Sunday, September 25, 2005
I saw Lea and Kristy (her friend and roommate) at Kairos, the 20-something group at Grace Community Church. Lea was wearing a black dress and I wanted to talk to her! My friend PJ and I stopped them as they were starting to leave. My brilliant "line" was - "hey are you guys new?" Funny thing - Lea didn't even hear me, but Kristy did - THANK YOU KRISTY! - and so we got to talk for a few minutes. They were really nice and when I found out that they lived right near my work, I mentioned that the three of us should have lunch sometime.

By this time, we had walked down to the sanctuary for "big church" and I had to go on stage and play guitar. I told them I would talk to them after service. Also, my grandpa was there that morning and I had told him I would give him a "hello" signal from on stage. I told Lea and Kristy about it, and told them to watch for it. Lea says she did. :-)

Service was good - I have a feeling I messed up a bunch of chords that week because I kept on looking over where Lea was sitting. After it was over, I went down where they were because I wanted to get their number to call about lunch. They were talking to Colleen (a friend from Kairos) and I didn't want to interrupt so I pretended to talk to Trent while I was waiting. (Lea says she remembers seeing me looking over at her.) Eventually I decided I was being too obvious and I went back on stage to pack up my guitar, hoping that this would buy enough time that Colleen would leave and I could talk to them. But then they left! I would have to be patient...

Sunday, October 9, 2005
I was out of town the weekend after I met Lea and Kristy, so this was the next time I was at church. Lea was working but Kristy was there. After Kairos I went and said hi to Kristy and we talked for a few minutes. I mentioned again that the three of us should do lunch. Kristy gave me her number and I said I’d be in touch.

Thursday, October 13, 2005
I called and left a message for Kristy on Monday (real patient, I know), and she got back to me Thursday morning. That was a long few days! It turned out they were free that day but not until about 4, so I suggested we have dinner instead of lunch. They were up for it, but when I suggested Lo Lo's - a Chicken & Waffles place downtown - they seemed a bit hesitant, so I suggested Oregano’s instead (a pizza place near their house).

We were there for about 2.5 hours. It was such a great time. Lea and Kristy are both incredibly sweet and fun to be around, and we laughed and talked a lot during dinner. But there was just something very special about Lea to me - I left dinner knowing that I wanted to get to know her better. How...I wasn't sure. I didn't want to "pounce" - I didn't want to be too forward, I had no idea if she had any interest in me.... Needless to say, there were a lot of questions.

Sunday, October 16, 2005
I saw Lea at church, right outside the sanctuary. But before I could go over there (which translates "While I was trying to get up my nerve"), a lady and girl about Lea's age walked over to her and the three of them started talking. I hung out in the area for a while - I just kept going over to the drinking fountain and trying to look purposeful!

Before too long they went in to the sanctuary. I was playing again so I went up on stage and, during the prelude, found where they were sitting. I kept glancing over there throughout the worship time - more wrong chords - hoping that after church she would be alone and I could talk to her. No such luck - they left together.

My friend PJ invited me to lunch with he and his wife Christy after church. As I was driving over to "Dilly's Deli" I honestly prayed and asked God to let me see her at lunch. I walked into the Deli and was standing in line when PJ walked up to me and said, "Bet you love me now" and pointed behind us. I turned around and saw Lea was there with those same two ladies! (See, God really does answer prayer!)

They went to sit outside so I told PJ we needed to sit outside too. In fact, Christy even invited them to join us but they declined. (It was a friend of Lea's mom from back home, and her daughter, and Lea had just met her and didn't think that would be polite.) Here's the funny thing...Lea didn't know I was there - she hadn't seen me - and when I came outside, she was sitting with her back to my chair. So we basically sat back to back during all of lunch, but she didn't know it. Christy kept on whispering to me and asking if I was going to say anything to Lea, but I didn't because 1) I was nervous, and 2) I didn't want to interrupt their lunch, and 3) did I mention I was nervous?

After awhile, they got up to leave. I was hoping we would make eye contact so I could say something but she didn't look over. As soon as they left, Christy told me I blew it! She said, "I don't know James, I would be mad if you didn't say hi to me."

I frantically came up with Plan B - I would see if I could get her email from the guy that managed the Kairos "list serve" and send her an email. Problem was, I soon found out, that Mike didn't know her exact email - there was part of it he hadn't been able to read. So he told me what he had, and I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure it out. Basically, I drafted the email I wanted to send her, and kept sending it to what I thought could be her email address. If it bounced back, I tried another one. Yep - I was determined, and finally it went through!

She wrote back a couple hours later. It was a good day!

Thursday, October 20, 2005
On Sunday, I wrote Lea, she wrote back, and I wrote again. I didn't hear back to that second email until Thursday. I found out later she didn't check her email often, but since I didn't know that yet, it was torture. Her Thursday email was good and so I took a chance. I wrote back (I still didn't have her number, only Kristy's) and asked if she wanted to continue the "tradition" and get dinner that night. (The Thursday before was when Lea, Kristy, and I all went to dinner.) I didn't hear back.

Sunday, October 23, 2005
I saw Lea at church so I went to say hi. I was nervous that she hadn't written back because she wasn't interested, so I didn't mention the dinner invitation, and neither did she. It was a bummer of a day...I wasn't sure if I had ruined my chances yet, but it didn't seem to be looking good.

Monday, October 24, 2005
GREAT DAY! Lea emailed and apologized for not responding about the dinner invitation, and told me she had just gotten my email. She suggested we do it another night, and offered me her phone number. Trent and I spent quite a bit of time on the phone dissecting this latest development, and decided that it must be a good sign. Who says guys are dense?! Actually, I must confess, I forwarded the email to Trent with the subject line: "Holy Crap this response is good!"

I called Lea that night. I know, my patience is a beautiful thing to see, isn't it? I left a message.

Saturday, October 29, 2005
Lea called back. I can't remember, but I think I might have tried to call her on Thursday too. Anyway, she called Saturday around noon...I was at lunch with my friend Jeff so I didn't answer (and I was nervous). She said it had been a busy week and was sorry it took so long to call back.

Originally I planned on waiting until Sunday or Monday to call back, but Saturday night proved to be a long enough wait! She was babysitting, and we talked for about 10 minutes. I asked if she wanted to get coffee the following week. She said that was great and asked when. I suggested Thursday, which she said sounded good.

Sunday, October 30, 2005
I saw Lea after church and just "happened" to run into her outside. We started chatting. Funny enough, my parents came out of church and so I was able to introduce them to her.

PJ suggested that we go grab lunch. I asked Lea if she wanted to come and she said yes. PJ and Christy ended up not being able to come, so it was me, Lea, Jeff, and Lisa. It was fun! When we dropped Lea off, Jeff said, "I think that is maybe the nicest person I've ever met." I agreed.

Thursday, November 3, 2005
Our first date. I think I called her on Tuesday to confirm stuff and suggested we do dinner instead of coffee. She was up for it. I picked her up for our date with a Nebraska hat - thanks Jon! We went downtown to Lo Lo's Chicken & Waffles (I wanted it to be memorable!), and then we went to the Arizona Center to get coffee and walk around and talk (I knew she liked taking walks). It was amazing - I think we were together for about five hours. I had so much fun with her and was already hoping for another date with her.

Friday, November 4, 2005
Sent my mom an email and said, "Lea is amazing." Little did I know how the coming months would confirm that fact, as God made it clear this was the woman I will spend my life loving.