It was a dark and stormy night… Actually, it wasn’t that dark, and there was only a 10% chance of rain in Albuquerque, NM (generally the equivalent of, “there’s no way its going to rain”).

I (Jenny) had only been in the city for about a month and during that time I had been diligently looking for someone with a pickup to help me move the last of my positions (especially my mattress) from the reservation. Weeks went by and nobody I spoke to owned a pickup! I began to wonder what sort of alternate universe I was in that nobody owned, or knew anyone who owned a reliable pickup! Where I grew up, if your family didn’t own one, your neighbor did.

Anyway, after about a month, a friend stepped up to help. First she called John.

“Hello, John?”

Having received the go-ahead from him, she called me.

“Hello, Jenny?”

“Yes,”

“Do you still need someone with a truck to help you move?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I know a guy, he’s a great guy. He has a truck, he’s a really great guy. He said he can help you move, he’s a great guy. He’s 34 and single, he’s a great guy, but would that be too awkward?”

“I don’t care. I want my bed.”

And so, a week later, on a not so dark and supposedly not stormy night, John got his truck ready to go.  As he was getting ready to leave, he felt an urging to put his tarp in the truck bed.

“Nah,” he said.  It wasn’t supposed to rain.  There was no point in bringing it.

The urge came again.  And again.

Finally, not quite sure why he was doing so, John put the tarp in and made his way across town to meet some random woman who needed his help.

We met at my apartment complex at 6 pm and headed off to get my stuff, which, by the way, was located in a small town about an hour and a half away.

We had barely made it onto the interstate when the not-so-stormy evening made a drastic change.  Where there once had been a dry, cloudy sky, there was now a thick and heavy downpour.  It rained.  And rained.  And rained.  And kept on raining.  At one point, the traffic on the interstate was at a standstill because of water that had flooded across the highway.  The rain continued all the way to our destination.  Then, it stopped long enough for us to load up my belongings.  We debated on whether or not to put the tarp over the mattress.  Surely, in New Mexico, it wouldn’t rain hard twice in the same area.  But, as there were no guarantees, we secured the tarp anyway and began the journey back.

We barely made it back onto the interstate when, you guessed it, another downpour.  This slowed our driving down significantly and it was midnight by the time we arrived back at my apartment.  A trip that should have only taken three hours had ended up taking six hours.

Of course, the longer trip had given us ample time to talk.  It was kind of like a blind date that you couldn’t escape from which was probably God’s intent all along.

Fortunately, that blind date went well enough that we made plans to meet up again.  We officially started dating in October, got engaged in January, and married in June.