Forever and Always.

Chapter Twelve

September 3rd, Joshua’s 19th birthday.

Every day my feelings grow even more and more for him and I feel as though I am lying to myself, trying to make myself believe that maybe somehow… someway… he returns my feelings.

I had already given him my present which was a bowtie! I thought it absolutely fit him, especially because he didn’t own one.

I also always saw him at church and could just imagine him wearing one, looking so dashing.

His birthday luckily fell on Labor Day and I had the day off of school. I remember messaging him and asking what he was doing for his birthday and he said that he didn’t know.

That’s when the thought came into my head… would he like to spend part of his birthday with me?

He agreed!!! I was so ecstatic and started planning right away. I decided because of this beautiful nature that God had so graciously gifted us with; why not go for a little hike?

Okay, maybe it wasn’t so little. I believe that it ended up being an EIGHT HOUR hike!!

Well here is how it goes,

I woke up at 6am on September 3rd, 2012.  Joshua would be picking me up in about an hour so we could head out on our hike up to Lost Lake. It would only be about a twenty minute drive there.

Had my daily morning prayer with Domo just lying right next to me. I prayed that today would be all for the Glory of God. That we may just continue to praise him as we went onto this path within the forest!

I took a shower and put on my robe. I twirled along the way from the bathroom to my room and put on some music! I was seriously too lazy to get ready at that moment so I just went upstairs to grab a bite to eat.

I knew Joshua would have been angry if I didn’t eat breakfast so I made sure to eat a huge bowl of cereal. Probably a bad idea, but I did it anyways!

I looked at the clock and decided I had procrastinated long enough. I headed back to my room and threw on my large volunteer shirt that I had gotten from helping out with the 9 News fair and slipped on some leggings.

Quickly pulled a pair of socks from my drawer and tied on my old ratty Nike shoes.

Ready to go and finished it all before Joshua came. Took a quick look in the mirror was decided, hey, there is NO NEED for makeup! We are going hiking!!

I threw some snacks and apple juices into my small backpack and headed out the door to find Joshua right there.

“Hey birthday boy! Ready for this hike?” I smiled and was truly so happy to be spending a part of his birthday with him.

I felt just a tad more special because I was lucky enough to even be in his presence!

“Ready as ever,” he replied as he smiled back at me. We headed to his car and began driving there. At first we were a bit confused on where we heading to so we just kept along the road and actually found our way!

We found a pretty acceptable parking space that was close to the trail.

From then on, we began our hike! I always loved the beginning of this trail because it had such a beautiful view of a tiny lake and made a little wood trail that we could follow.

I showed Joshua the car in the middle of nowhere and it was absolutely beautiful.

We talked about everything on the way up the hike. We talked of our fears, our future, our past, and our present.

He told me about Kabao and I listened hard. I smiled because it was truly amazing how much love God filled within this man.

We found the waterfall and Joshua, being the brave man he was, forced me out of my comfort zone and led the way into the waterfall. The trail lay beside the waterfall and we went off of the trail.

We sat right on this huge boulder in between the falls and it was amazing! I stuck my hand out and felt the shivering cold water upon my hands.

We decided to eat lunch here and I prayed for us. I’d have to say, this was my very first time praying out loud with someone next to me, and man… PRAISE GOD!

We ate our lunch in silence and just enjoyed our surroundings. After we finished eating, we headed back up the mountain. After what seemed like forever, we made it up to Lost Lake.

It was as beautiful as I remembered. We climbed onto a boulder that was in the middle of the lake and just sat there.

That’s when I told him about all of the pain inside. I told him about my past and he sat there and listened through it all. I was so blessed to have him right beside me at this moment.

We walked around a bit and glanced at the time. It about to hit 2pm and we decided on heading down. As we were walking down, Joshua, again being very adventurous, decided that we should go off trail on the way down.

I, being my clumsy self, actually tripped over a log and down I went. Very embarrassing but hey, at least he was seeing me at my worst. Yay for sarcasm!

And we did! Yes, we did get lost on the way down but hey, at least we found our way through. We had actually stumbled across an old beaten down house and when we glanced inside, it was terribly creepy. There wasn’t even a door to this old wooden house and there was a huge hole in the floorboard.

Very scary and thankfully we decided not to go in! As we were almost to the car, I thought back to our beautiful hike!

We decided to stop by Boulder Falls and that was when I actually noticed my ankle. -_- I had actually started bleeding and tried to ignore it until it actually began stinging.

Limping my way to Boulder Falls was worth it though because I got to see Joshua’s smile as he looked at the falls.

I finally gave in and told him about my ankle and he freaked out. Okay, bad idea to tell him but it was hurting so much! Limping my way back to his car, he laughed and I began laughing with him.

He began driving home and I thought back to our day. As he got out and hugged me goodbye, I never wanted to go.

But then he pulled away and smiled at me so I smiled back and limped my way over to my front door.

I quickly went in and sat on a stool and put a Band-Aid on. I smiled.

Thank you glorious God.

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Nyob Zoo! Thank you again for continually reading my story to those of you who are and may God just continue working in your lives as He is in mine!

My thoughts and feelings of this day, I am absolutely blessed.

love, catalinasmiles