WOW!

God has been SO good to us! Here is a crazy story that only He could orchestrate…

So Ethan, the girls and I headed to Annapolis to visit our friends Josh and Heather and their boys. We went downtown to walk around the water, get lunch and let the kids run around. We had lunch and then hit the town where Heather and I ran into a little pottery shop and sent the boys and the kids up to the shop we had on our list to see next, a local girl’s surf shop. Heather and I did our thing and ran up the street to find the guys. We headed in the surf shop so I could see if I could find something I was looking for for Hannah Gray. We walked in and were browsing this tensie tiny shop and I about walked into this guy (which it’s a girly surf shop where boys don’t really walk in there on their own) that looked strangely familiar. I just about immediately recognized him as a college girlfriend’s newish husband that I had only seen pictures of on Facebook. No, I am not a facebook stalker although I did feel a little creepy. Maybe I should explain the nature of this friendship a bit first. I went to Asbury College, a small Christian school in Kentucky for my freshman year. I had some amazing girlfriends there but really felt led to transfer to Miami, which I did. But while I was there, I had an amazing friendship with Jamie. We were very similar and different at the same time, but it was the type of friendship where I didn’t feel the need to fully explain myself (thoughts, reactions, humor, etc) because she already knew. I could say or do just about anything and I felt like it was always received in it’s purest form, like she knew exactly what I intended to communicate, oftentimes without even saying anything. We had a dynamic connection the flag football field as my #1 receiver too, which was super fun. The flea flicker always worked as she had a hidden arm no one really knew about. That play only worked a couple times as the word about her arm spread…

But as we went through college, we drifted and hadn’t really spoken past graduation. We reconnected on facebook and I had learned of her engagement and that she was in Washington, D.C and we were living in Annapolis at the time. We were super excited to reconnect, but our brief 6 months in Annapolis were largely over the Thanksgiving and Christmas season making it difficult to work something out. Then we realized we were moving and I was busy packing again. I was very disappointed that we never had the chance to see each other and meet each other’s new families.

So here we were, in the surf shop. I think I recognize this guy. I run up to Heather, grab her arm and whisper, “I think I totally recognize that dude as a friend from college’s new husband that I’ve never actually met. Just seen pictures on facebook. Do I say something or is that totally creepy and facebook stalkerish??!!” “Yeah, go say something!” Heather encouraged me, so I did.

“Um, hi. This is really strange, but are you by any chance… do you know a Jamie Corbett…??”. Received by a somewhat blank stare and what seemed like a long moment of silence. I started to break the silence as I could see that he was wondering if this was somewhat of a dangerous, is this person supposed to know my wife? Do I recognize this person? I began to explain that I knew Jamie from college as he began to say “Yeah, that’s my wife”. Then he broke into a big grin and said, “she’ll be here in like 5 minutes! We’re staying in the hotel across the street, we’re in town for a wedding and she’s coming to meet me here”. But that was interrupted with what seemed like a movie moment. My back was to the door as Michael was facing the door. Jamie walked in, seeing Michael talking to me as I turned and it was like the store went silent as Jamie yelled in excitement and threw open her arms. The scene was really probably pretty hilarious with all the other customers wondering what the heck was going on. We had a chance to get over our shock and excitement when I finally said, “want to meet my family??” So I got to introduce Jamie to Ethan and the girls and Josh and Heather. We all chatted out on the sidewalk meeting each other and having a catch up on life. All 3 families have an amazing amount in common. So fun!

Jamie and Michael had been following our blog (hi guys!) so they knew a good bit about what we’re up to with Peak 7 and actually have a connection to the ministry as well. So super fun to have our worlds collide! We fully expect to see you guys out here in WA for a visit soon! What a great day- spent the day with some very, very close and dear friends and had a happy surprise of a friend from a long time ago that was as though time hadn’t passed at all. As soon as I walked out the door with Jamie and I said, “Ethan, this is Jamie!” it was like it all clicked. He knew exactly who I was talking about as I have talked of Jamie often and always said, “if you could just meet her, you’d love her!”.

God is totally in the details and I feel like this story should end with “to be continued…” :)