Her Side

I went shopping with my sister once....probably about 3 years ago..I was in High School.  Mostly just looking through store windows, maybe stopping to peruse a sale or two, but we mostly just kept walking. We stopped though, at the window of a store with pink boots. Suede boots. Pink like, “Hey, I think Barbie thew up on your boots”, pink. Ugg looking boots, but they were knock offs. We aren’t exactly the pay-for-the-designer-name type, which is probably a reason we looked at them at all. Why look at something you cannot have? I almost bought them. $40 was in the realm of reason. I walked away. When would I ever wear hot pink boots. Really.

For Christmas a few months later, to my surprise, were those unmistakably-pink shoes. My sister had bought them for me. What an indulgent thing to have. A pair of pink boots. I never allowed myself something so uni-purposeful. Since then, I have probably worn them all of 5 times. Each time careful to not dirty them too much. They always were more precious to me than any other pair of foot gear had ever been to me. Silly. To take such care of frivolous pink footwear...but I wanted them to last. 

It was a January, supposedly, 2 years after finding the boots under the Christmas tree. I love the cold. I love the wardrobe that accompanies the cold, actually. But without the cold, my poor Arizona self would have a lot of untouched closet hangings. I adorned myself with a white knit hat, a coat, jeans, and my pink boots. One rare day of the season that I wore them. That’s when he noticed me. Or so I’ve been told. That day..the day of the pink boots was the day that Noor Sabbah, noticed me...As the story goes, that is the very day he said to himself, “I must know that girl”.

Fast Forward. It is Fall semester. I am enrolled in plenty of  art classes and I over-indulged myself in institute classes. 2 scripture based classes and choir on Wednesday nights. I loved it. I was loving the semester. Learning to bask in the joy of young-single-adult goodness. Life was average,  but I was happy.

September 20 changed pretty much everything. And nothing. Barring the major details of the actual event, my laptop was stolen from the institute. My average day flipped upside down. It was awful. Completely. The feeling of violation was unavoidable. Most of the day was spent in disbelief, with intermittent saddness which would then lead back to the numbness and continuing disbelief. If it weren’t for the kindness, love and support of those at the institute, it probably wouldn’t be such the positive memory that it is now.

Noor was one of those people.

Honestly, I didn’t know him. Not really. I knew his face. We weren’t complete strangers..but thats pretty much as far as we were at the time. But he was there for me. ALL DAY. Not in the “I think you’re cute and I want to date you sort of way” but in the “I’m the guy at the institute who is eager to serve, and today you need serving” type of way. And I was so grateful. He was with me all day. From when it happened at 1pm to when my locksmith opened my car at 9pm and made me a new key due to the fact that some creeper in Tempe had also stolen my keys. There are just so many things Noor did that day that were so huge in my mind. Things that I might expect a close friend to do...but not a stranger. Someone who just was there to help. Those things belong in the story of the stolen computer, but it was this day and those things that made Noor Sabbah a little “blip” on my map...my man radar, I suppose. I didn’t leave that night crushing on him or anything like that. Just grateful for him and the kindness he’d so freely extended to me.

I had been having interesting promptings over the days following the incident. Go here. Talk to this person. Read this. Etc.. It had been pretty frustrating to me. Nothing seemed to make sense. It was 2 days later that I was sitting in a fireside next to my best friend, Madison Taets, with a gut renching feeling that I needed to do something. It was literally making me nauseated. At one point, Madison turned to me and said, "You don't look so good. " I was confused as what exactly I was supposed to do, and after the past days of seemingly useless promptings, I really just wished it would go away. BUt I couldn;t shake it. I ended up sitting outside of the temple, praying that I would know the reasons that I was led there. That I would understand what it was the Lord wanted for me in my life. Part of my prayer in frustration. Part in desperation. 

The doors started to turn, and I knew who was coming out before I even saw his face. It was Noor...and it hit me like a brick. I all of a sudden knew why I was there. I was supposed to see Noor....but I didn’t tell him that. I told him all that had led me there to the temple and we continued our conversation over ice cream for a couple of hours.

Over the next weeks, we started to see eachother around the institute more. I’d purposefully find reasons to hang around with him in our mutual free time. I started to grow fond of that 6’2’’ red head..I was ready to go on a date with him. He however, did not seem so. I tried to make sure he knew that it was “OK” with me...but he just wasnt biting. I doubted myself. I asked myself “What is wrong with me that he won’t take me on even one date?” I had really almost given up. Only a couple days later, he asked me on a date. FINALLY. We went on a hike. It was cold. Perfect for sitting close on the rock at the top. 

The next day was our second date. The temple. I felt something so special there with him. It was incredibly powerful.

One week later was our third date. A movie, in which he held my hand and then we went dancing. I remember being there, watching him teach me to dance, and realizing I had never been more happy, ever. My cheeks hurt. My heart was full. And I had feelings for the handsome man in front of me. The next day was Sunday. We found ways to be with eachother most of the day. His ward. Some time at the temple. A fireside. And then a ward activity of his. After walking me to my door that night, we hugged, and he looked at me...the words that came out...”I’m going to kiss you now”

And he did.

And we’ve been kissing ever since. 

From that time, we dated, dated, and dated some more.

I knew he was “the one” only one short week after those fateful words. “I am going to kiss you now”.

I knew. But I knew I wouldnt be the one to first make it known. That’s his court. So I waited patiently..for what seemed like months. but it was really only 1 month. After spending Thanksgiving in Utah with my family, it was vocalized by the both of us with the dropping of the “L” word. Two days later, on a walk we took up the road, Noor nonchalantly said, “So, what kind of ring do you like?”

We were engaged on December 21, 2011...on the same mountain where we spent our first official date.

We were married for time and all eternity in the Mesa, Arizona Temple on March 9th, 2012.