Today Will and I sat at the dining room table and had a nice, long level 4 conversation (that is what the pastor who did our premarital counseling would have called it).

Will had gotten a discouraging email from someone about the church he worked at before we moved here. Before taking the plunge to Kuwait, Will served as youth minister at one of the churches in town. Anyway, the email was really disheartening and talked about how the numbers have been killed in the youth group and how there are a ton of discipline problems. It was sort of sad to hear that. The group we had was so different than Will and I. All but 2 came from broken homes and had never met their fathers. They had problems keeping out of trouble and a lot of times we just had a hard time relating to them. We knew God had called us there so we pushed on and did what we were called to do no matter how hard the situation with the youth was- not to mention the draining situation of the entire church.

Anyway, we left thinking to ourselves, “At least we were there to lay a foundation for the next guy.” Sadly, I guess I foundation has been rocked! I know there was nothing we could do. It just made us sit and think about things for a long time today.

How long will they remain open?

Will we ever see our youth again?

What do you think the kids will be doing in 5 years? It was scary to think what would happen to some of them.

We talked for almost 2 hours about so many thought provoking memories and ideas. We got into our friends and people we used to know and wondered how often we would see them, and who we would see when we came home at Christmas. I asked Will if he thought it was bad that we don’t have a solid “couplefriend” at this point in our lives, so then we talked about that too.

Finding that perfect couplefriend is a difficult process. We both realize its important to have our own friends, but we would like to think one day we would be able to find a couple that we enjoyed hanging out with just as much. We had one before we left, but we never really got all that close. We did a lot of stuff together, but that was about it. For example, as were were getting ready to move over here we went out to dinner, gave hugs and said bye. No “email us!” or “Let us know what’s going on!” That was it.

Finding a couplefriend is just like dating again, only worse because there are two people involved.  It is crucial that the husband like the guy as much as the wife likes the girl (or at least in my goofy mind it is that way). I feel like we should take out a personal ad or something!

Coupledating is just like being single again. When trying to find the perfect couplefriend you have to initally be on your best behavior- just like I was on my first date with Will. No talk of chin hairs or sweat.

Also, you have to go through the whole getting to know you stage again- only its harder because you not only have one person to learn about- you have two. “Okay Will, so is their “kid” a Jack Russell named Scotty or a Scottish something or other named Jack?“

Then, afterwards you go home and analyze how everything went. “Did it go well? Do you think they’ll call? Should we call first or will that be too forward? Were we too enthusiastic? Not enthusiastic enough?“ Just like dating all over again.

I know I analyze EVERYTHING way too much, but finding a couple to do stuff with is a lot harder than finding a girl to go shopping with me with or a guy to watch football with Will. 

Okay- I could go on for another 7 minutes, but I think I not only killed a dead horse but probably came off like we have couplefriend issues. Oh well.

Better go for now. Will is ready to look for football cards online… lucky me…