Now that meeting each other’s respective families was behind us, all we had left to look forward to was one more short hello before one really long goodbye.
I worked a few more hours at the coffee shop while I was home, but my mind was far from blended mochas and iced coffees. I was simply beside myself counting the hours until Rob and I got to see each other again. We spoke on the phone a little bit here and there, but we typically used the phone more for planning purposes then general pleasantries. It was pretty clear that Rob wasn’t much of a phone guy.
Finally, the time came to drive back from Salem. But first, I was slated to pick up one of Rob’s camp teammates and former hall mate of mine that would eventually become one of my dearest friends. SaraJane was coming back from a mission trip and needed a ride back to school from the airport.
I stayed the night with her in one of the dorm rooms and dreaded the fact that I would be saying goodbye to Rob the next day. I had no doubt in my mind that I was beyond crazy about him.
In one of our final conversations we came to the conclusion that this Summer would be quite telling for us and our relationship. We would have very little opportunity to communicate with one another and we would no longer be swayed by how good it felt to be near each other. After all, it’s certainly nice to have someone around whose company you enjoy. And if your primary love language is physical touch like mine is, well—it’s really nice to have someone physically near, to give you hugs and hold your hand.
But enjoying someone’s company and wanting them near doesn’t indicate whether or not God wants you to get married. At this point we were both anxious to know whether or not God was bringing us together for more than this short season of life. I was so very hopeful that the answer was yes, but I knew only time and a whole lot of prayer would make that clear.
We had relatively matter-of-factly concluded that after a Summer of committing to praying about the future of our relationship—and a Summer of not having our judgment clouded by the warm fuzzy feelings of being near each other—that we would have a clear indication of what the future held the next time we saw each other face-to-face.
That fact made it all that much more difficult to say goodbye. I didn’t know if this was goodbye for the Summer, or goodbye for good. Never-the-less, I made Rob a little something, a construction paper heart, to take on the road with him.
The reality is he had my heart. That was clear. While I would spend the Summer praying about God’s will for our future, I would also be asking him daily to allow our futures to be deeply intertwined.
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