Started from a DM (direct message), now we're here!
It's really just that simple. We met on social media, Instagram to be exact, and since then, we have been inseparable. We are best friends, who love each other deeply, and give thanks to God everyday for bringing us into one another's lives. Honestly, we reflect on our love often because it is truly God's work.
"I have found the one whom my soul loves."
- Song of Solomon 3:4
Despite the pandemic, our love has not wavered. As a matter fact, in many ways our love for one another has grown, blossomed and flourished. To us, it is the perfect artwork of the goodness of the Lord. Not only has our love grown towards one another, but now we get to share that love with our newest addition. We are blessed and cannot wait to enter into this new chapter of parenthood together.
[Continue reading to hear how we met from our individual perspectives.]
Obi (aka "Mel") and I pretty much agree on how we met. He may diverge and embellish a little more, so let me be the first to tell you how it really went...
I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was living in Houston and my friend and I were taking a trip to Wally World (Walmart). While we were stopped at a red light, I opened my phone to check Instagram. My notifications were booming! And I was like, "what's going on here?" It's not like I uploaded a new picture, so the random influx of "likes" was out of the ordinary. As I began to check my notifications, I realized that all of the likes were from one person, @leggomyego_.
I clicked on the page to see who this person was, and was greeted by an extremely handsome man, who had the bone structure of a god. While scrolling through his pictures, I received another notification from him again, and another, and another!
After returning home from my trip to Wally World, I revisited his page and tried to learn more about him. From what I could see he was very well put together, but looked so short in his pictures! I was about to give him a hard pass but then I remembered a conversation I had with God maybe a week or two before this beautiful stranger came into my life.
During my conversation with the Lord, I made a list of everything I desired in my heart for my husband to be. That list consisted of being God-fearing, honest and ambitious, to name a few. I also asked God to get me over the things that were blocking me from finding my husband. After I reminded myself of this conversation, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and send a direct message to @leggomyego_. My message read:
Are you trying to get my attention or are you just liking my pictures to like them?
He responded:
Did it work? *insert eyes emoji*
We started a conversation from there and exchanged numbers and the following day for about five hours, we spoke on the phone, getting to know one another. After about a month of FaceTime and phone calls, he came to visit me in Houston, and I was so nervous! But when I laid my eyes on him for the very first time in person, everything in the world felt perfect. Plus, he was way taller than me. (Thank God!)
We have been inseperable since, and I could not have prayed for a better partner in love and in life.
I pray that I am the perfect Proverbs 31 woman to you.
Our stories don't differ much, but here is how it goes from my perspective:
I was at my friend Toyin's house and was browsing through Instagram when I came across this fine a** girl. I mean "DA** GINA!" I started liking her pictures, but I didn't want to seem too forward, so I liked her pictures in spaced out time intervals (haha). I showed her page to Toyin, who knew she was well worth all the likes. After several liked pictures it finally caught her attention and she sends me a message. The message read:
"Are you liking my pictures to get my attention?"
And in the spirit of not being too forward (aka pressed), I replied "I don't know, is it working?"
I came home and showed her pics to my older brothers and of course, they replied "don't go and screw this one up!" From there on we spoke often on Instagram. I left my number in her messages and asked her to "hit me up", and in all classiness she replied "no here is my number" and of course the next morning I texted "Hey, its Mel."
She responded, "what is your Nigerian name?" And I told her "Obinna." She hasn't called me Melvin since.
Beyond looks I knew Nina was meant for me when during our first conversation she simply asked, "what is your relationship like with God?" I expected to talk about everything under the sun like "what is your favorite color" or "what do you like to do for fun?" But not a conversation about God and what my relationship with Him was like. This mattered to her because to be with her you have to be with God and be a God fearing man. Our relationship grew from this and God has been the anchor of our love. When I met her in person, you'd think we've known each other years ahead of our actual developing relationship. Our love has now grown to a perfectly choreographed dance, in perfect synchrony where we hold each others weakness to being one another's strength.
I pray that God continues to keep us as we enter into this new chapter together as man and wife.
Proverbs 18:22.