A ten month update

I realize it has been a significant amount of time since I have posted anything or had much communication.  For that I apologize.  But I hope this finds you well.  There have been significant changes for me since I have come off the world race.  I am sure that most everyone who came back home after something so intense and life changing will have plenty more changes once they return.  Some will be foreseen and others will not.  But that is the beauty and adventure of it all.  Even when you think you know what is to come, it rarely looks like you expect it. 

 

The biggest and most beautiful change for me, my ultimate blessing, has come into my life.  The Lord has prepared for me a bride, and soon Jenny Dawson and I will be getting married!  For some this is no news, but I realize that many people out there who read many blogs of mine will be fairly clueless.  

 

 

I must say that the Lord has chosen to bless me far beyond anything I could imagine.  Way back when I was in Peru, God spoke the name Jenny to me.  I did not really know what that meant at the time.  But several months later Jenny Dawson got off the bus in Swaziland and a friendship began.  I was still clueless that this could be the Jenny behind the name that God spoke to me.  Then a romance began to develop while we were both in Thailand.  We continued to talk most every day via email while I was in Cambodia and she remained in Thailand (anyone who remembers my love of the “Blue Pumpkin” might now realize why I loved the internet so much). 

 

When the race ended for me in Hong Kong, I had prayed many hours about and for Jenny.  I knew she still had six months left on the race but I felt strongly that I could not just let her go.  The day before she left to go into China, where I would painfully not be able to communicate with her for a month, I told her of my feelings and we both decided to give things a try.  The next month was very difficult, I missed her so much.  But I felt in my heart that God was protecting her and that what we had was a beautiful gift. 

 

Almost six months later, Jenny came home to Florida.  The next day, I flew in to see her.  Unbeknown to Jenny, God had spoken to me while she was still on the race that this was the woman that God had been preparing for me, and who He had prepared me for.   After two weeks in Florida with her wonderful family who never threatened to kill me, Jenny and I flew back to Arizona as she moved to be out in Flagstaff with me.   

 

God told me to wait until August 1 to ask her to marry me.  He said we
needed at least three months to just be around each other.  Wanting to be obedient, but not wanting to waste time, I bought a ring.  On July 31st I asked Jenny’s dad if I could have his daughter’s hand in marriage and he graciously welcomed me into the family.  On August 1, Jenny and I went to the beach in her home town of Sarasota and I proposed to her at sunset.  She cried (in the good way) and hugged me tighter than anyone has ever hugged me before.  It took her five minutes to even look at the ring.  Eventually she did say “yes” and I was much relieved.  A random man walked by and even offered to take pictures at the exact moment I was proposing, so we happen to have pictures of the surprise proposal.  It was a truly beautiful moment!  I felt that the Lord set everything up perfectly.  

 

The actual proposal! 

We are now in Colorado Springs and happily engaged.  We will be getting married in January on the beach in Sarasota.  

 

 

That is most certainly the biggest news of my life and I am honored to share it with you and I thank you for having spent the time that you did supporting me and praying for me on the world race.  There is a whole new set of adventures that the Lord is leading me, and now Jenny Dawson on, together.