Josh and I have been in a marriage small group hosted by our buddies the Burkhalters for the last chunk of weeks, and it’s been a pretty fun way to spend a Thursday evening. Every week, they’ve had one of the couples in the group share the story of how they got together.

I love our story; it’s all about perfect timing.

When I heard it was going to be our turn to share, I thought about it. A lot. All of the things I wanted to say about this amazing person I’ve spent the last 10 and a half years with, and how we ended up as a couple.

And then last Thursday came, it was our turn to talk.

Joy was going crazy because she was hungry.

I couldn’t think straight.

I totally biffed the whole story.

It was rambly, it was hard to follow. It bummed me out. So now to make up for it, in honor of Josh and I’s 8th wedding anniversary today, I’m doing a written out do-over that can’t be derailed by antsy kids.

It’s all about perfect timing.

The most important things that have happened in my life have come down to God’s perfect timing.

When I went to Marina High School, my plan for college was to stay local, and go to Cal State Long Beach. I heard someone say they had a good art program, and that was good enough for me.

To this day I have no idea why Savannah College of Art and Design had representatives come to our high school – we only had about 4 art classes. Art 1, Art 2, Studio Art, Ceramics 1… If you really liked Ceramics, you could take it again and they’d call it Ceramics 2. But it wasn’t like we had this big amazing art program that SCAD should be recruiting from.

For whatever reason, they sent people to talk to our art class at a time when my home life was ridiculous.

And I decided to go to college in Georgia.

I had never been to Georgia, I never visited the campus before starting college. I just went. And when I did, I told myself it was because I was young, and if I hated it there was time to go home and try something else.

But really, I was supposed to leave California. It was one of the best things I ever did for myself.

What’s that got to do with Josh, though?

It’s that perfect timing again. Josh and I should have gotten together years before we actually did.

My sister Michelle was a parking control officer at Huntington Beach Police Department when Josh was hired there as a cadet. They ended up working together, and became friends.

After college, there was a chunk of time where Michelle and I lived at the same apartment complex in Old Town Orange, CA. We hung out all the time. She hung out with her buddy Josh all the time. Why didn’t I meet Josh then?

Josh was working the front desk at HBPD on 9/11, the day I was there to interview for a 911 operator position.

We probably spoke with each other. He would’ve had to tell me where to go in the building.

I don’t think I was at a point in my life where I was ready for Josh.

And then I moved to Wisconsin.

I dated a guy for about a month when I lived in Wisconsin, which was pretty par for the course with me. No one ever really stuck around; no relationship ever fit. I was in my mid twenties, and I was already so jaded about the idea that I’d ever get married or have kids.

I started having phone conversations with my sister Michelle, telling her I was lonely. How there were no cool guys in Wisconsin, and someday when I moved back to California I wanted her to set me up with someone.

“You need to meet my friend Josh,” she’d say. “You guys would be perfect together.”

I can’t tell you how many times we had that conversation.

Then at the end of March, 2004, I went back to California to visit family. My sister Michelle picked me up from LAX, and Josh was in the car with her. I knew immediately just how much I liked him.

We got to hang out a couple of times that week, and then I went back to Wisconsin.

The next week, OshKosh B’Gosh told the entire art department we were being laid off so the positions could move to the NYC office.

Perfect. Timing.

I had a choice to make when I was laid off – I could reapply for my job and move to New York City, where I’d get a small pay increase but probably not enough to take care of the huge cost of living increase it’d bring. I could stay in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and do paperwork. I could take severance pay for my year and a half at OshKosh B’Gosh and go back to California.

I went back to California. Josh and I started dating a month later.

Josh’s penchant for homeless women

My favorite part of this story is that when we got together, I was unemployed and homeless and living on my sister’s couch.

But also, my favorite part is that this is the guy that’s stuck around.
I love you, Josh. Happy Anniversary.