LOVE STORY
I think everyone loves a good love story. I remember as a child dreaming about how God would write my story, who I would marry, how he would ask me out, our first kiss (well...you get the idea:). It is so funny to look back on the last few years with Kevin (my handsome stud) and laugh about how it was all so different than I imagined...only better:)
Part I
Technically speaking, Kev and I should have met a Loooong time before we actually did.
Kevin's dad grew up with the Pastor from my home church.
However Kev's family lived in southern california and I grew up in northern california, so I had only heard about this mysterious boy from afar...
My pastor and his family always talked about the Cook family, and about Kev...his good looks...his athletic prowess (tearing it up out on the basketball courts)...his comedic sense of humor, etc. Secretly I had this "long distance" crush on a guy I had never met.
Then came college. My freshman year I was invited to a New Years party...
and to my great joy my fantasy crush was going to be there.
Would I go? Um..wouldn't miss it for the world. However, my expectations for my hopeful encounter with Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome did not match reality. Not only did I not even officially meet my Stud muffin, to this day he doesn't even remember me being there.
Um....kinda pathetic since I certainly watched HIM like a hawk that night.
Fast forward four years (yes, nothing at all significant happens between us while in college).
Freshly graduated from college, I set out to conquer the world of grad school.
Kevin, having one more year of eligibility to play basketball at this same school, was still a student on campus. Again, romantic visions of "bumping" into him on campus filled my academic mind
(but again, orchestration of such a meeting was rather futile).
Until....(drumroll please)...his parents called me up to say they had heard hat I was in town, and that they would love to take me out to lunch one Sunday after church.
Well, again, what's a girl to do?
Free food and a possible rendevoux with none other than Mr. Basketball himself?
I'm in.
That lunch had absolutely nothing to do with Kevin, and yet had everything to do with him.
Kevin WAS there, but he never said one word to me and was sitting at a different table with his friends (again he sheepishly admitted to not remember this occasion. Monumental for me, non-existent to him.)
Yet even though I didn't exchange one syllable with my future husband, his Dad Mitch, rather jokingly seemed to predict the outcome of this story. You see, Mitch had traveled to Nepal every year for over a decade and loved many aspects of the Nepali culture.
He told me that day, "Katie, I wish we were living in Nepal right now.
I would give your dad 100 goats to buy you for Kevin.
Wouldn't that be great if you and Kevin were ever married....".
in my mind I was like...YES! do you want to make that happen?
but alas...it was not meant to be...yet
Against my nature, I become a grad school drop out (I love telling people that, it makes me feel so edgy...).
Yes, it's true....three weeks after I started grad school, I decided it wasn't for me, quit, and moved to Thailand to teach English.
And in doing so diminished all chances of connecting with Kevin via our University connection.
I guess matching alumni sweatshirts were not in our future.
So fast forward another year and Kevin is freshly graduated, looking to make a lot of money in a short amount of time. He gets wind that rice harvesting is quite lucrative in the Fall, and BOOM, next thing I know he is working for my dad (who farms rice in northern california!) driving a tractor and growing a nasty beard in the Rystrom family annual "beard off"
(Don't worry, when I did my stint working harvest for my dad I voted to opt out of the competition....)
But major problem...
I was a northern california girl who had relocated to San Diego, and Kevin was a southern california boy who had moved to Northern California.
Geography, my friend, was not in our favor.
But, as God would have it, my parents seemed to be in our favor, and "conveniently" invited Kevin over for dinner the weekend they knew I would be visiting from SD.
Kevin, in the same vein had been over to my parents quite frequently and had noticed my senior picture, and taken a special interest in the Rystrom's oldest daughter. (FINALLY, right?).
Kevin told me numerous times his stomach was ranging between both nervous and excited, and he confessed that after meeting me thought I was "beautiful" and "quite out of his league"
(his words, not mine).
we had a great evening that night, but the very next day Kev moved to Spain.
He added me on FB the next day, and I remember thinking...
"he is great, but probably nothing will come of this..."
however, exactly a year late, I wind up with a job in Southern California
Kevin moved back from Spain and was living at his parents.
I needed a place to live and was encouraged by a few people to ask Kevin's family if I could live with them (as they tend to host a lot of people who are in limbo with housing)
Let's see....live with random creepies I find off craiglist, OR live with a fantastic Christian family and their hot son who happens to be my age and single?
I know...i'm a genius. I decided to facebook Kev and see if there was vacancy at his parents house.
Kevin, who received my message told me later that he couldn't believe I was asking to live with them. He responded back an emphatic YES before he even asked his parents. Telling his friend that I had asked to live with them, his friend responded with "is she cute?", and without being able to hide his massive smile, responded a resounding YES. And so we became roommates.....