Danny and I have known each other since we were six and seven years old. We met at church when my family moved to the Seattle area from Colorado. He was an energetic kid with a knack for getting into trouble, and I was a serious, quiet little girl. He made no particular impression on me at first, though I was immediately drawn towards his large Mexican family which comprised at least half of our congregation!
Years passed and Danny grew into a popular, good-looking teenager who played in a band and was known for his crazy antics. I grew into a shy, awkward adolescent who stuck to a small circle of friends and my writing. Although we went to the same church, it seemed Danny and I grew up in different worlds.
As we matured more, the little cliques and rules that dominated the social structure at church became less and less important. I began to hang around the Villa family more often and had a few opportunities to observe Danny in his natural habitat. :-) Though I found him to be charming and easy to talk to, it never occurred to me to consider a potential future with him- we were just so different! When I was eighteen, the college-aged youth at church went on a mission trip to Mississippi. After this we became a tight-knit group who spent a lot of time together even outside of church functions. It was about this time that Danny's car broke down for a while and we discovered that his house was right on my way to church and most of our popular hang-out spots. We got in the habit of carpooling to save gas even after his car had been fixed.
That was the beginning of a one-on-one friendship between Danny and I. At first our relationship felt big-brother to little-sister, but it quickly morphed into a more mutual trust in and dependence on each other. On those car rides we nursed each other through various heartaches and discussed in hot debate every issue of theology, ethics and politics we could think of. We found we agreed on almost everything in the end, though we often came at things from different perspectives. Most of all, we talked about our mutual interest in missions and community outreach. I'd never met anyone who shared my life goals and ideals so completely!
It wasn't long before car rides were no longer enough, and we were communicating over facebook and often sitting together at social functions so we could talk more. On the day of my friend Christina's wedding, we walked down the isle together as brides maid and grooms man, and his friendship and support on that crazy day made me realize that it was hard to imagine life without Danny's influence. Though I would have denied it at the time, I was starting to fall for him.
It would be a number of months before Danny came to feel the same way about me, although our friendship continued to deepen during that time and I think he often wondered if something more could come of it. The longer I knew him the more I realized how perfectly he lived up to my ideal. I loved his passionate dedication to all of his many projects, his willingness in helping others, and his relentless, contagious optimism. Though I had reason to believe he wasn't interested in me, I told myself I had to marry someone just like him.
Then in December things became more intense and we started seeing each other almost every day. There were a few little clues that made me wonder if possibly, maybe, he could be interested in me, though I tried not to get my hopes up. Finally, on December 16, 2010, Danny took me out for coffee before work one morning. Others were supposed to be coming along (or so I thought) but they mysteriously did not show up. We went through the drive through and just as soon as we had ordered, while we were still waiting for our coffee, Danny announced that he had a special purpose in meeting me that morning. We got our coffee, while I sat with a hammering heart trying to appear oblivious, and then on the way home he went to explain that he'd become jealous of my affections and wanted to pursue a relationship with me!
I was of course overjoyed, especially when he said he wanted to talk to my dad before we became official, as old fashioned as such an idea is. On the day after Christmas, Danny asked my dad for his permission to date me, and my dad gave his blessing right away.
For the next four months, there was hardly a day when Danny and I were not together. We would always get off work at the same time, meet at his house, and set off for whatever the day held side by side. Our schedules were pretty busy, between church functions, the church remodel project he was working on, and both of our large families, so we didn't have much time to go out or do couplish things. But just living and working side by side was the best preparation for marriage I could have possibly asked for! We said from the very beginning that the only point of our relationship was to figure out if it was God's will for us to be married, and we tried to keep Christ as the head and center of our relationship. We were extremely blessed to have lots of godly people in our lives to give us help and advice with this!
On May 7th, I was babysitting at Danny's uncle's house and Danny came up to help for the evening. After the kids had gone to bed, Danny and I knew he had to go home, but we didn't want to say goodbye. We were sitting on the living room couch and as usual we started coming up with wild ideas to avoid parting ways, like running away or eloping. After I devised one such scheme, I told him it was his turn to make a crazy plan. "Well, I do have one crazy plan," he told me. "But it's reeeally crazy!"
After much hemming and hawing Danny finally pulled a twisty tie shaped like a ring out of his pocket and asked me to marry him! At first I wasn't sure if he was serious, but he assured me he was. So I made him get down on his knees and do it again- and of course, I said yes. He'd been planning to have the ring designed himself, but it was taking too long and he'd grown impatient- thus the twisty tie engagement ring. We went out the following Monday and bought a small engagement ring to hold us over until the wedding band could be designed, after announcing the engagement to our very surprised family and friends on Sunday.
Danny and I plan to be married on August 26th, 2011. We both feel so inexpressibly blessed that this process has gone so smoothly and that God has led us to one another. We look forward to a whole LIFETIME of getting to know and love one another better!
