah
was he at all on my radar?
not even the slightest

honestly i can't remember the point at which i first met him
i don't remember our introduction
but i do remember the day

my roommate margo and i had friends staying with us for a couple days
and so after church that sunday
we found ourselves at lunch with some guys from the young adult group

(who are the photo bombers)

we ate lunch at the iron press
then walked around the OC Mix Mart
and stumbled into a cute store that had so many garden knick nacks
and succulents
and FERNSSSS
and suddenly one of the guys we were with was in a picture with me

clearly we can see that he loved me then

i mean what other guy would take a picture with me and a fern??

i don't remember having a conversation with him that day

i don't remember even saying goodbye

but i do remember my roommate margo

taking this photograph of me with my favorite type of fern

and this guy named Robert who jumped on in

(and now that i know him 

him jumping into this picture makes total sense)

it's clear to me now that i was in no way at a place in my life

where there was capacity or space for robert when we met

i had plans and desires and dreams of how my life was going to look

and nothing was going to get in the way of that

but the Lord was already orchestrating

and He was so gracious and gave me a little glimpse into what was to come

even though i was completely oblivious

over the course of the next two years i would see robert a few times

mostly at social gatherings hosted by our mutual friends

he was around

but we weren't friends

we were acquaintances

 nothing beyond a "hey" or a "hi" when we saw each other

the only amount of friendship we had was a Facebook "friendship"

and it wasn't really until the beginning/middle of 2015

my heart started to shift

and that's a story for another time

(blog post to follow)

 i can't believe i'm sitting here writing this post

i can't believe the journey that the Lord has had me and robert on

separately

(and now together)

over the past 4 years

i can't believe that i am thankful for that random day in 2013

i can't believe that i fell in love with

and am marrying that man who jumped in that picture with me

i can't believe how incredible that man in the picture is

(cause i didn't know for a long time)

i can't believe how much God has used robert to 

change my life

to challenge me

to grow me

to show me how much my Savior loves me

 4 years ago

I  H A D   N O   I D E A

im so thankful

so so so thankful that i had no idea then

and i'm so thankful now that i can look back and see the Lord's hand in everything

im so so so thankful that Gods plan has/continues to be beyond what i could have ever

dreamt of for myself

i'm so thankful for all the big 

(and little)

things in my past that the Lord has used to bring me to where i am today

i wouldn't trade them for anything

what are you thankful for today???