How We Met V.4

I'm so happy to share with you today this lovely story from MK Wise. She is such a great writer and this story defiantly shows that God will always lead you in the right direction and has a plan for every thing. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did. She writes her own lovely blog Here. Thank you so much to MK!

The unit of Dustin and Kate Wise all started back in the summer of 2006, I was living in Brisbane, Australia staffing a Music Arts & Dance School with Youth With a Mission. Myself and my fellow staff mates had just began looking over the list of mere names of students we would recieve that October. I remember going onto Myspace, snooping around to see if I could put any faces to the list of names. There was one kid in particular, just a boy-like kinda guy playing guitar named Dustin. I didn't think much of him other than, 'Hey he plays guitar, thats kinda cool...hmm". October came around and Dustin arrived and my only thoughts were "He's tall, that's neat". A few months into the school, I found out that Dustin would be a part of the team I would lead on missions to Japan. So, we started hanging around each other more in preparation for the outreach. Dustin and I got along super well, we even called each other our twin because it was crazy how much we thought on the same level. But he was just an 18 year old "boy" so I never was too attracted to him (I'm 2.5 years older, so at the time, it seemed like a big gap). I even remember saying to one of my girl friends "We are soo close but it's crazy that I don't have a crush on him!" She just looked at me skeptically! haha. She must have known something I didn't. Well, we went to Japan and as soon as we got back, one of my friends told me she had a dream that Dustin and I got married. That got my mind thinking and by now, Dustin's looks had rapidly changed from boy to man. It's crazy how fast he grew. I started looking at him differently, the only problem was that as staff on this school, I wasn't allowed to date a student. The final weeks started wrapping up and it came time for grad night. I was soo nervous because I knew that this was one of our only chances to establish our relationship, as he was about to fly back home to the US. The night passed without a mention of his thoughts towards me. I was freaking out. The next day he told me his plans to go to New Zealand the following Monday for three weeks before going home. I knew a retired couple who lived in Mount Maunganui, NZ and so I emailed them and asked if they would want to host Dustin. They were thrilled to, so once it was all planned, I told Dustin how I wished I could go too. He replied "Oh, you will...I think God will provide a way for you to go too". I was like "yeah right" in my head and played along. I didn't actually think it was plausable since I didn't have money to get a ticket seeing that I was a missionary full time. So, the following day I said a very very sad goodbye, wishing he would have said he liked me, but didn't. I found myself really really sad for the next few days so to gain control of my emotions and surrender my heart to God, I stopped using email for a day. I had been looking far to often hoping for an email from Dustin professing his love for me. Didn't happen. 


However, when I got back online, I got on my email and to my surprise, my friends from Mount Manganui messaged me requesting to call them. I gave em a call and they said "Hey, since your friend Dustin is here, we went down to the travel agency and bought you a ticket to come next Friday for 8 days! We'll pick you up at the airport, see you then!". Half shocked, half crying with excitement, I ran to my leaders and asked if I could be released from my work for those days. They were thrilled for the blessing and let me go.The following Friday I found myself un-boarding a flight from Brisbane in Auckland airport. I could see Dustin waiting for me in the lobby. I was soo excited by the way God was orchestrating our romance that I just stood and starred at him for a few minutes before I built up enough courage to walk into our new relationship. Ha, funny how I thought we had a relationship. The rest of the trip went as this...my friends were busy with their own lives so they gave Dustin and I not only each our own separate quarters but an entire section of their beach-front mansion to hang out in and said here's a bunch of toys...go have fun! We watched movies, hiked, surfed, kayaked, went out to eat, ate in, went on little adventures around the island. It was brilliant except for one fact, Dustin was still NOT saying anything about whether he liked me, and I was falling harder for him with every day that passed. I was thrilled that God was even more into this love story than I was, but I was more and more frustrated that Dustin wasn't saying anything. 

New Zealand

One day, we were taking a hike up Mount Mangaunui. I was walking behind Dustin when he suddenly threw back his hand for what I thought was to hold mine. Overjoyed that it was FINALLY happening, I placed my hand in his and melted. What happened next consisted of Dustin's face suddenly freezing, shaking my hand and dropping it! I was mortified, he was only reaching out for a high five at our achievement of reaching the top. Welp, the trip came to an end, with the torturing two hour drive to the airport sound tracked by you guessed it, the Love Songs Radio Station. Dustin and I flew our seperate ways that day without one word of our feelings towards each other.

Dustin and I continued talking on the phone for months and months every other week until it was time for me to head home to the US for a five week break. God had really worked on my heart and I had totally surrendered the relationship to Him and I was feeling good at my ability to overcome my hearts desire to date Dustin. And what do you think happened next? I was only in my parent's front door less than five minutes when my mom reports to me that Dustin left a message wanting me to call him ASAP. He wanted to fly me out to Colorado in the next week. Leaving all my emotional control I worked so hard on to the dust, I replied "YES PLEASE!!". So there I was five days later, walking out of the Denver airport with Dustin! It was again, another movie-like weekend. I accompanied him to a wedding, met his family, met his friends, went hiking and simply had such a fun time! So, I knew, if this guy was going to pay to fly me out to Colorado, introduce me to his family and friends, surely he will profess his love to me now! But, that time never came and we were on our way to the airport. I am not one for profanity, but this kid was walking on thin ice and sometimes, it's the only type of words that will make a point. And so I asked Dustin, at the point of no return along our journey to Denver, "What are your intentions for me?" To which he replied, "You're a really great girl, I love being your friend..blah blah blah!". That's where the conversation went up a few octaves until Dustin finally said "OKAY I LIKE YOU, I just don't see how it could work with you living in Australia!". Aha, the TRUTH!!! 

Well, I flew back to Australia and he started college and we kept each other on reserve until we figured out what was next.  And, in true style of how things were going, we kept that up for SEVEN MONTHS!! I didn't know what to call him. I tried "special friend", but that ended when someone asked me "Oh, really?? What's wrong with him?" Oops..not that kind of "special". haha We like to call that span of time our international skype dating phase. Then, finally, a few days before my 23rd birthday, we called it what it was, we were Boyfriend and Girlfriend! Everything else happened rather quickly from there. I decided to move back to the states the following summer. His sister helped me move to Colorado, we dated for another year, got engaged and got married three months later. We just celebrated our two year anniversary in October! Thank the Lord for his persistence in providing a way for our relationship to work out when all odds were against us, we are soooo thankful for each other!