Our Story
The story of how Lisa and I met is not one that can be given justice if told by myself alone. Therefore, Lisa and I have decided to write this together in order to make sure no details get left out. Plus, you would no doubt get bored listening to me so I had to include Lisa in order to keep your attention. So, without further ado, I give you the first person account as seen by those involved in the budding “Drew, Lisa & Justin” story:
How did you both meet?
Drew: I was working with the youth group for Scottsdale Bible Church’s North campus and had met Rose and Russ through that, as they were also leaders. They had taken foster custody of a 12 year-old named Alex and on March 13th, I came by their house to take Alex to get ice cream and to a movie. When we got back, we cooked out on the grill and had dinner. I knew nothing of what awaited me after dinner…
Lisa: Rose told me there was someone coming over to the house to take Alex to a movie and for dinner and wanted me to drop by to meet him. I really didn’t want to come over, but at the exit before their exit I changed my mind and decided to stop by for a few minutes with Justin. I let myself in to the house after nobody answered the door. Turns out everyone was on the back patio so I walked out the back to see them. My first impressions of Drew were that he was tall and good looking, cute in his baseball cap, but also a bit young looking.
Drew: To be honest, I think dating was the last thing on either of our minds (especially since I had no idea this was a set-up). Apparently, Rose thought I was older than I was, and even thought Lisa was a little younger than she was. However, one of the first things I noticed was how pretty Lisa was…she certainly captured my eye despite the apparent lack of interest in the dating category. She was quite stunning.
Who asked who on the first date, and where’d you go?
Lisa: I got an email from Drew at 1:15am Monday morning asking if I wanted to go out for coffee some time. When I first looked at my email, I didn’t recognize the name and was getting ready to delete it when I read the subject, “French Peas”. I suddenly made the connection to a conversation from two days before when we had discussed the French Pea characters in Veggie Tales.
Drew: Ok, before it looks like I’m up at 1:15 every morning wooing women, I need to explain WHY I emailed so late/early. On Sunday, the day after Lisa and I had met, we had a lunch outing with the youth group. As I was leaving, Rose came running out to me as I was walking to my car and said, “DREW! Lisa really enjoyed meeting you and is interested in getting to know you more. I realize it’s bad timing with you possibly moving to Colorado and leaving for Paris in 5 days, but are you at all interested in getting to know her?”
Lisa: I actually had said nothing like that!
Drew: Yeah, apparently this was Rose’s way of “creating” a connection! My initial instinct was not to even bother, but something inside me said, “Go ahead and give it a shot. Worst that can happen is nothing will come of it and you can both go on your way.” So, I asked how I could get in touch with her and Rose immediately gave me her home email address, work email address, pager number, home number and work number in order to contact her. That evening, I was out with friends and didn’t get home until around 1am. I checked my email before bed and decided to send a quick email. I figured “French Peas” would get her attention.
Lisa: When I saw that the email was from Drew, I called Rose and said, “OH MY GOSH, he emailed me!” Rose immediately responded, “WHAT DID HE SAY?? WHAT DID HE SAY??” I told her about the French Peas subject and offer for coffee and she suggested I invite him over for dinner to their house on Tuesday night. Afterward, Rose said she and Russ would watch Justin and we could go out for coffee to get to know each other better.
Drew: When I received Lise’s response, that “giddy/excited” feeling suddenly hit and I got a knot in my stomach as I realized that I had a date the next night.
Lisa: That’s how I was too!
Drew: Not that dates were that far and few between, but I’d say that’s when I started to really get excited about getting to know Lisa better.
So, how’d the first date go?
Drew: Well, considering we closed the place down, I’d say it went pretty well!
Lisa: I was nervous the whole time. I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to do. I’d been out of the dating scene for a long time. But time went by faster than I thought!
Drew: On the way to Starbuck’s, I learned that Lisa didn’t like coffee. Good job, Drew. Therefore, upon arriving she asked me to order for her. So I selected an iced chai for her to avoid anything coffee flavored.
Lisa: It was the first time I’d tried it and it was a veeeery good choice.
Drew: We started talking and after what seemed like just a few minutes, one of the Baristas came by and informed us they were closing. Surprised, we asked what time it was and they said 9:00pm…2 1/2 hours after we’d left Rose and Russ’!
Lisa: I immediately jumped up and said, “Oh my gosh! I gotta get home and get Justin to bed!” So we jumped in the car and hurried back to pick up Justin. Up to that point we had talked about anything and everything. It was enjoyable, but I still wasn’t completely comfortable because I was just too nervous. But I’d also say the evening went really well!
What happened after that?
Lisa: When Drew dropped me off, he asked me if I’d like to go to dinner with him on Thursday night.
Drew: I was leaving for Paris for 10 days on Friday, so I knew if I wanted to see her before I left that I needed to act quick!
Lisa: I said I would love to, and the next day received an email from Drew asking, “How’s Italian sound? If Italian makes you deathly ill, now would be the time to tell me!”
Drew: I was quite nervous picking a restaurant as I had no idea what kind of food you liked and didn’t like! Anyway, I made reservations at a little Italian restaurant called Salute. Lisa had arranged for her and Justin to spend the night at Rose and Russ’ that night in order to avoid an early curfew…which turned out to be a wise move. I picked her up for dinner, after which we headed to my house and she just hung out talking with me while I packed for Paris. Little did we know that time would once again fly and before we knew it, it was 2:30am!
Lisa: I actually spent much of the time cleaning cat hair off his jacket! As we were heading home, I asked him how he was getting to the airport in the morning, and he replied that he had not yet made any arrangements.
Drew: I realized that it was far to late to call anyone, so I gave Lisa a pathetic puppy dog face, at which point she offered to drop me off in the morning at a brisk 6:30am. And then when she learned I also didn’t have anyone set to pick me up when I returned, she offered to do that too.
So what happened after Paris?
Lisa: Well, I was very nervous to pick Drew up at the airport. For one thing, I wasn’t sure I’d even remember what he looked like. Then, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to respond when I DID see him!
Drew: When I left for Paris, I really had no idea what to think. I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to pursue or if I should just cut things off. However, after thinking about her for 10 straight days, I was very excited to see her. Nervous out of my mind, but also very excited. We grabbed In-N-Out for dinner and what began soon after was a courtship that would become perhaps the most amazing experience of my life!
So what’s happened between then and now?
Drew: Lisa quickly became the most important woman in my life, and soon after I began developing a relationship with Justin. I’ll admit that Justin, combined with the age difference between Lisa and me, made for an unexpected relationship, but the rewards I’ve received from it have long ago surpassed the obstacles. Lisa and Justin are the biggest blessing I have ever received!
Lisa: The time since then has been adventurous, exciting, and fast-paced. As far how I feel about Drew, a better question would be what DON’T I feel! Basically, take every negative way I’ve been treated and completely reverse it and that’s what you have with Drew. Things like the trips he’s taken us on, how he fills up my gas tank so I don’t have to fuss with Justin to do it myself, how he compliments me, how he helps me grow spiritually, how he pushes me to become a better person, how he treats and responds to my family, how he puts us first…I’ve just never been treated as well as I am by Drew.
Drew: I’d say every one of those things can also be said about you, Lise. Never in my life have I met someone so giving, so generous, so serving. I come home from work to see her car in the driveway and find out she’s completely cleaned my house and made dinner. Or she’ll borrow my car in order to wash it and vacuum it out. I never know what the next thing she is going to do for me in order to show me how much she cares about me
Lisa: I also love how he supports me and backs me up. He stands beside me in big decisions. He also values my opinion, and trusts it when we need to make decisions.
What does Justin think?
Justin: I love how Drew plays with me. He watches me ride my bike, runs beside me and races me. I beat him to his house. He plays with Lego’s with me, in the back yard, and taught me how to swim with floaties in Nana’s pool and I jump in Nana’s pool. I want him to play soccer with me too or even football! My favorite thing is that Drew plays with me.
That’s our story. All of it can be summed up by saying we’ve never met anyone like each other and can’t imagine being more happy than we are together. God has richly blessed us through our relationship and nothing excites us more than the opportunity to share the rest of our lives together.
With Love,
Drew, Lisa & Justin
December 2004
