I Have Found My Heart's Beloved
The near-tragic love story of how Andrew and Julie became
Mr. and Mrs. Null.
And as magical as that sounds, it’s not actually where their
story began.
The tale of Andrew and Julie started in a tiny apartment in Rexburg,
Idaho that was partially smelly, slightly unkempt, and fully unromantic.
Andrew was watching Sports Center, and when Julie walked
through the door to visit her brother/his roommate Kyle from Salt Lake, she assumed
he was another lame sports addict (which is partially true, minus the lame
part).
But then they started talking, and both were surprised at
how easy it was.
Julie left about 20 minutes later and that was that…or so
they thought.
Fast-forward four months and Julie was back at school visiting
her little brother, Tyler who now lived in that very same apartment complex. As
she was leaving, who should walk by with his laundry basket but Andrew who just
so happened to live next door to said little brother.
Thank goodness for laundry.
Julie did one of those looks. You know the one. She glances
at him, thinks he seems (1) kinda cute, and (2) vaguely familiar, but then gets
shy and looks away, but then can’t help it and catches his eye? Yeah, that
look.
Suddenly it hit her.
“Andrew?” She was delighted he remembered her name too. They
talked, and discovered they were both applying to the BYU Jerusalem center for
the summer. Julie left and Andrew finished his laundry.
Their next encounter happened when they saw each other at a
Halloween party. Andrew was Julius Caesar, and Julie looked like this.
He
wasn’t a fan.
And yet somehow, the zombie thing worked because the next
weekend, Andrew asked Julie on their first date. It was November 11, 2010, and
they went out for bowling and ice cream.
The date was fun. He liked her but didn’t think she was
interested. She liked him, but somehow Andrew was misreading the vibes.
They saw each other here and there. He made her dinner (his
curry specialty) and she made him dinner (Cuban chicken pizza), and they soon
found out they each got accepted to the BYU Jerusalem Center for the summer—one
more reason to be friends.
The winter passed and aside from a few Sundays of watching
Jerusalem videos together (they had to get excited about the summer), they
simply remained friends. Andrew still liked her, and Julie still liked him, but
somehow that didn’t seem to mean anything.
They ran into each other in Julie’s parking lot as she was
running home from the gym and he was on his way to visit another girl (but
we’re going to ignore that last bit). They joked about the horrible clothes
they would have to wear in the Holy Land due to the strict dress code, and she
told him of her plans to serve a mission right after Jerusalem. He asked her
what would happen if some guy sweeps her off her feet over the summer. She said
that wouldn’t happen, but he wasn’t convinced, and said, “Well at least you
know that if some guy falls in love with you there, it won’t be because of your
looks!” Oh, the irony.
Soon, the last day of school rolled around.
The night was April 6, 2011. There were still a few piles of
snow on the ground, finals were basically over, and Andrew’s apartment still
smelled like Pine Sol from clean checks earlier that evening. Because Andrew
had never seen The Lord of the Rings Trilogy before, his roommate forced him
into watching them before the end of the semester and this seemed like the
perfect setting. What better way to make it more tolerable than to invite
Julie?
Julie kind of hates The Lord of the Rings.
But thankfully her crush on Andrew outweighed her dislike of
incredibly long, staggeringly slow, and cripplingly boring movies.
So there they were, crammed on the couch with a whole load
of other people, when Andrew got brave….or was it crazy? Or maybe just curious.
Perhaps a mix of all three.
He started with the classic hand on the leg (it was crowded,
okay?), then lightly traced the back of Julie’s hand (he couldn’t just leave
his hand in one spot the whole time), until suddenly his fingers slipped
between hers (…).
That’s when Julie kind of freaked out.
Now what?!! What does this mean?!! What about Jerusalem?!!
What’s going to happen there?!! Why did he do that?!!
Andrew just smiled.
School ended, Julie graduated, and they both went home for a
few weeks.
During the break, Andrew called Julie for a few minutes to ask
about packing, but a few minutes quickly turned into two hours, and Andrew hadn’t
packed a thing.
Fast-forward two weeks, and suddenly Julie and Andrew were
on an airplane to Tel Aviv, Israel.
They sat in an auditorium the first night overlooking God’s
eternal city, heard the Call to Prayer for the first time, and groggy from
jetlag, they listened to their teacher’s orientation,
“By the end of the summer, some of you will be ready to be
married to each other.”
Andrew and Julie avoided eye contact.
For the first few days, Julie pretended to not look for
Andrew whenever she entered the auditorium, and Andrew pretended he wanted to
sit next to other people at lunch. But they weren’t very good at pretending.
Almost a week went by (which in Jerusalem time, is more like
a month), and Andrew got lost on his way to the laundry room and ended up in
Julie’s hallway just as she so happened to be walking to her dorm.
Thank goodness for laundry.
Andrew smiled at her, and her stomach did a cartwheel. They
talked, and decided they should probably stop pretending they were just friends,
and should maybe actually try to be more than friends.
So for the rest of the summer, that’s what they did.
But it wasn’t exactly that easy. There were the security
guards, the surveillance cameras, the “groups of three” rule, the “no PDA,” the
fact that Julie had mission papers ready to turn in, the fact that she wouldn’t
be returning to BYU-Idaho in the fall, the fact that Andrew would have a
newly-returned sister missionary awaiting him when he got home, and the fact
they lived in a fishbowl with 78 other students.
Somehow though, they made it work…kinda.
Three weeks into the summer, Andrew and Julie were in
Turkey—Ephesus, actually. After a long day of touring, they sauntered down to
the beach where the rest of their classmates were wading in the dark. That was
fun, but then Andrew saw the dimly-lit pat that ambled through the resort
property.
“Wanna go for a walk?”
He says he wasn’t planning anything, but Julie had this
feeling.
They meandered through the trees, talking hand-in-hand, finally
alone at last. The path ended and they came to a balcony overlooking the Aegean
Sea. The air was warm with a slight breeze, random techno music pulsed lightly
in the background, and that’s where for the first time, Andrew kissed Julie.
The rest of the summer months flew by. They hiked mountains
together, ate Turkish Delight in an abandoned stairwell, watched the sun set
over the Sea of Galilee, floated the Jordan River, snuck off to hidden libraries
for study sessions (ahem), explored crusader castles, and visited the Garden of
Gathsemane after church on many Sabbath afternoons.
The more time they spent together, the closer they became, yet;
there was still the mission thing, and the fact that Andrew would be returning
to school in the fall with a different opportunity awaiting him there (that’s
what we’ll call her).
Julie stressed, and prayed, and cried, and finally decided
to submit her mission papers since any prospect of dating after Jerusalem
seemed impossible anyway.
Andrew and Julie continued to spend every minute together,
however, and as the summer drew to a close they were afraid that maybe this was
more than just a fling.
The day of doom, August 12, 2011 rolled around, and suddenly
Julie and Andrew were back on an airplane. Earlier that morning, Andrew spent
his last ten sheckels on a Kosher McDonalds ice cream cone for Julie, and they sat
at the airport windows watching the sun rise over Israel for the last time. The
irony was rude.
Two miserable flights and many hours later, Andrew pulled
Julie close and through tears, kissed her goodbye at the Washington D.C.
airport, not knowing when or even if he’d ever see her again. She cried nearly
the whole way to Seattle.
Though each was happy
to see their families again, both missed Jerusalem, missed the adventures, but
mostly, missed each other.
Four days later, Andrew called Julie and told her he loved
her.
Julie, still waiting for a mission call, couldn’t take the
heartache any longer and called Andrew to invite him to visit her in Poulsbo.
She’d pay half of his ticket. Andrew considered it for .623 seconds, and
agreed.
Those few days, alone together and out of the Jerusalem
Center bubble, were everything they’d each dreamed of the whole summer. Finally
in the “real world,” they went sailing together, walked along the boardwalk,
explored Seattle, and Julie realized she really was in love. Dang it.
The very next day after Andrew left (September 1st),
a big white envelope arrived in the mail addressed to Sister Julie Rencher. She
panicked.
“Send it back. Please just send it back.” But it was too
late. The letter was there and she had to open it. Maybe it would send her to
some horrible place where she wouldn’t want to go, and she could just say no?
But no, that would have been too easy. She held her breath and tore it open.
California, San Fernando, Spanish-speaking. Report October
26th—less than eight weeks away.
She tried to be excited; she tried to be happy but instead
she just cried. She cried because it was perfect, and she cried because she
knew she couldn’t go. She called Andrew, told him the news, and surprised him
by asking, “Andrew, I need you to tell me what you want? What do you really,
truly want?”
Caught off guard by this question, Andrew didn’t know how to
answer. What did he really want? What
about his “other opportunity?” He loved Julie, but was it enough to give it up.
After a year and a half of waiting, he would finally be back at school with
“the other opportunity” in two weeks. Didn’t he owe it to himself to at least
see her?
Andrew gave a noncommittal answer which Julie found highly
unsatisfactory.
Julie spent the next few weeks as a bipolar emotional train
wreck. One day, she was so excited to go on her mission she could hardly stand
it, and then next she wanted to give it all up and move to Rexburg to be with
Andrew. She was dreadfully lost and horribly confused, but October 26th
was looming closer every day.
Meanwhile, school started and Andrew returned to Rexburg
with one of the biggest decisions of his life weighing heavily on his mind. He
quickly contacted the “other opportunity” and as he walked to her door for the
first time, his heart raced with anxiety and excitement. When she answered the
door, Andrew realized two things.
1. God does answer prayers.
2. Julie was the one.
Now that Andrew had his answer, he needed to decide whether
to ask Julie to move to Rexburg, or whether he could wait another 18 months for
Julie to go on her mission.
September 11th rolled around. Julie had finally been
feeling so excited about her mission. She was decided, she was committed, and
she was happy.
Was.
Man she hated that word.
Andrew called to tell her that after only two days back at
school, he no longer wanted his “other opportunity;” he wanted Julie.
He asked her to move to Rexburg.
Lying on her bedroom floor, she told him she needed to stew,
and hung up. She tossed her phone, pounded the floor, and unable to explain it,
started laughing uncontrollably. Maybe she was in shock, maybe she was past
emotion, maybe for once, she couldn’t cry anymore and could see how downright
comical the situation was.
Please hold your applause until the end.
Two weeks later, Julie spent nearly all her money on a car,
packed it full of her worldly possessions, and with no job, no place to live,
and no idea what she was doing, drove 800 miles to be with the boy she loved.
Crazy? Yes.
Stupid? Maybe.
Right? Gosh she hoped so.
At 3 PM, October 4th, Andrew heard a faint knock on his
door. He opened it slowly and his face cracked into a smile as he scooped up
Julie in his arms and squeezed her trembling body, somehow gathering up all her
broken pieces and putting them back together.
Julie found a place to live, she found her dream job, and
instead of reporting to the Missionary Training Center on October 26th,
she photographed designer cupcakes at a baking company in Rigby, Idaho.
The next months passed blissfully. Andrew took Julie home
for Thanksgiving, and after spending two miserable weeks apart at Christmas,
they realized they never wanted to do that ever again. Andrew proposed to Julie
just after Easter on April 12, 2012 in San Diego overlooking the city and the
ocean.
It was perfect.
And while marrying a Null in the literal sense of the word
meant Julie would become nothing, in every other sense of the word, it meant
she’d gain everything.
The end. (and the beginning)
