I’m dating a lovely young lady named Stephanie Zboran. Well, dating is what we’re calling it if people ask casually, but we’ve defined it for ourselves as being much closer to courting. Here is a picture of us:

Stephanie and Me
Stephanie is currently a Spanish teacher at Westminster Schools of Augusta (in Augusta, Ga), where she has taught for a year. During the past few summers (and including this one) she has been a camp counselor for “Camp All-American” that is hosted by the Perimeter Church in Atlanta (where her family resides). She loves to serve the Lord by teaching little kids about Jesus, she loves to play games, and her love of Spanish took her to Mexico for a six-week mission trip.
So how did we meet you might be asking? Well, I’ll give you the short story here, which starts almost a year ago. Last July, Poppop wanted to set-me up with a young lady from their church (Ruth), so I drove down to Atlanta for the two days prior to returning to New York. Well, it didn’t really work out because Ruth was not in town, so I ended up spending the afternoon with Poppop and Gran’ma Judy’s famous Skip-bo Club. It was really a lot of fun! We had dinner and later played Mexican Train (since I made them an odd number for Skip-bo π ). After that fun evening, on the way back to Poppop ‘s house, Mrs. Larson called me (“me?”, I thought), and asked what I thought about being set-up, that there was young lady in their church named Stephanie, that she thought we might get along well, and would I be interested in contacting her by email. Hmm…well, I thought, sure, I’m not opposed to meeting new people and making new friends, as long as it’s understood to be a friendship.
So, once I got back to New York in early August, I sent Stephanie an email. She responded quite nicely and we continued to exchange emails, trying to get to know each other through the printed word. Immediately it seemed that we had a lot in common and we hit it off well exchanging emails back and forth. This segued rather naturally into talking on the phone once a week (by about September, I think). So, week by week, month by month we continued to get to know each other by email and phone.
I suggested to Stephanie that over Christmas break, her family and my family get together for a day of food, fellowship and games, and Poppop and Gran’ma Judy very graciously hosted the event. I think it went rather well. Through January and February we continued exchanging emails and phone calls, and I went to visit her in Augusta for a few days and got to know many of her friends and colleagues. We continued our emails and phone calls, and made plans to get to know each other better in person this summer.
So now I’ve spent the last two-and-a-half weeks with Stephanie and we’ve had a great time, and many great conversations, and both of us want to pursue our relationship further and see what God may have in store for us! π Do pray for God’s guidance and wisdom for us, and that we might make the most of our summer together.
Here are a few more pictures, and if you would like to see quite a few more, visit http://micah.waldecker.net/summer2010 (and use these case-sensitive login credentials: Family&Friends / Letm3C7hepics)

Stephanie atop Stone Mountain


{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m happy for you two, Micah. I will continue to pray for guidance. I am looking forward seeing you and Stephanie this weekend, along with the rest of our family.
That’s very exciting… I can’t wait to meet her!
’tis indeed! π Stephanie and I are planning on being up in Chattanooga this weekend (July 10th and 11th), and also probably sometime in the latter half of July. Perhaps you can meet her during one of those times π
That’s exciting!
I have a lot of friends who say, “I’m not allowed to date; I’m only allowed to court.” Would you mind explaining the difference to me? I never quite understood it.
Indeed, exciting! I am very much looking forward to getting to know Stephanie better. Nice pics, by the way π That disc golf place looks like a very nice place. I have been and will continue to pray for you both.
Thanks for the update. And I am very happy about this! π I have been praying for the two of you for quite a while and will continue.
Terrific! This is exciting news. I will pray for both of you.
I’m excited for you both as you pursue this relationship and will pray for wisdom, which I’m sure you’ll both have. I have admired how you have handled this relationship. I look forward to getting to know her better as well!
She’s pretty Micah, but what Kristen and I would like to know is if she can catch a frisbee? π We’ll be praying for the Lord’s clear leading in your relationship!
I like the way the two of you are going about this relationship and we will certainly pray God’s will is clear to you both. By the way, do you converse in English and Spanish?
Congratulations! Thanks for sharing the story and the pics.
Thank you all for your prayers and well-wishesβthey are certainly very welcome!
Emily, there seems to be a wide range of definitions for “dating” and “courting”. It seems that, in general, though, “courting” is almost like a pre-engagement. The purpose of courting is to lead to marriage. I think there is usually more family involvement in the interactions of the couple as well (but I’m not sure).
Dating, at least in my understanding, seems typically to be a more casual “I like you, let’s do something fun”, with very little interest in seeing if the relationship will go to marriage. But dating seems to also be the word to categorize everything that may fall between the casual dating and courting.
Stephanie and I felt we were somewhere in between, but closer to courting. I guess you might say we’re “seriously dating” or “dating seriously”, or something like that. π
Anyone one else care to chime in on the definitions here?
Adam, I don’t know if she can catch a frisbee since disc golf doesn’t require catching them, but I think she has played ultimate frisbee beforeβI’ll have to fine out π She can certainly throw a frisbee, though π
We converse predominantly in English, but sometimes we’ll speak in Spanish entirely or peppered with our English π She can understand practically everything I “throw at her” in Spanish (or should that be “say at her” π ), and she speaks it very well.
This is great! We will be praying for you.
I think courting also typically frowns upon doing anything together without other people being present. So you could never just go out to eat the two of you. Courting is more collective, focusing on the social groups to which the couple belong and how they see things, leaning toward arranged marriages. Dating focuses on individuality, often going to the extreme of not having family involved at all.
Wow, Dad, what an insightful clarification of the two terms!
Oh, okay! Thanks!
Courting is definitely more family focused. Adam and I consider our pre-marriage relationship to have been that of courtship. We even joke around that it was an arranged marriage because of the amount of family involvement and because of how fast our courtship went (less time “hanging out” to get to know each other, more trust in our parents and their advice).