Old Florida Fish House

First, I have to apologize for not posting Andrew's post on his fishing experience....he has not finished writing it. I am tired of asking him for it - possibly because I fear that I am nagging him. If you'd like to see his writing debut, please ask him about it every time you talk to him. Maybe that will do the trick.

I felt like I needed to tell you about our waiter from tonight. After our evening shoot, which were both "challenges" as we like to call them at Beachside, (the little girl that Brooke shot was nearly blind and couldn't see her so that was hard and I was shooting a 4 and a 6 year old - do I need to say more?) Brooke and I decided we needed to treat ourselves to a nice dinner. So, we picked up Andrew and off we went to the "Old Florida Fish House". I think we were meant to go tonight especially after we met our waiter, whose name was Nicholas. He was really friendly, totally ADD but I could tell, he was a genuinely kind person - the type of person you aspire to be. By the time we were finished with dinner, Nicholas's shift was nearly over and he came over to talk. At first, you could tell that he was semi-hesitant to share the personal part of his life but soon enough, we had connected on the fact that he was in love with San Diego and since we're from California, Nicholas became more than willing to start sharing. He told us that he was living in Santa Rosa Beach (which is in the area that we live currently) and he told us that living the gay lifestyle (which we had guessed when he started to do a little jiggle to a still popular 80's song which came over the restaurant) was not a choice that he would have chosen for his own life. Living in a small town is not conducive to being gay and he shared that he doesn't want to be known as Gay Nicholas but as Nicholas, the person who wants to be a CPA and who is an amazing person.

I don't know why I shared our encounter with Nicholas but tonight, he really touched me. I feel like one of my callings in life is to love on people but in particular, people who are gay. Andrew says I have a gift but I've never seen them as people who are gay but people who are genuinely loving and kind - which a majority of the gay male population that I have encountered are. I feel like it's my ministry to show them is not to press what I believe in but to love them as I know God does too!

Anyways, Nicholas and I have exchanged numbers and we plan to meet up next week. Even though we're here a little over 2 weeks more, maybe I'll make a difference...and maybe it's the start of a great-new friendship!!!