How We Met September 5, 2006

We met at church in October of 2004. You wouldn’t call it love at first sight, but it was pretty close. We clicked instantly! The only problems were my age and our age gap. A whopping 17 it isn’t exactly marrying age. And knowing that we were playing for keeps this was a hard thing to look past. And then you put the 6 years difference, it seemed ridiculous. But God had a perfect plan, much to our joy, my 18th birthday was right around the corner and Jim’s birthday had just passed, making us barely over five years apart. A little easier to get through. After a few months of getting to know each other more and more, we became really good friends… that flirted! Realizing how much we enjoyed the many hours of talking and doing ministry together, Jim finally made his move. We went to Borders to sit and talk about if our friendship could be more. After 45 minutes of talking through specific topics and what we expected out of each other, I finally told Jim that he could court me. Who was surprised to find out that we were courting? NO ONE! After several months of sitting together during church service, talking to pretty much just each other, always pairing up do do evangelism together (it is a rule that girls can not go by themselves for safety concerns) and Jim jumping over chairs to talk to me, it was fairly obvious it wouldn’t take long.

7 weeks into our courtship Jim asked the big question. Apparently, slow and steady is not his thing. My family and I were at the park were Jim and I usually did our weekly Bible study. My mom sent me back to the car to get her cell phone in case my brother called to say he needed to get picked up from school early. Much to my surprise, Jim was standing there with a rose with a letter attached that was written in French, rather than being at his apartment studying for his tests at school like he told me. (He told me later he did study, just not as long as I thought he would) After reading the note to me in French, he translated for me (it is nice that he took so many years of French, it made a great proposal!). It wasn’t until the last line that I realized what he was doing. I knew that he was going to propose, but I thought it was still going to be a while. When he said the words “I love you” that is when I knew he was asking for my hand in marriage. How did I know? Well, we made a rule in the beginning of our courtship that we would not say those words until Jim had a ring in his hand. It was a huge desire in my heart that only my husband would get my heart. Seeing how much dating can have lasting effects on marriage, this was not a path I wanted for my husband. I wanted him to be my “one and only” with everything, even the first ”I love you”. After saying ”yes, yes, yes, yes” many times, Jim put the ring on my hand and we were engaged.

The rest is History.