ABBY & YAW
08.03.2014
BRONX, NY
OUR STORY
‘Her version’
The way I met my missing rib is just truly amazing! Our families attended the same church when we were kids back in the day, First Ghana SDA Church; however, his family relocated and left NYC. The first time I remember meeting Yaw was briefly at our annual North American Ghanaian SDA Youth Camp in 2008. I bumped into him and his close friend Ian in the auditorium one day and I started chatting with Yaw. We had a short conversation and went our separate ways.
The next time I bumped into Yaw was on Facebook, two years later. We became friends and started messaging privately. Through our messages we were able to catch up with each other. After sometime he deactivated his Facebook and that was it. I did not hear from him until I met him again at The NAGSDA Camp meeting another two years later. Being that Saturday was the last night of Camp meeting, a few of my friends decided to have a get together with food, fun, and games in the foyer of our building. I was told to advertise to other young adults but I didn't really do that LOL.
That evening was loads of fun! After losing a game of ludo, I decided to move to a different side of the room with my ipod to look at some pictures. The next time I looked up I saw Yaw come through the door. He walked right towards me and said, "I like how you didn't invite me!" I instantly laughed and said "Oooh I was gonna invite you when I saw you earlier today...but what had happened was..." and we both started laughing. We started chatting and I found myself laughing numerous times. I thought to myself, for a shy person Yaw is quite the jokester. After talking some more, Yaw gave me his number and said "I don't usually talk on the phone much because I'm always so busy but if YOU call me I'll pick up the phone." I laughed and thought, "is he hitting on me?!...Nahhh." I only had my iPod in my hands so I stored his number in my notes section. He had to fly out early the next morning to go to work so we said goodbye and I proceeded to go back to my friends.
A couple of days later I stumbled across Yaw's number in my iPod and realized I had never texted him after our encounter. I texted him and he texted me back instantly to my surprise, and our means of communication began…again. One morning I received a text from Yaw around 4:30 a.m. and it read "Good morning!" I woke up around 6:30 that morning and thought, "huh?! So early!" I replied "Good morning!" The next day I woke up to another "Good Morning!" and I just texted LOL :-). Every day since then Yaw has texted me good morning and has totally made my day!
The first of many defining moments for me occurred one sunny Sunday morning. I decided to go for a run and to my surprise, I returned and found Yaw sitting in my dining room with my parents. Of course I came home already out of breath, but after seeing him I was speechless. I found out that he flew down from Boston to let my parents know that he was interested in talking to me further and wanted their permission and approval to date to me. I thought,---- "Whoa whoa whoa, do men like this still exist?!" I could not believe what happened, and I felt extremely special, lucky, and blessed. I admired Yaw's courage and respectfulness to my parents.
After talking to Yaw for some time after that, I realized that he had the characteristics that I had listed growing up for my ideal man. Not only he was tall, dark, and handsome but he was God fearing and a true gentlemen. He was very slow to anger and PATIENT. He naturally had a calm and quiet personality. I realized that Yaw and I complimented each other in more ways than one, and you can just imagine the warm fuzzy feeling it gave me inside!!
One thing led to another, and several months later there was a traditional knocking (the official ask for my hand in marriage from my family), a proposal, a traditional engagement, and now here we are, days before our wedding day!! #Godisexcellent!
‘His version’
Abby and I used to attend the same church in New York but we were both young and I don’t think either of us remembers much of our interactions, if any, back then. The first memory I had was at youth camp in 2008. My cousin Ian and I had gone to check out youth camp and had seen a few familiar faces and had spent a little time chatting with them outside of the church hall. We then walked to the back and were looking for somewhere to sit as it was quite packed. I heard someone call my name YAW!! I turned around and saw this stunning young girl; “yes?” I answered. “Its me! Abby from First Ghana!.” That’s when it clicked and I remembered; she was all grown up. We chatted for a few minutes and caught up. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay at youth camp long and we had to leave. As Ian and I left my only thought was “Man I should come to youth camp more often.”
Our next encounter was when we became Facebook friends and would chat here and there. It was through those Facebook encounters that I began to experience one of the things I love the most about Abby: her fun loving personality. She was always so happy throwing out “LOL’s” and “haha’s” during our Facebook dialogues. I would always get happy to see when she had messaged me and it would always make my day. Not to mention when she would laugh at my jokes. I wanted us to talk more often and maybe even grab her number. But I couldn’t seem too eager to do so. I had a master plan and I was committed to sticking with it. I knew our paths would cross again, it was just a matter of time I said to myself.
The next camp meeting I attended was a couple of years later. I had not attended many since we moved from New York City, but I was determined to rearrange my schedule in order to attend this one. Unfortunately there were so many people there I had not had the opportunity to see and talk to Abby. Finally the night before I was set to leave I was walking to my room when I happened to pass by a group of people sitting in the foyer socializing. As I approached I saw Abby was sitting down with the group. She was looking down at either her phone or itouch and I said to myself “This is my chance.” I walked over and started chatting her up. The jokes, naturally, started flowing again. I gave her a hard time about not inviting me to the party. She mentioned her plan to become a physician and it was that point that I decided “this is as good a time as any to give her my number.” So I gave it to her under the ruse that she could contact me whenever she had questions about the process et cetera. Again our conversation was cut short as I had to get ready to leave. But that was when I knew … God willing, I would make her my wife!
Over the course of the next few months our conversations were brief and exclusively over text – my master plan was slowly coming together. It wasn’t until the 2012 election that we started talking more frequently, and we have been talking together ever since. As a physician I often have long, physically, and emotionally taxing days. Yet Abby’s jovial personality would always lift up my spirits regardless of what happened that day. Her outgoing personality brings out the chatty side in me. I wanted to experience that feeling each and every day for the rest of my life. As we became close I knew if I wanted to do things right I needed to go have a conversation with her parents and express my interest. So one Sunday morning, after a long night of work, I flew down to New York City. Of course Abby had no idea I was coming, she thought I would still be in Boston asleep after my shift. But when she came back from a run, to her surprise, there I was sitting at her parent’s dining room table. She went downstairs and I had a long candid conversation with her parents and outlined the aforementioned qualities that drew me to their daughter. Not to mention her stunning looks (I left this part out though). But most importantly Abby is God fearing and exactly the type of wife I always envisioned God would choose for me. The last two years have been amazing and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for our future!!