Distance makes the heart grow fonder

By KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

After a two-hour initial meeting turned into a six-hour date, long distance couple DJ Meyer and Beth McCormick are ready to take a walk down the aisle.

The couple met on Christianmingle.com this past summer.

?After we had been talking for a couple of weeks we decided to go ahead and arrange to meet and see if it was going anywhere,? said Meyer.

On June 21, 2014, the two met in Iowa City, a half way point for them. Meyer is from Hillsboro and McCormick resides near Shellsburg, which is west of Cedar Rapids.

?We were both thinking a two-hour time frame for meeting and it turned into six hours before we realized it,? said Meyer.

The two met at a Starbucks in downtown Iowa City.

?It was a cool night,? McCormick recalls. ?There were outdoor concerts and an outdoor movie playing.?

The two sat on a park bench after the movie, ?Despicable Me 2? was over.

?I had to preach the next morning and I finally looked at my phone and thought, ?oh wow, it?s 1:30 in the morning, I?d better get home,?? said Meyers.

From that point on, the only thing that separated the couple was a two-hour distance.

?We?re still doing the long-distance relationship,? Meyer admitted.

McCormick said although it is definitely hard not being able to go to one another?s house whenever they wanted, it did make them more intentional about the time they did spend together. It also meant a lot of phone calls.

?The thing I value (most) about (the long distance) is that we had to talk on the phone a lot and because of that we learned each other?s tone of voice and learned to truly communicate because we couldn?t just sit on each other?s couch,? said McCormick. ?We really had to talk about things and learn each other?s personalities.?

A trip to Haiti in October really tested the couple?s strength and faith in each other.

McCormick, who frequently makes trips to Haiti to serve as a nurse at an orphanage, said in July the directors of the orphanage asked if she could come down. The directors had to come back to the States, which would leave her as the only American at the orphanage.

?I was planning on going down and serving, but I needed some help, there were 58 orphans and just me. DJ had only known me for a month, but he offered to come and help,? she said.

For Meyer, the trip had many firsts for him. The first time he?d been out of the Midwest, let alone the States; the first time he?d been on a big plane; and the first time he would see how he and his girlfriend handled stressful situations together.

?Haiti was a great experience and we got to spend some very quality time learning about each other and seeing each other under stress and pressure,? said Meyer.

?When you?re in a third world country, in that environment, you learn someone?s character very quickly,? McCormick added.

The time they spent in Haiti only strengthened their relationship and on Jan. 21, 2014, Meyer proposed, he tried very hard to anyway.

Meyer said McCormick came down to surprise him one night; it just happened to be the same day he picked up her ring. The two ate at Big Muddy?s in Burlington and after their meal; Meyer led his soon-to-be fiancé to the river.

?I was standing there with this food box in my hand and I tried to pass it (the food box) off to her so I could get the ring,? he said. ?I told her I didn?t want to hold the food anymore and she said she didn?t want to either so she sat the food on the ground and walked away.?

?He was being a stink-butt,? McCormick interjected. ?He kind of shoved it at me and being feisty myself, I wasn?t going to take it so I walked away the first time he attempted?I didn?t realize he was attempting to propose.?

Meyer did not let that discourage him. He picked the food box back up and walked McCormick to the car. He unlocked the car and opened the door.

?She instantly goes to get in the car, but I just cut her off and sat the food box in her seat. She started to say something, but I turned around, ring in hand. She didn?t even see me reach into my pocket to grab it,? he said smiling.

McCormick stopped.

?The look on her face, the expression, it was priceless,? he said. ?And for whatever reason, she said yes.?

The ring Meyer?s proposed with features McCormick?s grandmother?s diamond.

The two will wed on May 9, 2015.