20 Years Ago ...

The apple trees at Greene Hills Camp where Matt and I first met on June 5, 1999.

TWENTY. YEARS. AGO.
Saturday, June 5, 1999 ... I woke to the sound of hammers pounding at Greene Hills Camp in Baree, Pennsylvania. I emerged from the little tent I'd set up in a dark field around 11pm the night before, after a long drive from western New York, to see a bunch of young people working on a stage in front of me. As I made my way to the Camp Director's house, a personable young man approached and started talking to me in the shade of some apple trees. He told me the youth group from his church near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was doing a work camp to prepare for an event later that summer. As soon as he heard my accent he told me he had been to Australia in the late 80's to visit an Australian girl he had dated when she was an exchange student here. His current girlfriend came by at some point in the conversation to "check up" on him. He was very friendly and kinda cute, but I didn't think much more about him as I continued on my way.

I was at Greene Hills for counselor training for a high school Caving Camp I volunteered myself for later in the summer. After lunch, the volunteers and camp leaders gathered, and among them was the young man I had talked to earlier. His name was Matt. We did our training and I returned to western New York at the end of the weekend and didn't give him a second thought ... at least not yet!

FAST. FORWARD.
In late August I returned to Greene Hills for Caving Camp and had a blast all week, caving, getting muddy, building relationships with the other counselors and kids ... and I stayed an extra night after camp so I didn't have to drive back to western NY late into the night. Matt stayed too. We hiked around the camp and then talked all night long around a campfire, about everything. I found out he no longer had a girlfriend. Alas, I had to return to NY the next day, but I told him I had friends in Harrisburg that I'd be visiting in a couple of months, so I'd get in touch with him when I was there.

TWO. WEEKS. LATER. 
After being let go unexpectedly from my job (and place to live) at a camp in western NY, I headed south to visit (& stay with) my friends in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was the beginning of the Labor Day weekend. I called Matt and told him I was "in town" and discovered he only lived about a mile away from where I was staying.

That night, he came and picked me up and took me to a high school football game at his former high school. There I met his two sisters, brother, and brother-in-law. The next day was his birthday and I was invited to his family celebration where I met his Mom, Dad, and grandparents! Sunday, he invited me to go to his church (it felt like home that first Sunday) and he introduced me to everything that moved! Monday, he took me on a hike to Hawk Rock in Duncannon.

TWO. YEARS. LATER.
Two years and two days after that hike, he took me out to lunch at a British Pub so I could get my favorite "Aussie" meal of fish & chips. In the afternoon we hiked up to Hawk Rock again. We'd been dating on an off for most of the past two years. This hike brought an end to that ... when he proposed!

But that's another story for another day!

I never would have guessed, standing in the shade of those apple trees 20 years ago that I was talking to my future husband. But God knew.

Thanks God.