My Valentine's Brick

On Valentine's Day 2001, I installed this brick on the front porch of our house. I say "our house", but at that time, it was "my house" (and it took me a long time to change my speech to "our house")!

I had been planning to install the brick to cover the icky concrete front porch that had previously held someone's idea of outdoor carpeting pasted to it: when I pulled the carpet off, the paste still adhered, so I decided the best way to improve the look was to put bricks on the porch.

As it turned out, I wasn't doing anything on February 14, 2001, so I decided to install the bricks after work that day. Working with your hands gives you a lot of time to think about things, and my thoughts that day quickly devolved to "woe is me, I'm single" thoughts. Look at all those people driving by in their cars...they're probably running home to get ready for a fun dinner out with their special someone, and I have no special someone. Here I am, working on my house (as I usually did after work), instead of spending time with someone besides my cat. When, God? When will you give me a husband to share my life with?

At the age of 33, I had had quite a few of those morose conversations with God by that time in my life. But this time, God answered the question (the way I wanted it to be answered) the very next week. On February 21, 2001, I met Tom for the first time*, and the rest is history.

So as I was swinging Natalie in the swing this afternoon, holding Konrad, watching Lukas push the broom on the driveway and thinking about Tom coming home to share Valentine's Day dinner with all of us, I glanced at the front porch and remembered Valentine's Day seven years ago. What a difference seven years make. What a different life I have and what a different person I am because of those seven years. I wouldn't trade it for the Cindy of seven years ago for anything.

Thanks, God, for answering my prayers in your time, not mine.

*Tom and I met at the Christian section of www.matchmaker.com. This is not an endorsement of the website (I haven't checked it in seven years for obvious reasons, so I don't know what it's like now), but it is how God brought us together.