So Jamie tells me tonight that she was in the grocery store with Karsyn and Karsyn looks at the magazine rack and says “I KNEW they were going to get back together”.?? :)?? I have no idea which celebrity couple she was referring to but Jamie said the man standing behind them in line was cracking up at her.?? Karsyn is all of a mighty four years of age.?? We can thank this on Jodi’s People magazine addiction.?? 🙂

Like Karsyn, there are plenty of us girly girls who want the relational “scoop”…so here it is (and may Jodi forgive me for the beginning of this story because I can’t find it in my heart to omit it – it’s part of the package hee hee).

Many many moons ago, when Jim and I were but newlyweds…we met our darling sister Jodi.?? I would love to tell you it was love at first site with this beautiful young thing – but alas…it was not.

(That’s the hook…now you can’t stop reading this because you are dying to know why not – I should write for People.?? 🙂 )

I can just picture Jodi’s face right now.?? She is reading this going “DONI!?? YOU ARE SO NOT GOING THERE!”?? But I am…I really am.

Our first encounter occurred when I swung open the door of our church to exit after a service.?? Little did I know that I had entered onto a path of destruction and the moment would be forever canonized both in Jodi’s and my mind.?? :)?? (I love this story can you tell?)

As I was saying, I swung the door open and stared into the heated face of a small blonde, blue eyed twelve year old who was yelling out “*&#!!!!**&&&@@@$%!%^#$%%” at my brother (okay the expletive was actually shorter but I don’t want to give the word away ;).?? Not Darin.?? Oh not Darin.?? Dustin.?? Yes.?? Jodi dated Dustin first.?? They were in the sixth grade.

Her eyes met mine.?? She knew I had heard her.?? I raised an eyebrow at her in consternation and gave her a withering look.?? Who was this little pip squeak that dared to speak to MY baby brother like this (and furthermore what in the world did he do to her to make her so mad – that was probably the better question but being a loyal sister, it was second on my list).?? Come to think of it…I never have known the answer to that…

I didn’t say anything to her because, well…the turn over rate with sixth grade girlfriends was pretty high and I figured those were parting words anyhow.?????? I didn’t think it likely that I would ever encounter her again.

Not so.?? Turns out, she was most fiercely determined to marry my brother.?? (Now quoting Sandra Bullock in “While You Where Sleeping”)?? “Not that one….the OTHER one.?? 🙂

A short time passed and it caught my attention that the sprite was now dating Darin.?? Hmmmmmmm…?? (Side note:?? Tori has started saying “hmmmm” today and I just asked my mom if I say that all the time.?? Guess I do.)

Little did I know that she was utterly convinced at TWELVE that she WOULD marry Darin.?? Done deal.?? WAS going to happen.?? She would make it so.

One fine day, she determined that if she was going to make good on her marriage plans, she had better start phase 2 of her mission and stack the deck with getting sister on board.?? This required a well executed plan because you know what they say about first impressions and ours was a doozy.?? 🙂

I will never forget this day either.?? It was another Sunday morning.?? I was standing in front of church after a service.?? I noticed that standing over in front of the nursery door, was “THAT” girl.?? She was watching me – staring.?? As a woman,?? I have pretty great intuition about things – I really do.?? I knew in that moment that she was working up her nerve to approach me.?? She and Darin had been dating a little while and she had stayed clear of me up to this point and now she figured it was time to tackle the issue and she needed a healthy dose of courage to do it.

Having a choleric personality myself, I respect bold moves and sheer guts.?? I also knew that my unspoken language toward her was pretty clear.?? My eyes said “I am watchin’ and warnin’ you sista” and therefore, it was going to take moxy for her to initiate conversation. ?? In those few moments of watching her battle play across the features of her face…I couldn’t help myself…I started to like her.

Then she did it…she walked up to me, nervously (her apprehension was quite apparent) introduced herself, apologized for our first encounter, and told me she really liked my brother and wanted to have a relationship with me.?? It was a well prepared speech that she had very evidently given some serious thought to – ESPECIALLY for a twelve year old.

That did it.?? All my lofty aspirations of giving this chic the “shut out”, dissipated in like 2.5 seconds.?? I fell in love with her too.?? I admired her courage – especially considering Jodi does not have a dominant choleric personality and her choices that day took a deep well of sheer will.???? Jodi will tell you herself that her daily battle is fear.?? On that day, she demonstrated that her love for my brother was stronger than her fear.

All these years later, I have had the privilege of watching an even greater relationship play out.?? Fear is losing its hold on her because God is gaining so much space in her heart that fear is having less room to rent. Watching her fall in love with HIM?? has been even more beautiful to me than witnessing her deep love for my brother.?? I am getting all teary eyed now so I’ll pick this story up again another day this week.?? I’ll pick up at their first break up and how Cinderella and another well executed plan, saved the day.

I LOVE this picture.?? I have to give credit to Jodi for this one.?? It was her idea to wrangle Karsyn into back support.

When SCC’s song came out about Cinderella (Daddy’s dancing with their daughter’s before it was too late), it quickly rose to the top of the family charts and became Darin and Karysn’s song.?? Darin’s little Cinderella loves to put on her girly ballroom gowns and dance with Daddy.?? It seemed appropriate then that she get to dance with Daddy and be “dipped” too.?? She has practice with this.

Karysn is a daddy’s girl and she has Darin so wrapped.?? I mean SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?? (repeat a million times) wrapped.?? He is her favorite person in the world I think – and it shows.

She loves her mama too…

So Jodi…exactly how much trouble am I in so far??? This was the worst of it – I promise hee hee.?? 🙂 :)?? I love you!