Jumping in with the Joneses!

It wasn't until summer break in 2011 that we actually became acquainted. There was not necessarily a romantic connection. We both worked for a mission group in Harlan (SWAP) performing home repair for low-income families. When we actually struck up a friendship, I was living in Memphis, TN. We began messaging each other and decided to get coffee together one early morning around 2:00am. Katie made me some type of cookies that I ended up feeding to a hungry dog the next morning after a teaching interview. I eventually moved back to Harlan from Memphis to teach and Katie got accepted into PT school. She had to move to Tupelo, MS for a clinical internship. I drove her down and on the return trip home I knew that I could not spend my life without her in it. When she returned home I had already purchased a ring and proposed at the mission camp we had worked at together. I had to lie and tell her I was making my Mother a coffee table and hid my dear Aunt in the woods outside the chapel. Two normal people that fell in love and were brought to faith by grace. Katie is more than I deserve. -Aaron We knew one another existed. Harlan is a small town after all. But we never really ran into each other. We went to the same college, and got banana pudding ice cream together once. But nothing more. Then we worked SWAP together one summer, and I could tell he noticed me. We actually became friends there. We didn't come into each other’s lives again until the exchanging of some random messages, that lead to some more purposeful messaging. I had never formed a friendship with a guy that intimate and encompassing. He was steady, funny, and made me fall for him in every way imaginable. But then we broke up. And it was hard to be single again. But I needed that time - we both needed the time - to cling more fully onto God's promises and to figure out how to stay in relationship with God all on my own. He came back into my life, slowly. And now he'll never leave. - Katie