My Pre-marital Story
My sister will tell you what a hopeless romantic I've always been.  Every time we'd go somewhere as a family I'd think "wouldn't this be a romantic place to take someone?" or "I wish I had a significant other to share this moment with."

I considered myself a decent looking guy with a lot to offer a woman.  That being said, I didn't have such good luck with dating.  I only had one other real long term relationship besides my wife.  I didn't have too hard of time getting a date or meeting women, but I screwed every relationship up, in a different way each time.  One day I realized that it is highly unlikely, despite my desire, to find the "one" that would be best for me on my own.  That is to say that, in retrospect all of the women whom I've dated, been attracted to, been infatuated with, etc. would have ended up being disasters or at the very least not what would have been best for me as a wife.  Also, even with my very best efforts and abilities, I hadn't been able to start (in some cases) or keep (in others) dating the women that I wanted to.

Finally one day I realized that with the billions of women in the world, how is it possible that I can find "the one" that is perfect for me.  If I keep messing up with meeting and keeping women, then maybe I should just trust God to take care of it.  After all, if He is Love, then He is also the distributor or the source of Love too (see my 'Testimony' section for more details).  Then I remembered Paul's statements (in the New Testament) of being single and how it's a better choice, as long as you can control yourself sexually (1Corinthians 7:8-9,32-33) and I realized that it is also possible that God wants me to be single my whole life.  I knew many people who never got married and many more who did but realized afterward that they were really happier when they were single, with these often ending up in divorce.  As much as it would be against my wishes, only God knows what's best for me and He is the one that will determine the course of my life in that regard.

At that point, I stopped worrying about a mate and I completely gave it up to God.  I stopped looking, trying, and thinking about it. I started focusing on enjoying myself wherever I was and with whoever I was with be it friend or family, or just by myself.  The only action I took was to pray about it, for Him to know my wishes, but for His will to be done regarding them.  In the meantime, I'm continued to try to make myself the best that I can be for whoever God had, if anyone, in store for me.  I did this by continuously improving myself physically (working out), mentally (going to school), and spiritually (actively participating in church and learning The Bible).

Our Pre-marital Story
It was not too long after I had changed my outlook that I met my wife.  I went out with a friend of mine from the college ministry at Northland Community Church.  He was meeting some old high school friends of his who were home for the holiday at The Edge (now 8 seconds) on Livingston in downtown Orlando.  Once we found his friends in the club, he introduced me to them all. Amanda (my wife) was one of them.  She recognized me from her childhood at age 13, a member of the youth group that her best friend participated in.  She apparently had a crush on me then, thinking I was cute playing volleyball at Red Bug park with my bandana on my head.  So now, five years later she came up to me as I was standing against the rail bordering the dance floor, drinking water.  "Why aren't you dancing?" she asked.  "Why are you dancing?" was my reply.  We ended up talking on a park bench in the outdoor courtyard behind the club until it was time to try and find her friend who had given her a ride there.

Let me stop at this point to say that having dated as often as I had, but yet having been alone for so long, I'd begun to realize that there's no better company than my own. I could find no one who would provide an equal amount or quality of conversation as myself.  Though this may sound conceited, usually I found myself doing most of the talking with girls I'd gone out with, be it on a first date, or a steady relationship.  Well, here was the first female that I found who could hold her ground in conversation, with humor of her own, who truly understood my humor too, and who could listen as well as she could talk.  Not only that, but she was cute as well, with a wonderful smile and warm, friendly eyes.

After the three of us (the friend I'd gone there with too) searched continuously, we deducted that her friend had already left.  This was good news for me because it gave me an opportunity to show off my car, an 87 Buick Grand National, which I found out later that she didn't even notice.  We took her to her friend's house who explained that she thought I was going to take Amanda home from the club, apologized for the misunderstanding, and proceeded to transport Amanda to her parents house.  Realizing that the girl of my dreams was getting away without me even getting her phone number, I quickly got in my car to follow them.  An additional caveat was that I still had to drop off my friend at his car, which was on the way to Amanda's house, but an additional stop that would possibly cause me to lose them.  Coaxing all of the speed that my 3.8L V6 Turbo could muster, I dropped Josh off at his car (in the Northland Community Church parking lot), and attempted to catch up to the car that Amanda was in. 

Pulling up to her house before she could get through the door, I explained that I wasn't really a psycho stalker, but just wanted to see if she was busy on the following evening.  She said that she already had plans, but hoped that we could get together another time.  However, I was heading to my sister's place in Ohio where my family was spending Christmas.  I got her number from Josh and called her as soon as I got back into town, and we spontaneously decided to go to Denny's, where we shared a blueberry milkshake and a slice of pecan pie.  Knowing she hadn't yet seen the movie Say Anything yet, I asked her if she'd like to rent it and watch it at my place (which was my mom's house at the time).  After that evening, we talked on the phone quite often, took turns visiting each other in our respective towns (she was attending Florida State University), and started officially dating as soon as she broke up with the boyfriend that she was already seeing when we met at the club.