Since our third anniversary just passed I thought that I would share how Matthew and I met.
Be ware. This is LONG!
On Sunday, December 2, 2007 I was walking from my car into the University Medical Center at Lubbock emergency room to start my 12 hour shift. My phone rang and it was my sister, Terah calling. She took a couple of minutes to chat and small talk. And then she asked, “So, when is you next weekend off?” I told her that I was off the coming weekend. And she asked if I wanted to come see her in Phoenix, AZ that weekend. I had just seen her a couple of weeks before at Thanksgiving and I was about to see her at Christmas again, so I thought this an odd request. But, her husband Nate had been in Iraq for 7 months already and still had 5 months to go, so I thought maybe she was just lonely. So I asked why she wanted me to come visit. She then told me that she met a guy that she thought I should meet. I think I literally rolled my eyes at this, even though she couldn’t see me. She told me all that she knew about him, which wasn’t very much because she had just met him a couple of hours before this. So, I told her that airline tickets would be really expensive only 5 days in advance and so I didn’t think I would come. She insisted and said that she would let me use one of her free Southwest tickets because she really wanted me to come meet this guy. So, I told her she could look for tickets for me and that I would call her the next day when I got off work.
We ended up not talking until Tuesday. And when we did talk, she didn’t mention this guy named Matt again. She just talked about me coming to visit. In fact, all week she didn’t talk about him again. So, when I left on Friday to fly to Phoenix with my little sister, Cori, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to met this guy while I was there. But I was okay with that because I was skeptical anyway. I was okay with just a weekend visit to see Terah. When we arrived Friday afternoon we went straight to eat lunch with one of Terah’s friends, Elana. Elana is the friend that introduced Matt and Terah and she was so excited to meet me because she had very high regards to Matt and really liked Terah a lot, so she was excited about the possibility of Matt and I meeting. So, over lunch the plans were made for Elana and her husband Josh to come over to Terah’s house on Saturday night for S’mores in the backyard and they were to bring Matt with them. At this point I had no idea if Matt even really knew that he was coming to meet me or not. Saturday night rolled around and I started to get butterflies of nervousness in my stomach. I was still very skeptical because I didn’t think that it would be possible for anything to actually happen with Matt and me. I mean, what were the chances of us meeting and both liking each other and then on top of that, we lived 900 miles from each other! I owned a house and had a great job in Texas and he was in the Air Force. So, even though I was nervous, I really didn’t think that it would come to anything.
Around 9:30 on Saturday night the three of them finally arrived at Terah’s house. Matt walked in and he didn’t look anything like what I had pictured in my head, but I was definitely immediately attracted to him. We all talked for a few minutes in the kitchen and then we were moving out to the backyard. When we were walking out the door Matt got to the door first and then stopped and let me walk out first. Even though this was a small thing, at that moment I began having this small hope….”maybe”. We spent a couple hours all hanging out talking and laughing around the fire. Terah and Elana provided many opportunities to bring about conversation between Matt and I. And Terah even had me making fun of Matt within about 30 minutes of meeting him. If you know me at all, that fact that I was evening talking was a miracle and the fact that I was already making fun of him…now that was pretty much unbelievable. Terah did a great job of getting us talking. And since Matt had to play with the worship team the next morning Terah somehow managed to convince Matt and I that I needed to make Matt breakfast burritos in the morning and bring them to church for him. And then a little later Terah, Josh, Elana, and Cori all of the sudden disappeared and Matt and I found ourselves sitting by the fire talking. We talked until all the firewood was burned and it was way too cold to continue to sit outside. At about 2:15am we went inside, we rather awkwardly said goodnight and Matt took a two hour nap in Terah’s guest bedroom and then he had to get up to drive all the way from Surprise to Buckeye to get his jimbay and then head to church for worship practice.
So, Terah woke me up early enough the next morning to make burritos for Matt. I was very nervous to take him the burritos, but Terah made me. When we arrived at church about 15 minutes early Terah insisted that I walk to the front of church where the worship team was setting up for second service and deliver the burritos. Matt ate them and I stood awkwardly there watching him eat them trying to come up with something to say. During the service I was very distracted and was convinced that I had embarrassed Matt by bringing him breakfast and that I probably wouldn’t hear from him. After church we went to lunch at Matt’s favorite restaurant, Chipotle. All during lunch I was very impressed with Matt and his maturity and how he could be serious and have normal conversations with adults, this was impressive because most of the guys I knew that were around my age were unable to do this! After lunch Terah insisted that we all go back to her house and eat cookies and hang out until Cori and I had to leave for the airport. She quickly claimed that Cori and Josh and Elana’s kids were riding with her so there would not be room for me in her car and she asked Matt to let me ride with him. When we got in his truck and he started the motor, classical music was playing. He asked me if I liked classical music and I immediately responded that I did not…unless I was trying to fall asleep! He changed the station for me, but said that he liked classical music a lot. Even though I didn’t like it was impressed that a guy his age was willing to admit that he loved classical music. We hung out for about an hour at Terah’s and lost track of time. All of the sudden Terah and I realized that Cori and I were going to be late for our flight. So, we quickly packed and threw our bags in the car. All of use stood in the entry way of Terah’s house saying bye. Matt and I barely even said an awkward goodbye. As we were driving to the airport I realized I didn’t even know what Matt’s last name was…and Terah didn’t either. So, she called Elana and she told us that his last name was Cornett.
As soon as I arrived home that night I got online to check my email so that I could show Gini and Shelley the picture of Matt that Terah had so slyly taken for me. Gini and Shelley fully agreed that he was a keeper in the looks department. On Wednesday I talked to Terah. We talked about the fact that Matt didn’t even have my phone number so there was no way he could call me. But even despite that I told Terah, “I think…I mean…I don’t know…but I really think…I think that he may…I mean…I’m not sure…but I think that me might be….” and Terah interrupted and said, “the one”. I was so shocked with myself. I had spent a total about about 6 or 8 hours with this guy, he didn’t have my phone number, he lived in another state and I was still thinking that he might be the one that I was going to marry. What was I thinking?! Terah devised a plan and said that she and Elana would take care of Matt getting my phone number. Elana gave him my number on Friday night and I was very anxious to see if he called or not. At that point I had no idea if he even liked me. I was being a girl and over analyzing everything! Shocker, I know.
On Saturday afternoon I was at Gini’s basketball game in Lubbock with nearly my whole family. My phone rang and it was a Georgia phone number. I am sure that I turned bright red and my whole family knew that it was probably Matthew calling. We talked that day and I told him that I was leaving for family ski trip on Monday. At the end of the conversation he said, “Well, I won’t call and interrupt your family time this week, but you can call me anytime. I’d love to hear from you.” And that was just the encouragement I needed. On Monday we arrived in Denver, CO. We were at Walmart buying all the food we needed for the week on the ski slopes. My sisters convinced me that I should call him today because I might not have service up in the mountains and I needed to make sure he knew that I wanted to talk to him too. So, I called him and left him a message. He called me back later that night (we did have cell service at our condo). We ended up talking everyday while I was on Colorado. On Thursday night after we finished talking I went upstairs and Whitney, Terah, Gini and Shelley were still awake and I was beaming and told them that I was going to marry him. That night in our conversation he was already talking about coming to Muleshoe to meet my family.
Than on Friday we were skiing and I had a major wipe out (one that I still have no memory of). I was unconscious for a time and then was confused and disoriented for about 30-45 minutes. During that time Heather was trying to get me to remember things and trying to orient me, so she asked me, “What’s your boyfriend’s name?” I thought about it and was thinking in my head that Heather would not ask me this question unless I had a boyfriend, but I could not think of one. I started crying at this point because I couldn‘t remember. After a while it all started coming back to me, thankfully : )
Over the next few weeks Matthew and I talked nearly everyday for several hours. Matt kept asking me when he would get to see me again and we made plans for me to visit him at the end of January. On January 19, about two weeks before I was supposed to go to AZ to see him, we were talking. Matthew knew about my track record of never dating anyone for more than about 5-6 weeks, usually more like 3 weeks…. Since it had been six weeks since we met and we were still talking, he asked me if we were “going steady”. I laughed and told him, “for sure”. At that point we had already talked about marriage a little... And I had already told him that I was willing to move to Arizona if it came to that. After I went to visit him in January we were fairly certain that we wanted to get married. He surprised me the second week in February for Valentine’s Day and drove 12 hours, through the snow in New Mexico, to Texas to see me! That weekend he got to briefly meet my parents, Gini, Shelley and Ben. After he left my dad called me and I asked him what he thought about Matthew. He was kind of quiet, said that he liked him, but he didn’t really say much. There was a silence and then he asked me, “do you really want to know what I think”? At that point I was thinking in my head, “oh my goodness, he didn’t like him. What on earth didn’t he like, I thought it went really well“. But I told him, yes that I did really want to know what he thought. His voice kind of cracked and I could hear tears in it, and he said, “I think that Matthew is an answer to Tyler and all of prayers”. I was shocked that Papa would say something that bold, but I was also very relieved because I completely agreed. That weekend was also the weekend that Matthew told me that he loved me. Matthew came for the official “meet the entire, huge sheets family weekend” the last week in February. And while he was there that weekend we decided to get married in October.
We continued to talk on the phone, I began trying to sell my house, and began looking for a job in Phoenix. We decided we probably shouldn’t get engaged until after I met his family, and we made plans to go to Georgia to meet his family in June. During the next few months we spent a lot of money on airline tickets and got to see each other almost every other weekend. Then, on May 16 my family helped me pack my entire house and load a Uhaul trailer and Matt flew down and helped Shelley, Ben and I drive the Uhaul to Phoenix, where I moved in with Nate and Terah. Matt and I went to North Carolina the first week in June and met his brother and sister-in-law, then we drove down to Georgia with his brother John and met his parents, aunt, and grandma. Even though we knew we were getting married I was convinced that Matthew did not have a ring yet, and that we would not officially get engaged until after I got back from Zimbabwe at the end of July. But one day while we were there in Georgia (June 10) Matt took me hiking. We spent the day hiking and taking pictures and had a picnic lunch that Matt had brought. We spent a lot of time talking about our relationship and how we had seen God blessing it all along the way. While we were hiking Fort Mountain we heard a storm blowing in and it started to rain on us. We sprinted the entire way down the mountain because we both had our cameras with us and did not want to get caught in the rain with them. We put our cameras in the car, took our shoes off, and went out to a deck that overlooked the Blue Ridge Mountains. As we were sitting there in the rain Matthew pulled a little box out of his pocket and asked me to marry him. I did not even know that he had asked Papa yet! I was in complete shock, I am pretty sure it took me a good 30-45 seconds to answer him.
I later found out that on our drive from North Carolina to Georgia the ring was in Matthew’s backpack. I had gotten cold on the drive and had opened his backpack to get his sweatshirt out and Matt now tells me that he was really nervous because I opened the pocket with the ring in it! Thankfully I did not see the ring. During that same trip to Georgia we also received word that Matthew was being assigned to a new base in Anchorage, Alaska. The plans were made to get married in Texas on October 25 and leave to move to Alaska on October 26. It was a very eventful and life changing Georgia vacation!
To celebrate 3 years, we went to eat at Lone Star Steakhouse. It was delicious! Sorry for the very poor quality pictures...I used my iPhone to take them.
