Mr. and Mrs.

All couples are different, but all couples have a story.  Jonathan and I are no different.  Let me warn you now, this is lengthy.  I won't hold it against you if you need to take breaks, get some food or ignore it completely.  

I have always been independent.  Always prepared to make it on my own.  Because of this, I was never really "boy crazy." Sure, there were boys I thought were cute but I was not chasing after them.  I observed from a far, mainly because most of my friends were the sizes of toothpicks.  Not that I had huge self-esteem issues, I just recognized that fifteen year old boys were stupid.  They couldn't see past the next meal.  How could I expect them to see past my size 2 friends?  Therefore, I wasn't obsessed with boys.  

Here's my short history with boys:

5th Grade- First Boyfriend. First boy to hold my hand.  First boy I made cry.  

6th Grade- First "Date."  His mom dropped us off at Cracker Barrel. 

8th Grade- First boy to drive me around by ourselves. First boy to kiss me.  Completely freaked me out.  I broke up with him.

10th Grade- First boy that came between me and a dear friend.  It didn't work out.  Shocker. 

After that, I kept my distance from boys.  Nothing but trouble.  Once I got to college, I went on a few dates with a couple of guys but it was never "right."  They were all great guys, really, but there was always something I couldn't put my finger on.  

Summer after my freshman year, I met Jonathan while working at Pine Cove Christian Camps in Texas.  

Before you think it was love at first sight, let me stop you.  Jonathan and I had one conversation that summer and he doesn’t remember it.  He does remember, however, talking to someone in an Ole Miss shirt, which I was wearing that day, and thinking he didn’t want to be that person’s friend.  I know. Such a terd.

The next summer we both decided to go back to camp.  We went early to work Free Family Day, which was incredible.  That night some Ranch staffers went out to eat and Jonathan ended up hopping in my car.  We had been in the car about five minutes and then he decided he needed to know the person who had his life in her hands, so he introduced himself.

During training that week, we saw each other at meal times and had a few conversations.  One night, I was emailing my mom at picnic table and he came and sat across from me.  I had had an emotional couple of days and that kind of spilled over into our conversation.  As I was getting up to back to my cabin, he asked how he could be praying for me.

To be honest, it completely caught me off guard.  I had never had a guy ask that.  I told him a few things and that night and every night before campers came, I received a bible verse relating to my prayer requests.  It was exactly what I needed when I needed it.

Over the next five weeks, we wrote letters back and forth and hung out during the twenty-four hours we had off each week.  I got to know him and I genuinely enjoyed his company. Despite how much we talked and spent time together, we didn’t talk about a relationship or how we felt about one another.  We simply took the time to get to know one another.

I would be there for another six weeks but Jonathan was leaving after the first half.  The night before he left, he sat me down (thanks to some very encouraging friends) and told me how he felt about me. He told me all about his prior relationships and I told him about mine.  We were honest with one another and it is a sweet memory for us both.

He left the next day with a promise that once I got back to Mississippi he was taking me on a real date.

Over the next six weeks, we talked when we could and wrote a few letters. Let me tell you something, distance does not make the heart grow fonder.  It makes it doubt. A LOT.  There were so many moments where I freaked out and asked the Lord, “What the heck am I doing?”

Thanks to some incredible friends, I was able to use that time to pray for him without being distracted.  I was also able to pray for the Lord’s guidance in making sure I wasn’t interested in him for the wrong reasons.  I learned later that Jonathan used that time to do the same thing.

I hadn’t been in Mississippi one week when Jonathan decided to come see me.  He took me to dinner and a movie and met my mom for the first time.  Don’t worry; they loved him, as I knew they would.  After that, my dad, being a huge Atlanta Braves baseball fan got us tickets for Labor Day weekend.

While we were in Atlanta, he asked me to be his girlfriend.  He was so nervous.  It was precious.  

You should probably know that I made him ask me.  Call me a diva. That’s fine, but I knew that if a man wanted to pursue me and enter into a relationship with me, he had to understand the significance of that.  Being in a relationship with someone is not something you enter into lightly and both people need to understand and fully grasp that.

Over the next four months, we continued to grow and learn more about each other.  Let me just say, the more I learned about him, the more I liked him.  He made me smile and laugh, and always knew the right words to say even if they made no sense.  He understood me and I understood him.

Around thanksgiving we started talking about the future and what we thought that looked like for us.  We prayed about it and knew that we would get married.  It took a little bit more prayer on his side, but we both knew.  After much discussion, the question would then be when we would tie the knot.   We spent days going back and forth.  Ultimately, however, we knew how we felt each other and knew we didn’t want to spend more time a part then absolutely necessary.

He proposed in Nashville on New Years Eve- I'll save the story for another day.

On July 28, 2012, I became his wife and he became my husband.  

I share this with you because I want you to know where I'm coming from and the relationship I'm in.  For those of you wondering when your prince will come, I wanted you to see the Lord's hand at work in us- from the beginning until now.  He is faithful! Trust in His complete and perfect timing!