The Long Road(Pt. 5) Sometimes...You Just Know

When I got home from my trip I couldn't wait to get an email or phone call from Matt! I got online everyday, several times looking for an email. It was only a couple days before I got one but it felt like I'd waited forEVER! I smiled through the whole thing. The first email was kind of short. Then his second one was a little longer...then a little longer. Before long we were sharing our days with each other, and asking each other all kinds of questions from: what's your favorite color? to If you were stranded on a desert island what would you take with you? to are you republican or democrat? What was different about us, was that we lived four hours apart. I wasn't sure when and if I'd get to see him. But I was praying. As I'd determined to do about any guy, I was praying that God would give me clarity and direction to know if Matt was someone that should be just a friend, or if he would be something more. I kept feeling that he would be something more. We'd only been talking for a few weeks though. How could I really know?
Near the end of October, my brothers and I were going to stay at our Grandparents. They happen to live 20 minutes from where Matt lives. One of the team leaders knew I was coming and she and her husband decided to get a few of the team members together for supper while my brothers and I were in the area. That was it! That was my way to see Matt! And I did. I was so excited to see him and even more excited that I got a hug. But I got a bigger surprise than that! He got me 2 carnations and a bottle of lemonade. (That was our drink of choice in Sicily:)
All through November we continued emailing, we texted each other EVERY night and I liked him more and more. I had even started to feel like...he was the one. We weren't an official couple. We weren't dating. But I felt different talking to him and thinking about him then I ever had with anyone. It was different for sure. Then we started talking about a visit. We arranged for him to come visit me and my family December 2nd through the 4th. I was SO excited!
He came down and I was thrilled to see him. We watched movies and looked at pictures and you probably couldn't fit a feather between our arms when we'd sit beside each other on the couch. On the evening of Saturday the 3rd, we went to the movies and then to dinner. It was at dinner that something great happened. As we talked, he asked me "when people ask me who Nicole is...is it alright if I tell them you're my girlfriend?" My stomach flipped! I was SO happy!! "I wouldn't mind that at all." I managed to reply:) That was the first moment that we really started a journey in life together. Without saying it to each other right then, we both wanted to see what God had in store. Maybe it was something great and long lived, maybe it was something great and short lived. But sometimes...you just know. And for me, I seemed to know it would be great and long lived.