I always enjoy a good love story. Romantic comedies have their place, but the real-life versions of how couples meet and stay together despite life’s challenges can be inspiring. On this week’s blog post, find out how Dr. and Shirley Dobson’s son, Ryan Dobson, met his wife Laura.
–Jackie M. Johnson
One Evening in June (Ryan and Laura Dobson’s Story)
When you hit rock bottom in your life, somewhere in there you’ve got to make a decision to keep going. A couple of years ago, I did that. As part of my rebuilding process, I started dating again.
So I was dating this one girl, and it didn’t work out. So we broke up, and I started dating someone else, but it wasn’t going very well.
The first girl sent me an email, just as a friend this time, telling me she had found the perfect girl for me. My first thought was, That’s kind of weird. Why is she sending me this? and I think I deleted the email without responding.
About four or five months went by and another friend asked me if I had ever met the girl that my former girlfriend had e-mailed me about. My friend said, “Yeah, she’s perfect for you. She surfs. She’s spunky. She loves the Lord and is into youth ministry.”
So I thought, “Well, if two people are saying the same thing, I’ll give it a shot.” I sent this girl, whose name is Laura, an e-mail. We talked on the phone once or twice, but it was no big thing. She was actively dating as well. We even tried to meet up a couple of times, but nothing worked out. We always missed each other by like five minutes or something.
Once, we were supposed to meet at this surf competition. We were both there, about fifty feet away from each other we figured out later, but by the time she got to where I was, I had left.
On the day after I moved into my new apartment, a friend called to tell me that Laura was going to be at church that night—and I absolutely had to come meet her finally. It was late, almost time for church, and I had been working on my bike that afternoon and was grimy. But I decided to give it one last shot.
Walking into church, I realized I looked pretty scruffy. I had my hiker boots on and an old biker T-shirt that someone had given me. I figured if she was looking for Mr. Conservative, I wasn’t it. But, what the heck, this was the real me.
And then I saw her.
I was stunned. I hadn’t seen any pictures of her yet. If there’s ever such a thing as love at first sight, it was then. This girl was beautiful.
And then we talked.
And we kept talking. And we talked some more. We went on a date, and then we went on another.
About a week later we made plans to go surfing together, but when we got to the beach, the water was completely flat. God must have planned that, because our surfboards stayed strapped to the car, and we walked on the beach instead. We talked and talked and talked.
That date was it. I was done. I knew it. I wanted to marry this girl. She was the one.
Two weeks after that, Laura and I found ourselves driving out to Palm Springs to see my parents, who were staying there. I had already talked to Laura’s parents, and they gave us their blessing. My parents were a lot less sure.
So my folks met her and they fell in love with her immediately. My dad gave us his blessing and prayed for us. On the drive back from Palm Springs, Laura and I stopped at the Ontario mall and found a twenty-dollar ring in a kiosk. Right there in the middle of the mall, I got down on one knee and proposed.
She said yes.
A couple of weeks later on Valentine’s Day, I got her a real ring and proposed again.
She still said yes.
So that June we held our wedding ceremony on the beach. It was early evening, and all our closest friends and family were there. Jim Burns, a minister and great friend of mine, performed the ceremony.
Laura looked absolutely amazing. She walked down the aisle to the Beach Boy’s “Surfer Girl” and the sound of the waves. It was just an evening for warmth and celebration, and knowing that God ordains our lives in ways we could never dream.
Laura and I spent our honeymoon in Tahiti. A friend set us up in this incredible hotel. We surfed, and lazed around, and talked with the locals. The water was the bluest I’ve ever seen.
Laura is a better surfer that I am. She’s absolutely amazing. She’d drop into waves I wouldn’t touch. The locals all thought this was pretty funny—here’s this five-two, hundred pound blonde girl out on these enormous waves. But we didn’t care.
We were together, and our life was starting, and the future looked bright.
[Epilogue: Ryan and Laura Dobson have been married for over nine years and have two children: Lincoln and Lucy.]
Excerpted from 2 Live 4 (Multnomah Publishers) by Ryan Dobson
God ordains our lives in ways we could never dream.