Knew Love

Knew Love

The first glance.
The first date.
The first kiss.
...and then you knew.

This is a collection of introductions and first dates.
The stories of when couples knew it was meant to be.

Derek & Brooke

One of the first weekends of my freshman year of college, we had a ‘Hoedown’
dance. I was walking around just getting to know new people, and I turned
around and saw Derek wearing a plaid shirt, jeans... and fuzzy cow-print chaps.
I just had to laugh. I went up and said, “Hey, nice pants!” With a grin, he said,
“Thanks! You know you want to feel them.” I did, and then went on to meet
more people.

A few weeks later, powderpuff football started, and Derek turned out to be
one of my coaches. We continued to talk more and more, and found that we
greatly enjoyed being around each other.

After many months of being patient and getting to know each other more, we
told each other that we were interested in taking our relationship to the next
level. Derek asked my dad if he could start dating me – which was very impres-
sive in my opinion! We began dating on February 9th, 2010, and have been
together almost two years.



Rachel & Peter

I first noticed Rachel while filling out paperwork on the morning of an out-of-
state tournament with the Huntington University Ultimate Frisbee team. She
had somehow escaped my attention at practice for a few weeks prior to the
tournament. She was wearing a large hooded sweatshirt and when I first saw
her face, I was struck with the inclination, “I need to meet this girl.”

Later that day, I was nervous and excited as Rachel asked me to explain a ruling
on the field during a game. I fumbled with my words as I tried to sound intel-
ligent. After the tournament, I successfully attained a seat next to Rachel in a
pizza parlor, but failed to create any form of conversation as I had hoped.

Shortly after the tournament, I intentionally “bumped” into Rachel and conve-
niently invited her to toss a Frisbee with me. Semi–frequent meetings and small
amounts of time together continued throughout the rest of that fall semester.
After becoming best friends and dating for some time, Rachel and I were mar-
ried on July 30th 2011.



Robin & Joe

Joe and I met at 21Alive – the local ABC Affiliate. He is seven years younger
than me, so I initially considered him to be just a friend. We had a pretty large
group of single adults at 21Alive who would spend time together.

One New Year’s Eve, Joe and I were supposed to attend a New Years party
together, but as usual, he was late to pick me up. I went ahead without him,
and when he showed up several hours later I was pretty mad. He thought I
would have a right to be mad if we were dating, but not if we were just friends,
so just minutes before midnight, we decided we should probably begin dating
since I was already acting like it.

That was about 20 years ago and we’ve been happily married for 17 years.



Greg & Cara

During the Fall of 2009 two of the college students where I work wanted to
“hook me up” with their boss, but I was against it. They insisted that we were
very much alike and he was the male version of myself. I still declined.

One year later, on September 17, I spied Greg at a barbecue in my neighbor’s
yard. We locked eyes.

The next night we introduced ourselves and he asked me to have lunch with
him and I accepted. After we both ‘stalked’ each other on Facebook, we
exchanged numbers. The following Wednesday we had our lunch date
and have been inseparable ever since.



Breanna & Josh

While I was in college I had a dream that I would marry a man from Africa. I
wasn’t sure how or why, but felt that God had given me this vision for a reason.
Upon graduation a year later, I began working at our church and struggled with
why I still had not met this “man of my dreams.”

While walking through the church one afternoon I stopped to talk with a
co-worker. She was updating the bulletin board with all of the missionaries that
are supported through our organization. They were mostly families and older
couples so I asked if this was a complete list. She replied, “No, there are more.
We actually have one returning from Africa in a few weeks. He’s a single guy
about your age. His name Josh.”

The first time I introduced myself to Josh I knew he was the one. We began
dating and I eventually told him about the dream. We took things slow to be
sure and have now been happily married for three years.



Tom & Shelly

Tom and I went to the same high school but didn’t know each other. He was
a grade ahead of me and had dated a couple of my friends. We formally met
at the Roller Dome North during the winter of my senior year in high school. I
thought he was cute and a good skater. During that winter, I accepted Christ as
my savior.

The following summer my girlfriends and I were hanging around at the Three
Rivers Festival. We would run in to Tom, but noticed he had been drinking and
weren’t too impressed. Each time we saw him he would offer to take one of us
home – we refused.

Then, one summer evening he and a girlfriend of mine showed up at my house.
She left and Tom hung around. I was surprised. Before he left that night he
told me I should give him a call sometime. My girlfriend coaxed me into calling
him and we had our first date on July 28. We were married 28 months later on
November 28 and we just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.



Jim & Lynda

I grew up in a small town about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne. A friend of mine was
dating a girl in Fort Wayne – the homecoming queen. When he showed me a picture
of her I immediately asked if she had a friend for me.

She brought a yearbook on her next visit and all three of us looked it over. I asked
about a few girls that looked nice and then saw Lynda. She had just broken up with a
boyfriend and accepted a blind date with me.

We dated for a few months and then were engaged. I had joined the Air Force and
was stationed near Indianapolis. On weekends I would drive back to see Lynda and
make plans for our wedding. Initially it was to be nine months away in the summer.
Each visit home I would bump the date up a month. We were married by Christmas
and just celebrated our 56th anniversary.



Bud & Freida

I’m originally from Michigan and was attending Illwarra Bible College in
Australia. Freda (or Freddy as I call her) was also attending attending the Bible
College and had grown up in Australia after her parents had moved from Brit-
ain. The Bible College was very strict about dating and didn’t allow couples to
date alone. Group outings were common.

Many of our first dates involved group activities such as movies, bowling and
ping-pong. We have fond memories of me trying to teach her the finer points
of ping-pong in the student lounge.

After dating for several months, I asked her to marry me. She said, “Yes!” and
we’ve been married for 42 years.



Darrell & Kathy

Kathy lived in Columbia City, Indiana, and I lived in Queens, New York City. We
had both been members of a correspondence organization called Single Book-
lovers. Both avid readers and writers, we fell in love through letters. We have
boxes of more than 500 letters and cards that we sent each other during our
long-distance courtship.

One letter in particular reminded me of an Emily Dickenson poem and I knew I
had to meet - and hopefully marry - this woman.

She wrote to me in May 1981, I proposed by mail a few months later, we met
for the first time in February 1982, and we got married in June 1983.



Kim & Robert

I met Kim when she started dating my best friend. During the time she dated
him, I became close to her as a friend. I also had feelings that ran deeper than
friendship, but I could not discuss or act on those feelings.

When she broke off her relationship with him, I could not hold back my feelings.
I had to tell her how much I cared for and loved her. It took her about a month
before she told me that she loved me in return.

We started dating on Thanksgiving. It was also on a Thanksgiving Day that I
proposed to her. I took her to Foster Park, a special place we had spent time
together. She had no idea what I was planning. She thought I was taking her
out for breakfast. She did not get a nice breakfast, but she did say, “Yes!”

I still cannot believe that she agreed to marry me and cannot imagine what my
life would be without her.

Since Robert is currently deployed overseas for more than twelve months, the photo
includes a cutout of him that Kim and their three kids take travel with. They photograph
their adventures with him to send while he’s away.



Jay & Nancy

Of all places, we met at a beauty shop in Leo, Indiana. My Aunt Marty is the
owner and has quite a track record as a matchmaker. She’d been telling me
about a customer of hers named Jay. She said that Jay was a lot of fun and
she thought that I should go out with him. Apparently she was also telling Jay
about me and saying that the two of us really should meet.

The problem was, Jay was an over-the-road truck driver and was seldom home.
On January 24, 1998 Jay came into the shop for a haircut and who do you think
just happened to be in the back room tanning? It was destiny! I came out and
there was Jay telling jokes and entertaining the whole shop with funny stories.
We started dating and were engaged within a couple months and married by
the beginning of September of that same year. It turns out that January 24th is
also Jay’s birthday. What a gift God gave to both of us!



Rikki & Raphael

I met Raphael in the Air Force while we were stationed in California. I was an air
traffic controller and responsible for recording weather conditions on the base.
Raphael worked on maintaining the fighter jets.

There was an outside cafe area where we could all meet for coffee and lunch.
A few weeks before meeting each other, we had both decided not to date
anyone for a while – but that quickly changed.

I started to plan my outside weather reports around his break schedule. We
began to talk more and more until we couldn’t deny it any longer. We began
dating and have been married 19 years.



Tina & Donny

I was playing softball with Donny’s sister, but didn’t know her very well. She had
mentioned my name to him and thought we should meet. The trouble was that
she didn’t have my number. So, Donny tried calling several people and struck
out every time.

He eventually contacted my church and asked for my number. Not knowing
him, they did a background check – seriously! He called and we set up a lunch
date at the mall.

We dated and were married. We tried several years to start a family, but it
never came about. Last year our prayers were answered and we were able to
adopt.

Although it took some work to find each other and start a family, we’re happy
to be celebrating 12 years of marriage.