It was September of 2001 and as the U.S. was reeling from the tragedy of the attacks made by terrorists on our country, it was my birthday. The attack itself added to the conviction that I had that I wanted my life to mean something and that I didn’t want to waste the rest of my life playing church and living my life for myself.
Near the end of September, I received an email from a female on AOL who said she read my profile and said that I sounded like a nice person to get to know. Again, prior to this I had done the contacting and searching for girls to get to know so to have a complete stranger who just happened to be girl was surprising.
We started off instant messaging and emailing each other then shortly thereafter, we exchanged phone numbers. I was working midnights at the time and she was working evenings waiting tables. She also lived about an hour away in Rochester, while I was living in Ypsilanti. Her schedule was perfect for us to talk late at night. Sometimes I would take my first break at 1am and call her and talk just to talk.
Right off the bat, I purposed in my heart to not view her as a potential girlfriend or future spouse, so I recommended that she read those same two books that had changed my life about waiting to get involved with someone until it was time to get married. She too, was deeply impacted by reading them. I believe that there were two things that played a part in changing her. One, the fact that she saw the impact on me in how passionate I was about them. And, two, the Holy Spirit was at work in her life.
On November 29th, we met for the first time in person at Great Lakes Crossing Mall. We saw a movie together and had dinner. Talking to her in person was just the same as it was over the phone.
It had always been one of my dreams to marry someone who loved children as much as I did, so when I observed the way that she was around her best friend’s children, I knew that God had led me to the right person and that this was a woman that I could definitely see myself spending the rest of my life with. I still felt the timing wasn’t right for me to take the relationship past just being friends. Looking back, God used The Webbs in helping to shape and mold this woman into the kind of wife that I’d need.
The next thing that would happen would be pivotal and would forever change the relationship between myself and Kristie…..
Joshua Luther 