love story- part two

We're continuing with Doug and my love story.  You can find part 1 here.

Doug and I spent the next two years as friends.  Junior year, I moved into the small apartment attached to the fraternity house (sounds scandy but it really wasn't,) so we saw each other pretty much every day if only for a few minutes.  The more I got to know Doug, the more I thought that he was excellent husband material.  Doug was paying his own way through school by bartending and waiting tables at the Madonna Inn.  He had a truck and was always helping someone move over the weekends.  Doug tithed every Sunday; he wasn't obvious about it or anything, but I was just hanging on to his every move.  Doug was home schooled and had five brothers, so he was a total guys guys and a bit awkward around the ladies.

There were times when we hung out a lot and other times when we only saw each other in passing around the house, but he was always the crush lingering in the back of my mind.

a particularly attractive time in my life.

Doug and I both grew up so much in those years.  We built life long friendships, studied hard, and just weren't ready to date.  Neither of us really did.  

Spring of Junior year.

Doug is getting ready to graduate.  He has an absurdly easy workload and is available to hang out all the time.  We go to breakfast every Thursday; we go out to bars occasionally; we cook dinner together (ha.  actually Doug just cooks me dinner); we make day trips to Santa Barbara; suddenly I realize that it's just the two of us most of the time.  But Doug is leaving.  In, like, a month.  Doug is leaving.  In, like, 2 weeks.

The DTR.

I know that I want to be with Doug.  I realize that if I don't make the first move, Doug might leave for LA to start his big kid job and never come back.  Sometimes, I think this may have been impatience on my part.  So, one night after going to a party at a friend's house, I decide to do it.  I say, "Doug, we need to talk...do you know what this is about?"

Doug: "No."  Liar.  

So I just bite the bullet and do it.  "What are we doing?  Do you like me or what."

Doug: "I don't know."

Lizzie: "Ok, then I guess we can't hang out anymore."

Doug: "No.  I don't want that."

Lizzie: "Ok, then I guess we're dating."

Doug: "Ok, we should pray."

Seriously, that's pretty much our conversation.  Doug and I.  Always great with our words.  So, we prayed.  We prayed that God would be the center of our relationship from the beginning.  And there began Doug+Lizzie.