{Kristal Dobson & Charles Powers}

charles

howtheymet

5.1.2010

We met because of myspace and the Lord of course! He does work in very
mysterious ways you know.

My first contact with Charles was on July 9th, 2008. I received a
message on myspace that said: “You have no clue who I am, and I have
no clue who you are. I just want to tell you I’m astounded that you
acknowledge Jesus on your profile. I don’t even know you and it is
comforting. By the way, my name is Charles.”

I didn’t respond. I had previously gotten messages along those same
lines and when I would reply with a thank you I would then be sent a
message saying something to the effect of “wanna hang out?”, “wanna
hookup?”, “wanna meet me at ____?”. So I decided not to reply because
of that. The next morning when I got to work and got on myspace I was
greeted with another message from him. For some reason I opened the
message (I normally would have just deleted it because it was from
some random guy I didn’t know). But I opened it for some reason and
this is what it said: “Hey you’re friends with Lindsey? I think the
world of her. I just happened to notice her on your profile.”

Now to most people that wouldn’t be significant at all. However to me
it was. Lindsey is my best friend and has been for about ten years
now. At the time she was my number 1 on my friends list. What made
what he said significant? Lindsey’s profile is private and her profile
name wasn’t her real name. So he HAD to know her in real life to know
who she was. I decided to go take a look at his page and realized that
he was listed as being right here in East Tennessee, I then began
looking at his pictures. He had some pictures from his house that I
recognized but I couldn’t figure out why. I later put two and two
together and realized the pics looked familiar because I pass his
house everyday on my way to and from work! lol What are the chances of
that!? I couldn’t believe it. I also discovered that we have quite a
few mutual friends.

So from there we began messaging back and forth about anything and
everything. Then myspace messaging turned into text messaging and then
into long phone calls. I couldn’t believe how much we had in common,
how similar our morals were, how our religious beliefs were the same,
how easily the conversation flowed, etc. Eventually we both decided it
was time to meet in person to see if we would get along as well as we
had been on the phone.

Our first date was on July 26th, 2008. I met him at his house since it
was centrally located to mine and to town. Then we went to dinner at
Olive Garden, went bowling at the community center and then headed to
Gatlinburg to walk around a bit and made our way to the new Wax
Museum. It was an awesome night and I had a blast. After that night I
had this feeling I couldn’t shake that I would someday marry him.
However, I kept that to myself. I wanted to make absolutely sure that
it wasn’t just my wanting to get married but was coming from the Lord
before I shared it with anyone. Not to mention the fact that we had
only been on one date so far!

August 5th was our second date and the first time we held hands. It
was an amazing night. And then after we parted ways and we were
texting we decided that we would now consider ourselves to be in a
relationship. The next day we had our first kiss in his driveway. And
the rest you could say is history.

theproposal

It happened Thursday April 16th, around 10:45pm. Charles came by my
house after he got off work. I didn’t know it was him though at first.
Our dogs started barking like crazy as if someone was at our house,
but my mom kept telling me no one was. I wasn’t all that worried about
it though because I was busy rolling the silverware for my brother’s
rehearsal dinner for Friday night. Next thing I know the door bell
rings. When mom didn’t make a move to go see who it was, I had a
really strong feeling it was him.

We said hi and hugged and kissed and I asked him what he was doing at
the house. He said he had something to show me on his computer. It was
a slide show movie that he had put together with pictures of us
throughout our relationship, including our first date. It also
included slides that said I would be getting dinner at Olive Garden,
bowling at the Community Center and a trip to the Wax Museum in
Gatlinburg (a recreation of our first date). At the end of the
slideshow, some slides came up that said “will you marry me?”, he got
down on one knee and pulled out my ring. OMG I was freaking out inside
because it was so beautiful. Of course I said yes…..duh!

Is it the way I expected he would propose? Not at all. But it was
perfect none the less. After he popped the question and I had my ring
on my finger, I quickly learned he tried to propose many times before
then. Every time he tried to ask me something happened that made him
unable to pop the question.

Now for a little bit of a back story on how I came to get my ring……

Not too long after Charles and I started daing we knew that we would
be together for the rest of our lives. We started to talk about
marriage here and there. In late September, he asked me what I would
want in an engagement ring. I sent him the link to the loose diamond
center stone I had found and the engagement band I wanted (both from
bluenile.com). Shortly thereafter, the loose diamond was listed as “no
longer available” on the website. I was freaking out. I knew there was
no way that Charles would have already purchased the stone. It was too
soon, we’d only just discussed it. I was terrified that someone else
bought the perfect diamond that I had fallen in love with. Eventually,
he told me he bought it so I would stop freaking out. I was so
relieved!

Even though I knew he had the diamond I had no way of knowing if he
had also bought the engagement band. And let me tell you, he wouldn’t
tell me if he did or not. Much to my disappointment. haha But, I knew
he had the diamond and for a very short period of time that was
enough. I was so incredibly excited and couldn’t believe he’d already
bought the diamond!

Now the longggg wait began for me. It was torture. And let me tell
you, he knew what he was doing to me. I sort of had some idea of when
I would get it. Well, at least a date I would have it by. See, my
little brother was getting married on April 18th (now married! yay
Daniel & Jess!) and I told Charles I needed my ring before then. I was
having a hard time dealing with the fact that my little bro was
getting married before me (just being honest). And there were also
some hard family things I was going to have to be forced to deal with
come my brother’s wedding. I asked Charles to please let me have my
ring before my brother’s wedding because I knew it would help me get
through things. (And let me just say it did!) He agreed and my long
wait ensued.

I waited and waited, and WAITED. He informed me that I would not
receive my ring when I would expect it. So I could count out my
birthday (Nov. 24th), Christmas, New Years and Valentines Day too. In
early February, we made a trip to Saint Simon’s Island, GA to visit
his older sister and I thought for sure that he would pop the question
then. But no. Before we left he informed me that there was a mishap
with my ring when he went and got it out of the safety deposit box. I
won’t go into the details because I know he felt horrible about it but
it was an accident and I have my ring now so no worries.

I will not lie, I probably wasn’t the nicest person to him at times
because the lust for my ring was becoming stronger and stronger with
every day that passed without it on my finger (sorry baby!). I think
that because I asked to have it before a certain date (even though he
agreed my reasons were valid) that he tortured me even more and thus
waited until the 11th hour before he proposed.

But I can honestly say that it was all PERFECT. Waiting on the timing
of the Lord is so rewarding! So there you have it, a little glimpse
into the journey of getting my ring!

thestartingline