Hi beauty & the feast readers! I'm Amanda from Marshalls Abroad. Thanks to Allie's wonderful series, I get to be with you today. My husband and I love telling and retelling how the Lord brought us together. Looking back, we can see why He may have waited until He did and how His timing is literally perfect. And like every good love story, there's so much more to this {years!} then I can fit into a blog post, but here's my attempt at a short version...
I spent my junior year of college abroad in Italia {!} and when I got back and started the last year of school, I was continually asked what the plan was after graduation. I'd just say I thought I might know better after going to D.C.
I spent the winter quarter of my senior year in Washington on an internship program through the University of California, interning at Fox News, and working on our one big assignment - a 30 page research paper and presentation. I decided to write on something I knew nothing about - the Iraq War and Islamic jihad. Ha, no light subject matter, I know! I spent the whole quarter researching and enthralled by the religion, culture and region, all the while trying to find someone from the military to interview for it. One of my best friends, Suzy, remembered she went to high school with someone who was at the Naval Academy. He set up an interview for me with one of the midshipmen who had spent the four years prior deployed in Iraq and Africa.
A few Saturdays later, Suz and I were in Annapolis at the Naval Academy, sitting around one of the tables in Dry Dock, waiting for someone named "Marshall" to show up. Little did I know that he would be the most handsome thing I had ever seen in my life! I saw him through the glass before he came to our table - he was in his uniform and so tall. He took off his cover {hat} and was SOO strikingly handsome that I flew up from my chair and with a huge smile that I could not hide, made a beeline to him to introduce myself, immediately forgetting what he said his first name was because I was so overwhelmed by him and by how hard my heart was beating! Wow, HELLO! The interview lasted about an hour, and I can tell you that we almost didn't break eye contact at all - literally. I'm laughing remembering this, but I took notes staring straight into his eyes and miraculously could read the chicken scratch later that I'd blindly written.
I asked him all about his time in Iraq and was SO impressed by how intelligent, well-spoken and passionate he was. There were a few things I could tell immediately: he was someone that people literally stopped to listen to when he opened his mouth; he was very loved; and he was incredibly adventurous {HUGE to me}. I then asked him if he had ever been hurt during his tours, and he said with a knowing smile, "No, not a scratch." He said he was a strong believer and had a lot of people praying for him. I'll never forget this - "that kind of faith can move mountains." This already AMAZING man was now perfect to me. I remember the thought that came to my mind while our eyes were locked - "Yeah..I could look at this face for the rest of my life." WOAH - where did that come from?! But honestly, deep down, I just knew it. I was looking at my husband. We got up to say goodbye and I had to crane my neck to look up at him. There were about a million butterflies in my stomach from the way he was looking down at me.
Every time I got an email from him, I would run through our house and find one or all of my five roommates {who are also five of my closest friends} and burst out in an excited craze that HE HAD WRITTEN ME! I remember Katelyn, Carie and Amber jumping on my bed with me, all surrounding the laptop, analyzing his email and swooning together.
By May, he asked me what I was doing after graduation, and though I had been told I could come and work at Fox, I was applying for another job to work abroad. It took my Mom telling me to get my little behind back to D.C. if I ever wanted to date or find out who this guy was. So, a few days later, I talked to Fox and took the job that they graciously gave me. My friend Chuck {Katelyn's husband} convinced me after about an hour of explaining that I needed to call Cam - ME? Call HIM? I paced back and forth outside of our house for atleast ten minutes until I finally got the courage to call him. I was so elated after talking to him that I sprinted up all the stairs into our house, threw open the door, jumped up and down and screamed to Carie what had just happened {she obviously looked at me like I was nuts}. My friends knew the reason I had taken the job in D.C. so they naturally thought I was going insane for moving across the country because of some guy I spent ONE hour with MONTHS ago. But it was then, when I made that decision, that Cam knew for certain we were going to get married.
He called me all summer and it was very much like dating over the phone. We talked every night up until my move and I knew for sure each time we hung up that he loved me.
The day I saw Cam again was one of the most wonderful of my life. I was talking to the security guard at the front of the Academy when I saw him through the glass doors. I couldn't exactly remember what he looked like during the six months that separated when we met to when we saw each other again, but I do know that night my heart felt like it literally jumped out of my chest when I saw his face. I dropped everything I was carrying and ran through the doors and was hugged so tightly. I can't really remember what we talked about; I just remember the way he looked at me and how I had a million things I wanted to say to him and couldn't remember a single one. His handsome face and sweet and loveable personality had me totally mesmerized.
I fell in love with Cam the very first moment I saw him in Dry Dock and especially after first talking to him, and that has grown TREMENDOUSLY since. God answered every one of my prayers for my "future husband" and what my Dad told me growing up proved to be absolutely true,"Don't think about what he's going to be like too much; you don't need to. The Lord has already taken care of it. He has someone far better than you can even imagine."
