A Love Story: Cindy & Ruben

Seeing that today is love and friendship day, and everyone is in the spirit of lovin', I thought I would share our story. It's only fair, right?  Ok, here it goes...

We knew each other as young children, and use to play together. Our parent's, to this day, are really great friends. I guess life sent us in different directions. I don't remember us being such great friends and playing together because I was very small. As far as I can remember, Ruben’s dad (who is also named Ruben) would come up in conversation every now and then. So I knew of his dad, but I had no idea what he looked like or who he really was. I only remember moving a lot around Ontario, and finally moving out of Canada at 12 years old.

10 years later after I had bloomed into a beautiful swan (?), we decided to come back to visit for a convention and stayed for a whole month. 

 In Our Prime.. lol. 

We visited for our church General Conference.  My sister and I felt hunger, so we went out of the building where they had set up these tents and were selling food. We walked up to the person who was taking orders.  Consequently, it was Ruben.
Of course, at the time I did not know him, to me he was some tall guy wearing shades who girls seemed to very fond of.

We got our food and came back to wait for our drinks, which seemed like it was taking forever. All the meanwhile, this guy was having a conversation with pretty much everyone who came to order food.  He was very popular and so very arrogant. This was pretty much my very first impression of him.

At the end of the event, as we were leaving the conference and heading to my uncle's house where I was staying. My sisters and I got introduced by my cousin.  Since my sisters are smaller, I was forced out of my quiet little shell and had to be the one making small talk.  Apparently, that was enough to catch his attention.  So we found each other on Facebook and starting messaging for a bit. Innocently, of course, because at the time I was engaged to someone else.  I am not one to go behind anyone’s back, so I made this known to Ruben. His response was statistics of how people in their early 20s never made it in marriage, and how at that age you didn’t even know what you really wanted.  I was so offended, that I just stopped responding to his messages, and that was that.

After our month stay, my sister decided that she was staying here forever. Since I had just lost my job in the states, I decided that I needed a change because my life wasn’t going so well.  I returned home and broke up with the guy I was “engaged” to (Thank God for saving me from that), packed my bags, and moved to Canada. I never wanted to leave in the first place, but now I was old enough decide where I wanted to be.  It was actually the craziest, boldest thing I have ever done, and now I think about and I wonder how in the world I got the guts to do it, but I am glad I did.

It so happened one day, my uncle, who is a pastor, asked my sisters and me to accompany him to a church service in London because he had been invited to preach. Well at that service, we ran into Ruben. I was not happy and still very offended, but for some reason, this grand encounter stirred conversation once again, via messages on Facebook.

I, personally, was not interested, because of all the rumors I heard about him.  I know that it was wrong of me to believe the rumors, but in my defense, he did show any fruits of being a God loving man. At the time Ruben was not really into church, as we call it.  So when he asked me for my phone number so he could text me rather than having to message me on Facebook, I didn’t want to be honest and “hurt his feelings” and I responded with “I don’t have unlimited text messaging, and that’s not a good idea” He seemed fine with it.

Or so I thought...

Ruben must’ve been having a bad day or something because suddenly, I got a message saying that I was a liar and that when I was asked for my number, I was not being asked for my phone plan.  He also said that not every guy that talked to me was trying to "get with me”. He also mentioned that I thought I was on a cloud and that I was Ms. Universe, and was definitely not. I was appalled. This was the greatest offense I had ever received. After this conversation, I ended up really disliking him, and I vowed never to speak to him again. 

Here we are.. displaying our egos. lol. 

I basically trashed him to all my sisters, cousins and friends.  If anyone had ever gotten under my skin, it was him.  Matter of fact it came to the point that my sisters got fed up, and told me to be quiet because I was going to end of marrying him. Oh, if looks could kill... She would only be a fond memory.

Months later, after I had forgotten about the greatest offense ever. My cousin was selling water another church conference. She was at the back and I got thirsty mid-service, so I decided to go get some water at the back. It was such imperfect timing because when I was buying, Ruben was walking in. I looked at him and acted like nothing was there, and kept purchasing my water, BUT My cousin, being the way she is blurted out "Buy water, Cindy is selling it" (If looks could kill, I tell you)  "No, I'm ok" He responded as he walked away. I was so embarrassed and angry at my cousin that I ended up punching her in the arm. 

Ruben & My Cousin.

The whole conference Ruben nor I did not speak or even exchange looks at each other. Matter of fact, at one point we were sitting at the same table with a bunch of other young people playing UNO. During this time I did not address him or even look at him. It’s so funny how prideful you are when are young. In my case, I was very grudgeful, my goodness!

So what happened? When did we start speaking again? First, you have to understand that at this point, Ruben had returned to church, and was now very involved in his local church.

After the conference. My cousin told me that she had a conversation with Ruben, and he had mentioned that he wanted to apologize to me for the greatest offense in history.  Of course, I did not believe her and decided I would find out if this was true on my own.  So I went on my Facebook and decided that I would publicly say hello.  I went on his wall and typed “hi”, that’s it.  I said to myself if he really wants to apologize then he would.

Indeed, he did apologize, and you know what as “offended” as I was, I accepted his apology and we became friends again.  Just like that.  Who knew an apology went so far.  After this, we kept on messaging, and with every message realizing how much we had in common. Finally, he asked for my number and this time, I gave it to him.  We texted every single day, non-stop, until one day he called me.

The hard part was telling everyone who I had trashed him to that I was talking to him, and that were dating.  I guess I had to pay the price for having talked so bad about him. 

First Picture we took together

At a youth camp. I forgot why we were sad. lol

The day we got engaged.  See my "I suspect something" face. 

One day at the park. I was "praying" for him.

Dating him was so nice. We both knew exactly what we wanted, and it was exactly the same things. We respected each other, had so much in common, and got along so well. I found he brought the best out in me, spiritually and as a person.

Seven months later we were saying "I Do"!  That may be little time for some but what you have to understand is that, after I moved and ended the “engagement”,  I told God in prayer “I am not dating anyone else until you say! I’m letting You choose my husband”, and I meant it.  A couple of guys tried to talk to me but I did not retort. I did not pray with anyone in mind, I just simply prayed for a husband who loved God! My priority was to strengthen my relationship with God, and when the right guy came along, God would let me know.  Ruben had also been praying for the same thing, of course, we did not know because we didn’t even like each other at the time.  Right before Ruben and I officially started dating, I prayed for a whole week with the simple request that God let me know if it was his will.  At the end of the week, on the last day, I felt as though God told me “If he is helping you get closer to me, then why wouldn’t it be my will?”  Obviously, it wasn’t an audible voice, but God speaks to you in the way you will understand whether it is through a preaching, a person, a song, a feeling or reading the bible. To me, it was a very very strong feeling of certainty.  In Ruben’s case, he asked for signs, many signs, all of which came to pass. 

So we were so sure, and we knew it was God's will, no doubt in our minds.  I'm so glad we looked past our egos, and defects because I'm truly happy.  He's not only my husband,  he is my spiritual guide and he's my best friend too. :)

(Thanks to my friend Helen.. for the wedding pictures)