ForeverMissed
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His Life

How We Met

February 19, 2019

This story is a fun one to share.  

I have lived in Marietta most of my life.  Raising kids in the same town I grew up has been fun. The kids and I moved into our current home in 2008 and became friends with neighbors that are now considered family, The Kirks.

The Kirks attend Mt Bethel UMC and our kids are good friends.  Like any good friends do they plan sleepovers that turn into weekends together.  So one particular weekend in July of 2011 the kids had a sleepover and they invited us to go to church with them the next day.  Not wanting the fun to end, we went.

That morning, during the service, Robert did the Moments with the minister.  Each week a child is given a bucket to take home and is to bring back an item from home to share the following Sunday.  The ministers take turns sitting with the children that come forward and do a brief impromptu  lesson on the item the child brought. A child brought in a bandana with skull and crossbones on it.  

Robert took it and ran with it.  Being a former teacher I was impressed with him being able to relate to the kids and share that the bandana reminded him of the flag that pirates fly on their ships.  He related their flag as a symbol that was proudly hung to remind everyone that they were pirates to Christians wearing a cross as a symbol of our love for Christ and a reminder that Christ died for our sins.

As the children went back to their seats, I leaned over to Erica and said he is good with kids and asked how many children he had.  She whispered back, "None, he's single."  I remember saying there was no way because he had such a rapport with the kids, something that usually develops after having them yourself.  I look back and know that  Erica was planting a little seed.

She shared that Andy and Robert had gone on a mission trip and had gotten to know each other well.

I didn't meet Robert that Sunday but he swears he saw me in the congregation sitting with them.

Another Sunday someone told him to talk to the Kirks that they knew someone he should meet. Well, as Robert was leaving the church, guess who happened to drive up?  You already know, it was the Kirks.  That is how God's timing is sometimes.

He went to lunch with the Kirks and Erica starting texting me telling me they were at lunch together and about a minute later, I got a friend request on Facebook.

Robert sent me a private message and we started writing each other that day.  

Being the gentleman he was, he politely asked for my cell phone number a couple of days later.

We started talking and would talk at night after I got the kids down until the wee hours of the morning.  Conversation was effortless.  We could easily talk on the phone for 5 hours.

After talking for a couple of weeks he asked me to lunch.  We met at The Brookwood Grill on Holcomb Bridge Rd and were at lunch for 3 hours!  We were together every days since. 

As they say, "The rest is history."