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In a little farm/petroleum town in Canada called Sarnia, a boy named Andrew grew up and went on to go to university in Waterloo. After graduation in 2002, God brought Andrew to Seattle. In the United States of America, from New York to Philadelphia to New Jersey, a beautiful little girl named Jenny grew up. During high school in 2000, God brought Jenny to Seattle. One evening early in 2005, their paths crossed when Andrew receives a request from Victor to bring masking tape over to Ravenswood Apartment Homes for Jenny. At this time, Andrew had never met Jenny and this was their first meeting. Unbeknownst to the two of us, the future that God held for us would surprise and delight us.

The first few years, we can call these “The Friendship Period”. During this time, they would see each other here and there. Sometimes it was Jenny coming over to borrow Bible commentaries, sometimes it was Jenny coming over to bring cookies and visit the rabbits. Other times Andrew would visit for food which Jenny had prepared. In November 2005, after a Chris Tomlin concert, Andrew offered to drive Jenny back home from Overlake. Given that this concert was huge, Andrew had to park all the way at the building across the road from Overlake. During that time, they had a chance to talk and they quickly found a connection by discussing the ministries they had committed to. Prior to this, the mutual friend who’d introduced them earlier encouraged them to chat with one another about their ministry struggles, but to no avail. A few months later, just before the Microsoft Christmas party for the MSN division, Andrew asked Jenny if she would like to go to the Christmas party with him. This was a harmless platonic request from Andrew. Basically he didn't want to go alone, he didn't want to go with another dude, and didn't want to go with someone else's girlfriend. So he asked Jenny even though he had only known her a short period of time. After a series of awkward e-mails exchange, Jenny decided that it would be better for her to go to the NewGen.Pro fellowship Christmas party at Scottie’s house, which was happening the same night. Andrew was convinced by some others to eventually go to the work Christmas party and hang out with the group. On the night of the party, Andrew showed up and to his surprise, he found Jenny there. Jenny had been convinced to go to the party with her women’s small group (some of whom also worked at Microsoft) but Jenny's "date" Bonny spent most of the time with her co-workers. Andrew had arrived at the party early enough to pick up tickets to the free showing of the Nutcracker and when he went into the auditorium, he found Jenny sitting by herself at the very edge. Andrew offered one of his tickets to her which was placed around the center. At this point, even though she felt really bad about how this had turned out so far, she agreed to sit with Andrew. Andrew never brought up the topic of why she had declined to go with him originally with the NewGen party reason. He understood she was concerned what kind of message that could possibly send if she did go with him. As the year progressed, their paths would cross more often as they made more friends who were common to both of us. During the winter, Jenny got interested in snowboarding and everyone would hoard the Shell 2-for-1 coupons so that they all could head up to the mountain on Monday nights. At first Tim and Andrew were the only ones who were had experience and so they became the instructors. As some of the other beginners were starting to the hang of it, Jenny was still having problems and was deathly afraid of tumbling down the bunny slope. Like a gentlemen, Andrew came over to help her. For an hour, he held her hands and helped her down the hill so she wouldn't fall as much. As much as it sounds magical to be in a winter wonderland holding hands, it seemed like an awkward sort of dance at the time. At the end of the night, there turned out to be a funny story. After returning to the lodge, Andrew could not find his keys to the car. Jenny had been one of the passengers in his vehicle and so she was concerned. Andrew thought that he had dropped the keys on the mountain and returned to go find them. They were indeed where he had thought he had dropped them and when returning to the lodge. In Andrew’s goofy way, he told everyone he found them and they were just in his pocket the whole time. In a flash, both Olwen and Jenny pushed Andrew against a wall and one of them even start a stabbing motion with whatever was in her hands at the time. During the summertime, everyone took the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and because of that, their paths crossed more often. They spent the summer going on hikes, rollerblading around the Pacific Northwest, kayaking in San Juan, and canoeing in Lake Washington. One time when Jenny's younger sister Jade was coming into Seattle, Andrew decided that it would be nice to make a welcoming party. Who doesn't like having a welcoming party for them at the airport? After church, Andrew went to the party store in Crossroads mall and stopped by the clearance section and found balloons and happy birthday party hats. It's also notable to know that these party hats were 8 cents and that we got way more value out of them than we paid for. The welcoming party consisted of Olwen, Dave, Victor and Andrew. It was fun for us, but probably embarrassing for Jenny and Jade. It's in the past, so we laugh about it now. Those party hats did get a lot of mileage from a trip to the San Juan Islands, rollerblading in Stanley Park (Vancouver), Jenny's send-off and every possible opportunity Andrew had to wear one. As this summer wrapped up, Jenny continued her preparations to move to New York for school and it would wrap up the friendship years and move on to the next period of time.

This period of time we'll call “The Discovery Time”. During an office move at work, Andrew had a day off to let the movers do their thing. Olwen asked if she could meet up with him for lunch and proceeded to tell Andrew that his interaction with Jenny could be confusing. Andrew appreciated the concern but didn't think it was much of an issue because he thought his actions were clear. Based on his experience with Microsoft Christmas party, he assumed that if he ever crossed the line by accident, Jenny would make it pretty clear to him. Later the same day, Victor came over to visit Andrew and asked how he felt about Jenny. At first, Andrew thought this was a conspiracy. Why would two people come and confront me about the same thing on the same day? He was assured that they came to him independently of each other and they weren't colluding. Then he thought perhaps there was a chance some of his actions may have been perceived as crossing the line of friendship and Andrew decided to meet up with Jenny to make sure everything is clear. On the Wednesday two weeks before she left, at the 106th St. Barnes and Noble Starbucks, they met. Andrew sat her down and told her he had no romantic intentions. There wasn't too much of a conversation around this, but internally, this started the end of what was a big mental battle for us. Somewhere in Andrew's mind he had been subconsciously fighting any kind of feelings for her and this meeting with her was really about his last ditch effort to convince himself that he had no feelings. It made it tougher because Andrew now worked in the buildings which Jenny use to work in and ate in the cafeteria where she ate in and once shared lunch with him. As Andrew was at work, if his eyes passed by the window, he knew that she was only across the road. In those days, his will would no longer be able to stand up against the strong feelings he had for her and he knew he had to tell her the truth. Friday became a very unproductive day at work as he tried to plan out what he was going to say to her. He was even so focused that even after receiving the best review in his career, he only thought of what he needed to tell Jenny. His plan was to go over to her place one day and set the record straight. Unknown to him, God was also working in her life. That weekend Jenny went to a wedding where there were a large number of people who went to SCAC (the church that Andrew had previously gone to). She was constantly reminded of him when seeing those people. She was also reminded of him as the couple being married was an American-Canadian couple and everyone teased Jenny that she would be part of the next American-Canadian couple. Later that night after talking to her good friend Alex in DC, Alex said to her that if Jenny's relationship with Andrew was bothering her so much, there's a chance that Jenny feels more than she thinks about him. Jenny called Andrew that night and asked to meet up on Monday. After a tough weekend of further mulling over and sitting on the issue, Monday came and we met at the Starbucks in Overlake Plaza and in that place, after both coming to terms with what is seen now as God placing in their hearts, they confessed how they felt about each other. Because they had been so stressed about what they were going to say to the other, neither of them had really planned what they were going to do going forward. After receiving some council from a pastor in Waterloo with a 1-800 number, we had decided to build a friendship first and begin the official courtship after. The truth was, both of us didn't really know each other very well and the idea of long distance was scary. With 5 more days left in Seattle for Jenny, they were still tough ones for her. All of this was on top of having to deal with moving across the country. There was some ambiguity in the idea of being friends with the intent of possibly dating in the future that would make both of them uneasy. They met up a few more times after Monday. He began to be very concerned for her as she was not sleeping or eating well. One afternoon when they talked, Andrew looked at Jenny and wished there was something he could do. He felt like God was telling him to let her go. Immediately he thought that was a bit crazy, but in the end he realized that would help ease things. On Thursday afternoon, Andrew went over to Jenny's place and did one of the toughest things he'd ever had to; he told her he would let her go if that was what was going to help her. He knew this is what God wanted him to do and as difficult as it was, he chose obedience. At the end of the week, Jenny left to New York as planned and they did not start a romantic relationship. In the following month, Andrew called and IM'd once in a while to see how she was doing while trying to carefully respect the boundaries of the path they had chosen. Jenny struggled with the choice she made. With adjusting to the city and having a student lifestyle re-introduced to her, her mind felt cluttered and she felt emotionally overwhelmed. She decided she needed some space and requested that Andrew did not communicate with her for an indefinite amount of time. It came as something of a surprise to Andrew, but he trusted her judgment and respected her request despite wishing it didn’t have to be that way. A few more months passed for Andrew as he still worked in the buildings that Jenny use to work in and ate in the cafeteria she ate in and once had lunch in with him and Victor. If his eyes glanced through the window, he would be reminded that she once lived across the road. All this was unknown to Jenny because of the break in communication. She assumed Andrew had gotten over her. On his side, Andrew didn't know Jenny's thought during these months and thought that she also moved on. As these separate internal struggles were occurring, there were also situations and people in Jenny’s life that continually reminded her of Andrew. She tried to logically reason that she had made the wise choice, but her heart was not at peace with it. During conversations with her roommates, her thoughts would stray and wander to Andrew. As young Christian college students, conversations about relationships and marriage abounded and oftentimes she would catch herself thinking about Andrew. In her mind, Jenny worried whether she and Andrew would ever be friends again. The level at which that concerned her was alarming and she thought it may be a sign of feelings that were more intense than she thought and wanted to admit. After Jenny left Seattle, she was given custody of Olwen's monkey since he stole away in her guitar case. Because of this, Jenny promised to return Monkey safely to Olwen in Toronto during her winter break. As December approached, Jenny kept her word and made plans to go to Toronto for the Christmas holidays. As she was making plans for one of her favorite group activities, ice skating, she wondered how Andrew would react if they were to see each other in a group setting, and wanted to make sure he was alright. She broke the silence between them that had persisted for two months, and asked him in an e-mail to call her. It was a Saturday morning when Andrew received the e-mail and he was caught off guard by it. Andrew had no idea what she was going to say. He knew he had an over-active imagination so rather than letting it run wild, he decided he would call her back and hear what she had to say rather than try to guess. He was prepared only to listen, but Jenny was looking for feedback. This, coupled with the fact that Andrew is not a morning person, made for a very awkward phone call. It was a short phone call and neither of them felt good about the call after it was done. Andrew ran a lot of errands that day and reflected on the phone call they had. She said things that made him think. He also regretted deciding only to listen because there were some awkward silences. He decided to call her back that same night and assure her that everything was ok and he wasn't mad at her at all. That conversation was much more pleasant but remained at a surface level, as they updated each other on the various things in life that had happened. Neither of them spoke of how they felt towards each other. Not too long after, during the Seattle windstorm power outage, Andrew sat in his office and IM'ed with Jenny while she was in Washington, D.C. visiting Alex. At this time, they set up a date during which they could meet in Toronto and talk one on one. The time came for both of them to go to Toronto and Jenny arrived a few days earlier than originally planned. Andrew and Jenny hung out in a group setting a few days before having their discussion. They didn't mention anything about their feelings although they both wondered what the other person was going to say. The first day they saw each other was a bit awkward as well. It was Boxing Day and a bunch of people had decided to go Boxing Day shopping. When Jenny and Andrew saw each other again for the first time since August, neither of them knew how to react and only exchanged a brief 'hi', whereas Jenny's reunions with others were accompanied by a hug. The day for them to meet alone finally came and they sat down in a small Starbucks within Chapters at Sheppard Road and Bayview Road. Jenny told Andrew of the process she had gone through in the past months. Andrew was quite surprised as to what had happened, not expecting that much to have gone through her mind as they were in a period of silence. She ended by telling Andrew that she was now open to a relationship even though it would be long distance and even though she was still three years from finishing her program in New York City. The ball was now in Andrew's court. Andrew proceeded to tell her what had gone through his mind during the period of silence. Jenny was also quite surprised by the things he had thought about. The conclusion to this conversation was that we both decided to start a relationship. This wraps up the discovery time period and moves on the bliss period.

This phase of our relationship describes the first months of the courtship. During the first day of their new relationship, Andrew and Jenny agreed to take the trip to his old university the next day. After a restless night of sleep from her excitement and anticipation, Jenny got up early to get ready for her day trip to the University of Waterloo with Andrew.

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