Upon the urging of a friend I had begun to go into our church's chat 
room again after not having visited it for a year or more. I decided 
that I wouldn't use my old name of HotRod18 that I had been given for my 
crazy driving and heavy foot, so I used the name that a 2 year old at 
church called me. I entered the room as Randa. 

Everyone said the usual Hi, nice to meet ya, where ya from....etc. 
Well everyone except one person. A guy by the name of G-man merely 
typed in Panda! From that moment on I became RandaPanda in the room. 
G-man and I began to chat regularly in the room but nothing personal. 

Just the normal joking around and keeping the room live. On October 
17th I had a car wreck which caused me to be unable to work. I couldn't 
walk without pain because of the injury to my lower back, so the only 
entertainment and company I had was of course chatting with G-man on the net.

Luckily for me he was in between jobs and could chat all night anytime. 
We began to become closer chat friends and pretty soon in the room we 
were private chatting more than chatting in the room. I had some pics 
on the net and gave him the URL. He told me that he didn't have a scanner 
but that he had attended IYC (International Youth Camp) that our church has
and that his picture was on there many times. So I pulled up the site and was 
very impressed! He was really cute! I added that to his witty humor and 
I was hooked! 

He said that he really liked my pics and that I was a 
cutey and I replied that he was a hottie. That became our private 
little thing calling each other C or H in the chat room. We began to 
talk about personal things in our life such as family and friends and 
hobbies and astonishingly found that we had like 99% in common! I had 
never met anyone like me. I have always been described as "just Miranda" 
yet here was someone who was just like me except he was a guy! Well to 
make a long story shorter...lol....we had sent tons of email, greetings, 
and voice greetings. I loved his voice! It sent chills over my body 
like it was a voice that I could hear forever. 

I realized around this time that I was falling for a guy that I had never 
met! Family and friends kidded me about my "internet guy". Finally he 
gave me his number and I gave him mine. He planned to call me the next 
day and I eagerly awaited the call! When he finally called we talked 
for like 4 1/2 hours like we had known each other forever! It was like 
old friends chatting! After that I called him several times and he 
called me as well. This went on for a few weeks and he mentioned online 
that he wanted to meet me! it totally threw me into shock. 

I knew I liked this guy but I didn't know about how he felt about me. 
So in Dec right before Christmas we were chatting and I was talking to 
another friend that frequented the chat room as well that I had known 
since I was a little girl. He kept telling me to just tell the guy. 
I finally did through an email. I told him that I thought that I had 
feelings for him and wanted to know where he stood before he came down 
and I embarrassed myself. So I waited, and waited, and waited...actually 
it was only a few minutes of waiting but it seemed like an eternity. 
Shockingly he felt the same way! We admitted to having fallen in love 
and that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. He drove 6 
hours in January to meet me for the first time. Several visits later 
he asked my parents for my hand in marriage. Oh June 9 2001 we went 
to Alabama to meet his family for the first time. After being there 
for about 1/2 an hour we unloaded the car and took the stuff into his 
room. There was 1 dozen red roses on his nightstand. 

Being as much of an idiot as I can I didn't realize they were for me. 
He had told me that he had gotten me something and I was anticipating 
a stuffed panda of some sort cause he buys them for me all the time. 
After telling me the roses were mine he said that he had something else 
for me. He showed me an antique wind up piano. I love pianos because 
playing is my passion, and I love antiques and windup stuff. So I was 
thrilled! It wasn't until I examined the piano more carefully that 
I saw a delicate and beautiful ring inside the top of the piano. Eric 
then proceeded to get down on his knee and ask me to marry him. I was 
so shocked yet so happy! It is now August 20, 2001 and Eric has been 
living here in Georgia for 2 months now and we are having the time of 
our lives. No we don't live together because our faith teaches against 
it and we are both Christians trying our best with Christ to make it to 
heaven. 

This keeps our relationship strong because of our love for Christ above 
all things. We are getting married on Dec 1, 2001 at my home church in 
Pearson where my dad is currently the pastor. I am proud to say that my 
dad is going to preach the wedding, give me away and sing! I am very 
proud to have parents as great as mine and so thankful that God chose 
and designed Eric for me and me for him!

"Miranda"