Yesterday was going to be my last post about our love story, until I got the comments from my Aunts and Christiane and thought, "OK, I'll do one more!" I hope you've all enjoyed the story as much as Nate and I have enjoyed reminiscing about all the fun little details!
The next morning, Wednesday morning, Nate and Kassu were due to leave for Y. on the quad bike. I woke up early, having slept very little anyway because of my excitement! I remember thinking, "Was that real last night or was it a dream?" I went to the dining hall in a bit of a stupor and got a few things ready for breakfast. I looked out the window and saw Nate outside brushing his teeth (we do that sort of thing in the bush!). He looked up and saw me looking at him and waved and I waved back, feeling a bit awkward, still not quite believing this was real. None of our teammates knew what had transpired the evening before so we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves in front of them! We sat across from each other at breakfast making eye contact occasionally, awkwardly!
Right after breakfast, they needed to leave so we all went outside to bid them farewell. We couldn't really say a proper goodbye but Nate slipped me a piece of paper with his email address and cell phone number in Nairobi (he was leaving the next week for Nairobi) and gave me a big smile as they drove away. I was so happy! That morning could have been so devastating if he had left with no understanding between us.
I floated back to the dining hall for our ladies' prayer time and promptly shared the happy news with Grace, Vicki, and Abebech who were absolutely thrilled. The men found out throughout the day and were also very happy for us.
Later that afternoon I got the following text message from Nate: "Got to Y. @ 12 pm. No problems on road. Beaming whole way!"
We soon began to find out just how many people had been involved in "setting us up"!
Jo-Ann, our director at the time, had said to her husband Howie after they met me in July, "She's for Nate!" Peter and Johanna, 2 of our Kenyan staff in Nairobi, saw Nate in August and told him, "Brother, there's someone for you in D.!" When I started getting to know Bethany and Beverly, who were Nate's teammates in Y., in October in Nairobi, they started dropping little hints about who this Nate Kidder was as well as overtly bugging him about me! Abebech (my Ethiopian teammate) and Meseret (Kassu's wife and Nate's Ethiopian teammate) both had dreams some time before we met that Nate had taken a trip to D. and returned very happy! In Abebech's case, it was before I had ever arrived in Sudan. And of course many teammates in Sudan and family and friends back home were concerned about us and earnestly praying for the right spouse for both of us. We felt such love and support from all of our team and from people back home when we started to share the news.
Thanks for reading our story and to the many of you who were a part of it!
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