{Love} Day 2: FATE.

Gary & I in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Then we

 sat on the edge

 of the earth, with our

 feet dangling over the

side, and marveled

that we had found

each other.

- Erick Dillard

Do you ever think back to the time you first met, or maybe when you first {laid eyes} on the she or he that you now call your husband or wife?

Some people say they just knew.

I don't know about that, but here's our story:

I played basketball at Columbia Basin College with a wild girl named Beth Alexander who was always trying to hook me up with her brother. I always had a boyfriend, so that never happened.

A couple of years later, I was celebrating one of my best friends' bachelorette party (Tiff!) and happened to be the only single girl in attendance. We were at a little spot called the Towne Crier and I remember the girls asking me if any guy there "caught my eye."

There was one.

I told them not to "look now," but he was "the guy with the shaggy blondish hair behind me in the Hurley shirt and backwards hat."

{Of course} they all turned back to look.

Ever so awkwardly, I glanced back at him and smiled and waved....he looked familiar, but I didn't know why.

Before I knew it, two girls who I didn't know approached me and asked me if I was "taken."

I said "nope. Why?"

They responsed "Well, our friend Gary wants to meet you."

Gary? What kind of old man name is Gary? I thought.

But said, "sure."

Sure enough, it was him.

HE was Beth Alexander's Brother who I was supposed to meet but never did...and he was also my future husband (little did I know!).

I was attracted to him, sure. But the whole night he acted super sketchy around me--like talking to me and then running off. I thought it was weird.

But decided to activiate my {liquid courage} and give him my number and leave the ball in his court.

So I wrote my number on a little bar napkin and marched it over to him and gave it to him.

{right in front of his girlfriend.}

I didn't know I did this at the time (girlfriend?!). But he called me much later that night and apologized for acting like jerk and explained he was there "on a date." hmmmmm. Whatever, I thought.

I didn't put much stock in us ever investing in a relationship, especially since I was moving to Seattle for school in a week.

But he kept calling.

And then he came to visit me in Seattle (this night will forever go down in history as Whitney's worst first impression on Gary and friends. It involved red bull, vodka, a little blue tank top, pioneer square, lots of dancing and getting door checked and denting a car....i'll leave the rest up to your imagination).

And then he moved up to Seattle for Dive School.

And 10 months later asked me to be his wife.

....I learned shortly after I started dating Gary that he had kind of stalked me a little bit at the gym (we had worked out at the same gym for a year or so....it was a busy gym, I guess).

He told me that he always crossed his fingers that he would get seated in my section when he came in to eat where I worked (Red Robin).

And one night, before we'd even met, he sat in a booth at Red Robin and proclaimed to one of his buddies (who reminded us of this at our wedding!) that he was going to marry me someday.

And today, as we re-live the story of our meeting we {marvel} that after all of that,

we found each other.

And laughing, we conclude that this {love story} of ours is living proof that God is not only good...

He also has a wonderful sense of humor.