How we met…

In celebration of the upcoming Valentine’s Day I decided to share the story of how my husband & I met & got married!

Where I was at…
In the fall of 2003, I was working at a church in Calgary, AB. I served there in numerous ways, at the weekly young adult service, doing websites and graphic design, and also helping teach in some leadership classes we did on Sunday mornings. At this time in my life, I felt I was “done” with the cycle of “crushing” on guys and decided to stop that cycle and take advantage of my singleness by enrolling in a one-year diploma program at a career college in computer programming and website creation. As my roommate and close friend Lisa Peppard said, “It’s prime time!” It was prime time to venture out and do something, since I didn’t have a relationship to consider in making the decision. I figured that this was a sure sign I wouldn’t be dating anyone until I was done the program, since I’d be in school and working!

Where Joe was at…
Little did I know that somebody else had very different ideas! Almost a year before this, is when Joe first started attending my church as a new Christian, recently having returned to God after several years away. On his first time attending our young adult service, he saw a clip of me in a video that was being shown from a prayer event I participated in in Ottawa, Ontario called “The Cry”. He was immediately attracted and drawn to me, but probably put me on a bit of a pedestal (his balloon burst pretty quickly after we started dating) and knew now wasn’t the time to pursue me – he needed to pursue Jesus first! But after several months of admiring me and watching from a distance, as well as praying about me and whether or not to pursue me, the Lord finally gave him the “go ahead”!

The pursuit…
My first week of school, I was back at work at the church, and Joe came into the office to drop off some of his assignments for the leadership classes that I would teach at. (Yes, I was his teacher! And no, I didn’t get the hint when he kept bringing his assignments in to me personally.) And out of the blue, he asked me if he could take me on a date sometime. I was totally shocked and not expecting this, and was a little frazzled, but, knowing he was a man after God’s heart, I didn’t have a problem agreeing. However, I thought he was super shy, quiet, guy and not really my type, so I anticipated having to tell him I wasn’t interested! Yikes!

The First date…
But from the time he asked if he could take me out, to the night of our first date, it was all I could think about & every time I did think about it, it made me completely nauceous! I was sick to my stomach with nerves and anxiety and confusion! As I was waiting with my roommates the night of our first date, I was shaking and my teeth were chattering – it was quite ridiculous! haha! But as soon as I went to meet him, I calmed down and began to observe who this guy was. He was a gentleman – opening the car door for me. He showed leadership – he had the whole date planned out. He served me – by hanging my jacket for me & refilling my water when the waiter was MIA. He was hilarious – making me laugh the entire evening. He loved God – he told me his testimony & was vulnerable in sharing his heart. I was completely blown away! He wasn’t at all what I thought and he was serious husband potential! I was shocked, because it was the last thing I was expecting at this time in my life.

The Third date…
Was Valentine’s Day! We went to Banff, hiked in the mountains, went for dinner, and went to the hot springs – rather romantic and intense for the 3rd date! On our drive back to Calgary, I was very bold and came right out and asked him, “So what are your intentions?” Ha! My mom freaked out when I told her about that, thinking it would totally scare him away! But I was not into dating for the sake of dating and I wanted to know if he was in this for the purpose of discovering if we were meant for marriage. And he was not scared away at all, and was totally on the same page as me. So, it then became official – we were “courting”.

 
The Fourth date…
We had gone to see a movie and were back at my apartment, talking in his truck. All of a sudden he begins talking about Jesus as our bridegroom and about Jesus’ intense love and passion for me & he begins to practically prophesy to my heart about Jesus’ zeal to win my heart and conquer all my enemies. I hardly knew what to do with myself. I wanted to burst out crying. I had never heard anybody speak like this before. He was speaking in my language!!! As an avid lover of the book of Song of Songs, and as a romantic at heart who loves the image of Jesus as my bridegroom, I had never imagined I would find a man who shared this passion. And the reason I wanted to cry, was because I was so amazed at God’s goodness towards me and so thankful that He had brought me this man, and I felt so loved by God that He would bring me someone like this who “gets me”. Someone who understands the way I tick. And I knew that Joe was the one I would marry.

Six months later…
It was my 23rd birthday August 26, 2004, and I knew that Joe was planning a special evening for me for my birthday. He picked me up around 7:00pm and we went to his place where he had prepared a wonderful, romantic, candle-lit dinner for two. Earlier in the week, he had called my mom to ask her what my favorite foods were and got recipes from her so that he could cook me up the best meal! It was a fantastic meal of my favorite broccoli cheese soup, served with vegetables and dip, and followed by an amazing dessert of chocolate cake (in the shape of a heart!) topped with icecream and a hot chocolate sauce. It was absolutely divine!

Then, it was time for Joe to present me with my birthday gift surprise, which meant I had to be blindfolded!! So, I was kept completely in the dark (literally) while Joe led me to the truck, took me for a drive, and then led me on a walk, uphill, downhill, and through tall grasses! We finally reached the spot he had carefully selected for this exact moment and positioned me in the right spot. He then directed me to stretch out my hands to receive the first part of my birthday gift – if I could guess what it was, he’d give me the second part!

Well, I had been saying for a few weeks how much I wanted a kitty, but I couldn’t have one, because I wasn’t allowed to in my apartment. So instead, Joe got me a stuffed kitty for me to cuddle! lol – I was already won over and thought it was the sweetest, most thoughtful gift. I had no idea what was about to happen next!

The Proposal…
He then said that I could look, so I pulled down my blindfold, and there he was, knelt down in front of me, with the ring out, and he was videotaping my response with my digital camera! As soon as I saw the ring, I gasped and basically started freaking out – haha! Throughout the proposal, I was practically hyperventilating and just laughing as I exclaimed “Oh my goodness!” and watched it all unfold in complete disbelief. When I removed the blindfold, I also got to see where he had brought me – we were up on a hill in Edworthy Park, overlooking the Bow River and Downtown Calgary. It was absolutely beautiful with all of the city lights lighting up the evening sky.

He then proceeded to tell me how much he loved me and that I was more beautiful than any majestic view! *Sigh* He then told me that he wanted me to be his wife – would I marry him???? And in girlish delight, I squealed a “Yes! Absolutely!!” in response and proceeded to start screaming and jumping up and down in excitement! lol.

We then had the pleasure of just soaking in the moment, sitting on the hill, looking out at the view, and sharing our excitement with each other. We prayed, thanking God for bringing us together and for the amazing ways He had shown us His love for us through each other. We asked Him to guide us and cover us in the days and years to come as we were about to begin on this amazing adventure of life together.

The Wedding…
So, 5 months from then, we got married on January 22, 2005 – almost exactly a year from our first date on January 20, 2004. It was a gorgeous, balmy winter day in Calgary and my lovely bridesmaids, dressed in red, orange, and yellow, brightened up the white landscape! We got married in a beautiful old Baptist church with a huge vaulted ceiling and gorgeous stained glass windows and rich red carpet. It was perfect – of course!

And that’s our story! I hope you enjoyed it!

The Hannah Season

So, in my last post, I talked about the Esther Season – the time in my life where God was preparing me for my future husband.

Now, I am beginning a new journey into what I’ve decided to call the Hannah Season. As I’m sure most of you know, Hannah was the mother to the well-known prophet of the Bible, Samuel. Her story can be found in the first 3 chapters of the book of 1 Samuel and she is a godly woman with many admirable qualities that I would hope to emulate.

1. She was a woman of prayer – I too want to be a woman who cries out to God on behalf of my children, before they are even born. Since, I believe they already exist in the heart of God and He has known them from before the creation of the world, than surely my prayers matter even now!

2. She had open hands – before she even had children, she dedicated her child to God. I want to do the same, knowing that my children belong to God before they belong to me. By giving them back to the Lord, I am placing them in the safest possible place.

3. She persevered – she sought the Lord earnestly and passionately, fasting and crying out to God persistently for this desire of her heart. In the same way, I want to persever in prayer for my children, being an intercessory warrior on their behalf!

4. She worshiped and believed – even before she saw the answer to her prayers, she gave worship and praise to God. I believe she had a spirit of faith that believed the Lord had heard her prayers. Praise and faith are qualities I want to display in my home and instill in my children.

5. She was a woman of integrity – even though she may have been tempted to change her mind once she found herself with her beloved son in her arms, she did not back out, but followed through on her vow and kept her commitment to God. By God’s grace, I hope to be a mother who keeps her promises and who lives righteously both in public and in private, setting a godly example for my children.

I’m sure there are even more qualities that could be extracted from Hannah’s story, but I think the part that I am identifying with most right now, is her simple desire for a child. And in some ways, I feel the same emotions of when I was longing to find my husband – the uncertainty of when and how and what will they be like? There’s a knowing that they exist, but they remain nameless and faceless until the day that God decides the time is right.

So, I find myself with a new journal. It’s a little brown suede notebook (couldn’t choose anything too feminine or masculine) that will soon start to be filled with prayers for my future child, letters to them, and I’m not quite sure what else. But it’s fun and exciting to engage with God about my future children before they are even conceived, and to allow Him to prepare me to be the kind of mother He would desire for me to be. It’s again a season of prepartion and molding and shaping…

The Esther Season

When I was approximately 20 years old, I felt the Lord speak to me that He was bringing me into what I coined “The Esther Season”. The Esther Season was a period of time that He was going to use to prepare me for my future husband. For those of you who are not familiar with the story of Esther, she is the young woman in the Bible who was chosen to become the new queen of King Xerxes. Before she met the King, she spent a year in preparation, being submitted to beauty treatments and learning about how to be a queen. Similarly, I was desiring for the Lord to work in my life to make me beautiful (in spirit) and to prepare me to be the kind of wife He would want me to be for my future husband, who I was also waiting to meet. At this point of my life, I had already been praying for my future husband for approximately 7 years (since I was 13) but now I felt prompted to create something to record my journey through this special season. Therefore, I bought a journal and filled it with the following…

1. A list of “must-have” qualities I was looking for in my husband.
2. A “bonus” list of qualities I wanted in my husband, but weren’t a requirement.
3. Prayers for my husband.
4. Letters to my husband.
5. Lyrics to love songs and poems.
6. Pictures.
etc.

Keep in mind that I had no idea who I would be marrying – but it was something to remind me to pray for him and it was good for me during those single years when it sometimes gets lonely and you wonder if you’ll ever find him!

So, when the time came that I finally met the man I was going to marry, it became even more special. I could now write prayers for him, knowing what his needs were. I could now write letters to him and write a name and picture a face! I could now record the love songs that I had written myself for him! It was lots of fun and I really enjoyed putting my love and time into this creation. After we became engaged, I was going through several old journals from when I was a teenager and I found more prayers that I had recorded for my future husband from as far back as 13 years old and 15, which I then copied into this journal as well.

It was amazing to see how God has been so faithful to answer all of my prayers! And God even took the silly, seemingly unimportant desires of my heart and fulfilled even my “bonus” list! He is so good! What was really special though, was when I surprised Joe on our wedding night with this journal as my gift to him. It actually moved him to tears, seeing all the prayers and letters I had written before I even knew him. But God had known! And this journal is still a special momento to look at today.

Now, I told you all this to tell you of a new season and a new journal that the Lord has prompted me to begin…one that I have decided to dub “The Hannah Season”.

More to come in my next post…