Birthday Surprise (by Thomas)

November 15, 2008

Rebecca's birthday is on November 15.  I knew that she would enjoy a surprise visit, and she had in fact asked me to surprise her at some time during our relationship.  Amusingly enough, I had already purchased the plane tickets to do just that clear back in May, right after she and her dad left my house in Washington.  I had corresponded with her closest sister, Christina, for the months beforehand, and the plan was all set.  I would fly in the night before (Friday, November 14), and Christina would pick me up and give me a place to stay for the night.  She would take me over to Rebecca's house the next morning.  

Oh, but it wasn't nearly so blasé.  =)  I had created a whole grand scheme to make things fun.  So finally the big day arrived and I landed in Dallas (quite late, thanks to the incompetency of modern airlines), got a late dinner with Christina and her roommate Jessica, and hit the sack for a very fitful sleep.  The next morning, Christina took me to the store for the all-important bouquet of roses (incidentally the first time that I had given her red roses) and then dropped me off at the prearranged spot.  

You see, I had created a kind of treasure hunt.  I had made a series of envelopes with a series of letters containing sequential instructions.  Each one had some kind of significance, as it told her to walk to a special spot around her neighborhood where we had shared some kind of memory.  I did up the letters really nicely with creme paper and red hearts and handwritten love notes and such.  I knew she would find them very romantic.  In any case, the plan was for her to finally end up at "our special spot", where I would be waiting.  

Well, the plan went well except for the fact that I misjudged the distances I was asking her to walk....and also for the fact that it was MUCH colder out than I had anticipated it being!  Add these two facts together, and you have a VERY cold Thomas by the time Rebecca arrives!  However, it was well worth it.  I can still remember her grin as she saw me and ran to me.  I gave her the roses and a silver cross necklace.  She usually doesn't wear jewelry, but she promised to wear it always, until I give her an engagement ring.  What a sweetie.  =)

We walked back to her house, arriving in a somewhat frosty condition.  Her little siblings were unaware of my arrival until they saw us walking up the sidewalk together, so they were pleasantly surprised as well.  She's got a cute batch of brothers and sisters!  

We spent that weekend together much the same as we have spent other times in person together.  We went out on several dates and several shopping trips, most notably to see Fireproof again on the night of her birthday.  That is such a great movie to see on a date.  

Tuesday morning came too soon, and with it my departure.  We both shed quiet tears in the airport, but knew that our time apart was fairly short this time around.  As a matter of fact, I will see her again one week from the morning after I write this.  =D  

Florida (by Thomas)

Mid October, 2008

It seemed an eternity from the time I saw Rebecca in August until the time I knew I would see her again in October. We had arranged for her and her parents to fly to Florida to visit me and some extended family at the same time. The 45 days crept by VERY slowly. We passed the time as best as we could with webcam, IM, and extended phone conversations, but the time apart and the stress of a difficult semester still wore on both of us.

At last, the time came to see her again. It was October 3, 2008. Rebecca's parents had been in Florida for a couple days already, to see relatives and take a bit of a mini-vacation at the same time. I was going to drive down to meet them in Kissimmee, which is a bit south of Orlando (near Sea World). I made the ~90 minute drive bouncing on my seat in anticipation, finally arriving at the house they rented for the night. I nervously rang the doorbell, and a moment later, my sweetheart sleepily opened the door. She had been napping. My goodness, she is TERRIBLY cute when she's sleepy! =)

We spent that evening mini-golfing and going out for dinner with Rebecca's parents. That was SO much fun. Mr. Craig is a very good mini-golfer, but none of the rest of us were terribly talented. Nevertheless, Rebecca and I greatly enjoyed the time we had together. It was just a really sweet atomosphere. It felt a lot like a double date.

The next morning, we went off to Sea World together. Neither Rebecca nor I had ever been before, so it was a new and exciting experience for both of us. We met up with her aunt, uncle, and two cousins midway through the day, and we walked around the park together. We went down one ride in particular that still generates amused smiles to this day. It was one of those rides in which the passengers ride in a type of boat carriage that goes way up and then plummets down to stop in a pool of water at the bottom. It had a camera which took pictures of the passengers as they were falling down the steep drop, and the picture of our carriage is absolutely priceless. Expressions ranged from my grinning deathgrip on the handrail to Rebecca's full-throated scream to Mrs. Craig's very unhappy grimace of terror. *laughs* I still chuckle when I see it to this day.

The afternoon led to a bit of stress, as Rebecca's young cousin (age 6) got lost in the crowds of people. We divided up and searched all over the park, only finding her when we enlisted the help of park personnel. She was lost for less than an hour, but it still understandably worried her parents half to death. I still remember her dad sitting and holding her tightly to himself. I'm such a softie...I actually teared up when I saw that. I couldn't help thinking of how I would feel if that was me and my daughter had been lost and then found. Having Rebecca in my life has made me a lot more emotional than I used to be.

That evening was spent driving back to Daytona Beach. Rebecca and I went out to Christian Fellowship Club that night, where I got to introduce her to a lot of my friends from school. Afterwards, we went out for a date to the beach.

Sunday morning, I got to introduce Rebecca and her parents to a lot of my friends and my pastors at church. There was a picnic afterward, so we hung around and chatted and Rebecca's parents got to mingle and get to know some of my friends. That evening was another lovely time spent half apart, half together with her parents. Rebecca and I went to the beach by ourselves and ate dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company. The food was expensive, but VERY good. A bit later that night, we met up with her parents and went to go see Fireproof together. That is a very solid movie by the way....and one that's great to see on date. =)

Monday was spent driving to and exploring St. Augustine. I had been there several times before, but it was the first time for Rebecca. We wandered around the historic streets, just enjoying spending time together and playing tourist a bit.

Then it was time for her to leave. We made the drive back to Daytona Beach in sorrowful silence, punctuated only by her tears. We said a tearful goodbye, sad that we had to be parted again, but grateful for the wonderful time that we had shared that weekend.

Long Visit (by Thomas)

I am now back in Florida again after a deliciously-long visit to Rebecca and her family in Texas. It's somewhat depressing, but I am so ready to be back in class again that it's not actually too horrible. I have the drive now...I have made the connection between success in class and being able to marry Rebecca someday, which has the effect of increasing my motivation by a large factor. I also have a full heart because the visit was so wonderful.



I arrived in Texas on August 9th after a very quick, uneventful transit from Norfolk via Atlanta. Rebecca and her dad picked me up and we went out for lunch. After this point, I can't even really remember everything that went on. It was all so wonderful (and so long) that it really ran together.

We did have our first date on that visit, on August 11, 2008. =) We went to the Arlington Highlands, an outdoor mall with a winding stream and park benches and nice landscaping. We walked around for a while and then went to Mimi's Café, which turned out to be a rather nice little French restaurant. It was admittedly a little bit weird at first to be completely alone...no chaperones, no one else around but strangers. But by the end of the night, we were enjoying each other's company greatly. It was a very sweet first date.

Rebecca actually liked our second one a bit better though. We started to go the Highlands again, but couldn't find a TGI Fridays, which is where we were going to eat. Upon leaving the Highlands to find one, I spotted a Sweet Tomatoes and made a snap decision to eat there. Rebecca loved it. She just loved the whole evening. She said she was more comfortable, she loved the restaurant, and she just had a great time. =)

And so things kinda ran together. I went to Chuck Swindoll's church with Rebecca and Allison on Sunday, which was cool. He didn't preach, but it was still neat to go there. Rebecca had to work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so I typically stayed home and hung out with the family until she got back, at which point we would go on a date. Tuesday and Thursday were days she didn't work, so we generally spent those running around together doing errands.



One amusing side note is that nearly every time Rebecca and I were outside together, we ended up getting in a water fight. The Craigs have a small kiddie pool filled in the back yard....and the accessible water was frequently just too much to resist. ;-) I think we were quite amusing to the rest of the family.

I greatly enjoyed getting to know Rebecca's whole family better. They're really a sweet family. Courtney (age 6) loved to have tickle wars with me, which Joshua (age 3) liked to get in on occasionally. I shared a room with Daniel (age 13) on a bed which Mrs. Craig had bought specifically for me! :o She said I would be there frequently enough anyway...they might as well buy me a bed. Josh can use it after I get done with it in a couple years. I was quite shell-shocked by her generosity. I had not expected that at all, but it was a real blessing.

Another cool experience was going with Mr. Craig on a tour of a very large steel manufacturing plant...one of the largest in the country, in fact. I was quite impressed with the whole process. The heat coming off the molten metal was particularly impressive. It felt like an oven some 30 feet away. While I'm not interested in going into the steel industry for a career, it was a very informative experience. I thought it was quite amazing that our tour guide was none other than the VP of operations there....which you can bet doesn't happen much! It was really cool of Mr. Craig to invite me along on that tour and I really appreciated it.



I left Texas on August 18, which was a somewhat depressing experience. It didn't really hit me until I was actually sitting at my gate that I was gone. *sigh* Sometimes I hate long distance. But I have a good motivation....I'm off to slay the dragons of the semesters of Fall 2008, Spring 2009, and Fall 2009. After those dragons are dead, we can (God-willing) get married. The visit was wonderful....just a small taste of what future life together will be like. =) Hopefully Rebecca and her parents will come visit me in the next month or two, which will likely be the next time I see her. I can't wait! =D

HSA Reunion (by Thomas)

Ah yes, I finally got to see Rebecca again....and it was SO worth the wait!

The weekend began on Wednesday morning. I left VA at about 2:30 a.m. after about 3-4 hours of sleep. I went to bed at 9:00 the night before, but couldn't sleep. Don't ever try to sleep when you're hungry and excited...it doesn't work! In any case, the drive was pretty tiring for the first few hours. I was quite sleepy until I stopped near the WV border for some coffee and a muffin. The caffeine/sugar woke me up and after that, the sun was rising, so the increased light kept me awake.

I was quite surprised by West Virginia...nearly the entire state is made up of mountains! I seriously followed the interstate for some 150-200 miles of mountains, only emerging from them after Charleston. After driving through a deluge of a thunderstorm in Kentucky, I finally arrived (after about 10 hours of driving) at the Kroger I had scoped out beforehand. Situated strategically some 10 miles away from the campground where Rebecca was, it had the all-important floral department.

I grabbed a bouquet of carnations and a cheesecake (a thank-you present to Rebecca's sister Christina for chaperoning in the car), and headed off to the campsite. Seeing Rebecca again was a teeny bit awkward at first, but we re-acclimated to each other quickly. We were quite comfortable with each other's company again by the end of the day. As soon as I got to the campground, we loaded up, grabbed lunch at Subway, and headed to the Creation Museum.

http://www.creationmuseum.org/

The museum was VERY cool. It has like 70 acres of land, most of which is gardens and such outside the actual museum itself. Rumor is that they plan to build a full-scale Noah's Ark next. That would be amazing.

We spent that evening after the museum playing cards, eating hot dogs and s'mores, and generally just enjoying each other's company. That night was very interesting as far as camping goes. It thunderstormed and rained heavily nearly ALL NIGHT. Those of us in the guys' tent woke up around 2:00 a.m. with water soaking up through the floor of the tent. We subsequently moved to my truck for cover, after checking to see that the girls were all right. Rebecca and one other girl had moved to the van and the rest were damp but fine. The next morning was a fun experience, involving literally dumping water out of the tents. We threw all the wet stuff in the back of my truck to spread out and dry at the Reunion.

After that, we were off. We drove down to the Reunion and got checked in. The facilities were very nice, if somewhat hilly. The guys' dorm was perhaps 50 feet higher in elevation even though it was only perhaps 500 feet away. The whole campus was like that, so we got very good workouts just walking around! Rebecca and I got into a daily habit of meeting at 7:00 a.m. for our morning walk and subsequently "hanging out" for the rest of the day. There were scheduled events that we sometimes went to, but in general, we just spent time together and enjoyed being around each other.





And so we enjoyed the weekend, spending nearly every waking minute ofevery day with each other. We got more comfortable with each other's company than we ever have before. She is hands-down my best friend (the best I've ever had) by far. One of our most treasured times this weekend was getting to have fun with each other......me putting ice down her back, her throwing a cup of icewater on me, spashing each other, laughing at each other's attempts to shoot a basketball, playing cards together, laughing at each other trying to swing dance and looking stupid, and just generally being goofy. That was a major part of our relationship that we hadn't experienced much of before, and it was so enjoyable to just have fun together.





So came Sunday and the end of the weekend. She cried when we left (as always), despite the fact that we knew we would see each other again in only six days. I had a hard time not tearing up myself, but the short time we have to spend apart was definitely a mitigating factor. =) I'm already hyper-excited for this next weekend and the 1.5 weeks I get to spend with her and her family!



God is good! I can't wait to see how He draws us together next. =)

It's Time!!!! (by Thomas)

I get to see her tomorrow!!!! I'm leaving at like 2:30 a.m. tomorrow morning and should (God-willing) arrive at their campsite around 1:00 p.m. I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!! =D

Countdown (by Thomas)

After what has seemed an eternity, my next face-to-face encounter with Rebecca is very soon. As of today, I will see her in about 11 days! I am SO excited! It has been about 2 months...61 days, to be exact. It hasn't been easy at times, especially during the past couple weeks, but I would not hesitate to say that our relationship is stronger than it has ever been. Our 3-month anniversary is coming up on Monday, and I can genuinely say that I have enjoyed every minute of it. Even during our worst disagreements (only one of which I would consider an actual argument), there is no doubt in my mind that she is the one for me. We may not see eye-to-eye in that specific moment, but I wouldn't trade my relationship with her for anything. =)

We've had several special experiences in the several weeks that have helped us keep our relationship strong. On July 4th, both of us were home alone. My roommates were occupied with various celebration activities and her family had gone to a cookout. I had stayed home because I didn't have anywhere to go (or money for gas to get there) and she had stayed home because she had had a headache. So both of us were left alone and I had the idea to do a "cyber-date." I asked Rebecca what she thought and she was enthusiastic about it, so we did.

I brought my webcam and laptop down to the kitchen and set it up so she could see me cooking. She coached me through making my first hamburger patty with raw ground beef and watched as I cooked the rest of my dinner. I did my best to make the distance feel negligible, doing things like pretending to snap her with the dish towel and spritz water on her face. She said she felt like she was leaning on the counter watching me. =)

She got her dinner when mine was almost done and then we sat down to eat together. We prayed over the meal, watched each other eat, and then cleaned up our respective messes in our kitchens. After that, we watched Night at the Museum together, starting the movie at exactly the same time and synchronizing it perfectly by the audio coming through the phone. We had both the movie and the webcam going so that we could watch both the movie and each other. I have to confess I didn't watch much of the movie...I don't think she did either!

We didn't get to finish all of the movie that night because of our curfew, but we did get to watch a large portion of it. I wasn't sure of how much Rebecca would like the "cyber-date", but she evidently loved it. She actually cried when we were saying goodnight, it was so special to her. I felt like a million dollars....even though we were apart, we were still able to build our relationship in tangible ways.

A couple weeks ago, I had had a very lousy day. I got home to a package from Rebecca, which made my spirits rise immediately. I was expecting a care package, because she had asked some very suspicous questions (like what kind of coffee I liked) earlier, but I was unprepared for everything that she had done. She had prepared seven different packages and cards, one to open every several days until we see each other again. I barely even got the box open before I started tearing up at the sheer volume of care and love that she obviously put into it. On that first day, she gave me coffee, homemade cookies, and a very sweet card with pictures of her making the cookies for me.

I am very affected every time I open one of those cards and associated gifts. Without fail, they are sweet and carefully thought out. Most of the time, they are activities we can do together. The most enjoyable one thus far has I think been the quiz booklet filled with esoteric questions about her, like "Has she ever plunged a toilet?" and "Would she know how to eat a lobster?" She has one with questions about me too. We answer the questions beforehand and then discuss them later. Talk about a great conversation starter and relationship builder!

Last night we had another cyberdate. My roommates were gone and so were some of her family. She was able to arrange for the rest of the family to stay out of the computer room, so we were still able to spend time together mostly undistracted. We did the same thing we did before with cooking and eating together. I opened a gift from her last night, and it was a movie (Walk the Line), so we watched that. We both hated it. We actually didn't even finish it...it was depressing and boring as the dickens, so we turned it off. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed the time together immensely. There's just something so special about times like that which are meant to be focused on each other.

It's been a long road to get to this point from mid-May, but we're on the home stretch. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's all downhill from here! =) Praise the Lord for keeping us together and keeping us strong through this time. It's all about Him and for His glory...our relationship is nothing if it doesn't have Him at its center. Please pray that we would continue to keep that as our focus. God is good...all praise to the Author of love!

Marathon (by Thomas)

Ok, so it's not really a marathon, but sometimes it feels like it. =) Things have remained basically the same since Rebecca left in the middle of May. We have a regular routine of communication involving IM, webcam, and cell phone. We usually talk casually on her way home, occasionally webcam after dinner, and talk in-depth later at night. Our contact is far less than it used to be, but I would estimate that we still get to communicate perhaps 2-3 hours per day. It's not something we're necessarily overjoyed about, but I'm pretty confident that our relationship will remain at least as strong as it is now until we see each other again.

It was a bit frustrating for a while to not be able to webcam. My laptop was dead and being repaired for several weeks, so until I got it back this weekend, I had not actually seen Rebecca since she left WA. Our phone conversations were very pleasant, but being able to see her again (even if only electronically) did my heart good.

We had an amusing contest last night via webcam. We were commiserating that neither of us felt like working out. Rebecca had the bright idea of doing situps together instead of our normal respective workouts, and proceeded to challenge me to a "crunch contest." We turned our webcams to where we could see each other on the floor and it was on! I was a bit nervous at first, but I ended up winning fairly convincingly (I thought). As you might expect, we gathered quite an audience! Most of her family congregated around during the contest, and were alternately watching me in the webcam and her on the floor. Everyone thought it was quite amusing. =)

Although tiring, it was very enjoyable to be able to exercise "with" Rebecca. The simple companionship and competitiveness of two best friends challenging each other really made us feel closer. I really hope that we can do more fun activities together as time goes on.

And so continues the marathon. ;-) We have about 43 days left until we see each other in person again. That seems like a long time (and it is in one sense!), but it's actually only about six weeks. It's been about 29 days since our last face-to-face contact...so while we're not at the halfway point yet, we're progressing towards it rapidly! I have full confidence that we will meet again with a stronger relationship than it's ever been before. Praise the Lord for the marvelous age of communcation in which we live!