You may have noticed that I have been linking up with Momfessionals for Show and Tell Tuesday. A prompt is given and I respond via a blog post…and then enjoy reading everyone else’s responses to the prompt. I think my favorite so far has been the prompt to tell how you met your spouse/significant other. I totally missed the boat on this one, as it was actually supposed to be the prompt for Valentines Day! Oops! So even though I can’t link up anymore, I still wanted to write down our love story.
It was 2009, and I was fresh out of high school. I spent the summer working at a camp and made all kinds of new friends, and even had an interest in this one particular boy. But in all my 18 years of wisdom I decided that was not the best idea and kept myself “free” as I entered Cedarville University in the fall. By that point I had decided that I was 100% fine with being a single missionary for the rest of my life. In fact, that sounded awesome! But first I had to get my teaching degree and make some awesome friends and that would be that! I didn’t even want to date. And I even wrote in my journal that I would under NO circumstances date my freshman year. I wanted to experience college and build relationships and have fun and who cares about boys anyways???
I’m guessing that you all know where this story is going. God certainly has a sense of humor!
My first class of my college career was a biology class. It was 8 in the morning, and the prof didn’t care that we were all fresh out of high school. That was a TOUGH class. Since the prof was so tough, and the exams were really, really difficult, they offered study sessions. Of course, I was going to the study session. My current roomate and I headed to the study session and got there a little bit late. There were two seats open next to this *cute* guy. Of course we sat there and we all introduced ourselves. But remember…I wasn’t there to date! So I forgot his name. And I studied for that exam. And I passed.
And I continued to be a good girl and focus on my friendships. This was my group:
Second study session and I arrive a little late, again. There is a seat open next to someone’s stuff so I sit down there. The person was nowhere to be found. Lo and behold….who was it, but the SAME guy. This time I found out (and remembered) that his name was Theo. We made some awkward conversation and found out that his parents had been to Niger! No way! So cool….
The final for this Biology class came up at the end of the semester (yes, my first semester of the year that I vowed I would not date!), and I sent out an email for a study session. A bunch of my friends were in the class, so it was primarily to study with all of them. But of course I included Theo in the email. You know….because he was in the class, too. Well, only Theo showed up. So we studied together for our Biology final. It was really awkward. We knew nothing about each other.
And that was that. Christmas break happened, and I figured that since Biology was over….there was nothing else. But at this point I was interested in the guy.
Somehow during the following Spring semester we got back in touch. We started emailing back and forth. We started hanging out a little bit more (but only in GROUPS! heaven forbid going out by ourselves!).
One night we went to a basketball game with all of Theo’s buddies. It was fun, and afterwards we walked around the lake…3 times. Now there is this thing at Cedarville that if you walk around the lake 3 times you are going to marry that person. Well, neither of us knew that. We talked for a couple hours and Theo told me straight out that “he was NOT interested in me”. Of course I agreed. I wasn’t going to date, remember? Single missionary here!
Well, one thing led to another and we decided we really saw a future with each other, and we wanted to date. We even held hands one time! And he took me home to visit his family for Easter. This is our first picture taken together. It was during that time that I went to visit for Easter.
(Side Note: all Theo’s friends/family were really nice to me, but only in a “this is not going to work out” kinda way. And my brother did.not.like Theo. He probably saw how stellar Theo was and was afraid we would get married or something. ha.)
Thing is…it was almost summer, and we didn’t want to start dating long distance when we really hardly knew each other! But…we did anyways. And it turns out that we ended up working together at camp that summer. And the summer after that. It was at camp that I truly fell in love with this man.
So, in April of 2010, we started to officially date. This was our first date:
I haven’t looked back since. I haven’t regretted that decision, and I cannot believe all that has happened to get us together. It was seriously a God thing. Sure, we were young and not the most mature people on the planet (we were 18 when we started dating), but we made it work. And it is still working…and I cannot wait to see how it continues to work!
Summer 2010:
Thanksgiving 2010
Summer 2011
I took Theo to visit Niger in August of 2011 (we had been dating about a year and half)
And this happened.
And this hair-do (which I DO NOT regret…I love it) also happened:
We got married in May 2012
Till death do us part.
And as we said in our vows, “I vow to prepare you for the day when you will meet Christ face to face.”
I love you, Theo! I’m so happy with the way that our love story has unfolded. It is clear to me that God has had his hand in it from day 1! I cannot wait to see where he has us going from here.
Picture taken on our honeymoon to the DR.