By the beginning of the New Year I felt like I had settled in with Dustin and Lisa's family.
Little Dustin had elementary school during the week which made mornings my chance to clean house and afternoons were usually spent with him on homework. Some days I would take the kids to the park, some days we just had the whole neighborhood in the pool/backyard. It was fun, crazy and Dustin/Lisa and I didn't always agree on the rules that should be applied, but it usually worked out in the end. I learned a lot about my own expectations when it would come to raising my own children someday. Some how in taking care of day care for my aunt I had never needed to do much disciplinary action, the kids were often content to play with toys, watch movies or play in the back yard and stay out of things that were off limits. Dustin's kids needed a little more direction.
There wasn't a singles ward in the area but there were a group of singles that would try to get together regularly. I started participating in the activities and they were a really fun bunch. Of course my heart belonged to Nate and if the guys expressed any interest I tried to let them know so they wouldn't have high expectations... But Nate and I had said it should still be okay to date other people until we were married, so I hated to say no to a guy that got up the courage to ask...
Fortunately there were only a few dates, and it was easy enough to have a good time without feeling like I led them on or that they got too interested.
Nate and I would talk on the phone often and talk about the difficulties and the fun we were both having. After a while it became apparent to me that he might not being going on a mission, something was holding him back but I didn't know if I should ask about it. I wanted to keep encouraging him to go as long as he felt it was the right thing.
In my past I had had a few guy-friends leave on missions, only one of which I had seriously been interested in but who never seemed to reciprocate. Every time the same thing happened... At first they would right often and letters that were of a good length, but as time wore on and they became more busy with the work, the letters would stop. So when Nate had agreed to write letters I was skeptical about how long it would last. As it turned out, Nate was a fantastic letter writer... Well, he was at least good at keeping it going. The letters weren't perfect, sometimes difficult to read, but I loved them all the same. I began keeping a scrap book of his letters to me and would spend hours some evenings writing back to him. It was crazy how we could always find more to talk about. Love inspires the mind in amazing ways.
