Our Story | The Start of an Adventure

If you missed the first part to Our Story, be sure to check it out here to get all caught up!

We were getting ready to go on our Thanksgiving break from class. I was standing outside waiting on my ride to show up. Grant had come out and seemed nervous about something. I didn’t think about it too much but did wonder why he hadn’t already left. As my ride pulled into the parking lot, he went for it. He asked if I would go on a date with him. Totally caught off guard, I didn’t know how to respond. So, like any homeschooler, I just responded with, “I don’t date.” Yep, that was my response to the guy I would later marry. Nothing like making a first impression. 😉 He asked if he could talk to my dad. And I just gave a blank response that my family didn’t do the whole dating thing. I think I went as far to say, I wasn’t interested. In my mind, I was thinking, “This guy literally just met me three months ago and he’s asking me out?! He doesn’t even know me.” In my family, you got to know someone as a friend before you ever just went out with them. I really didn’t know how to handle this situation. Thankfully, Grant was super amazing and said that he didn’t want to make anything awkward in class and hoped we would still be friends. To which I agreed. I then got in the vehicle and left.

Our story has a lot of ups and downs. But, Grant was so persistent in not giving up. Grant said he wanted to marry me as soon as he saw me walk into class. But that quickly got knocked down as he saw me wearing a ring and assumed I must be married. He asked his friend, Kelsey, (who he had been friends with since they were kids in Kindergarten) if she would find out if I was married. I never remembered this, but apparently she did. I explained to her that it was a ring my dad had given me. A relieved Grant was once again happy to know he might still have a chance of marrying me.

Let me break away and say how thankful I am for Grant. Even though he had been turned down by the girl who knew he wanted to marry, he didn’t go back on what he said. We only had roughly a month before class was over when I had turned him down, but I still remember how he never made it weird or awkward. We were always in the same group together working through scenarios and he never made me feel guilty or terrible that I had turned him down. He was the same genuine and fun guy as before. If you haven’t figured it out already, Grant is an incredible person in all sense of the word.

Our first “adventure” together was going to Springfield so we could all test for our EMT practicals. We went down the day before and went to the climbing gym to wear ourselves out and take our minds off of the test the next day. This was the first time I saw the side of Grant that loves to climb and boulder. He was the best one out of all of us and seemed to have an endless amount of energy. And it might’ve been to partly impress me – and it worked. 😉 He still loves to scramble over any and all rocks we find if we’re out hiking.

Grant got a job straight out of class working with the ambulance service in town. I was too young to work there and ended up moving to Columbia to work with the service there. Throughout the next several years we would text randomly and get together for adventures. I had always wanted to go skydiving and I knew he would probably enjoy that since he loved anything exciting. A group of us from Columbia was going and I invited Grant to go with us. We ended up skydiving twice in a several year time period. Because it was that fun! 😉

I realize now that Grant was a part of a lot of the big adventures that I did. I ended up going to Kenya on a mission trip, and Grant supported me financially. Even though he wasn’t with me in Kenya, he was still part of that adventure in my life.

I came back from that trip, and we did a scavenger hunt/run in St. Louis. We ended up with several silly pictures from it because we had to have proof we had figured out each clue. 😉

A few months later, he invited me to do an 8 hour adventure race with him as they had three guys and they needed a girl to make it co-ed. Of course I agreed to do it. They quickly realized I might be able to ride a bike and run okay, but I was horrible at canoeing. Yes, it is possible to be a terrible rower. I was put with the guy who was their strongest rower and I sat in the front and basically did nothing besides look like I was rowing like a crazy person. Everyone needs some humble moments in life. 😉 

Before I went to Kenya the second time, I did a brunch in Columbia as a way to say goodbye to the people at the church and my coworkers. I invited Grant, but didn’t think he would actually come. After getting off a shift that morning and being awake all night, he drove up with his friend to show his support. I don’t think he even ate any of the food I made since he didn’t feel the greatest after being awake for 24+ hours. I thought it was super nice of him, but of course, I just thought of him as an awesome friend. It was my roommate who later that day was asking about Grant. She was convinced he liked me as no other guy would come to Columbia for a brunch just as a friend. I of course, denied it all. Grant wasn’t a Christian at the time and that was my defense as to why we weren’t going to be anything more than friends.
That didn’t keep me from hanging out and doing adventures with him. A few days before I left for Kenya, he invited me to go rappelling over a cave at his grandparents place. I had always wanted to learn to rappel and Grant knew this. He proved himself to be an amazing instructor as I didn’t fall down, but descended like a pro. Ok, maybe not that great, but I didn’t fall and that is a win in my opinion. 😉

That same day, Grant gave me my first gift. It was a buckeye. And believe it or not, that buckeye went to Kenya with me. It was in my bag the entire time and TSA never took it out. 😀 Why did I do this? Well, I had started to like Grant and that was the silly romantic in me that came out. Of course, I never told him any of this.
We messaged back and forth while I was in Kenya, but that was it. When I got back, I ended up getting a job at the same ambulance service, but it would be over a year before our story would take another turn.

Check out the third part to Our Story here