Sometimes you see a couple and you have to ask: “How? How did such a nerdy weirdo get such a gorgeous, hot blonde?” I’m not saying we are that couple, but if you ever wonder how that happens I can tell you. The answer is simple: give her tater tots covered in Love Potion and a lot of lavender lattes. We met while chaperoning two of our friends in college at The Master’s University, accidentally went on our first date when none of our friends showed up to go to dinner and four hours later realized it might be something we would want to do again. After a summer of ignoring time zone difference and talking at all hours of the night, we started dating, officially, August 26 of 2016. One semester later, I left school and Jana moved to Malawi, Africa for a year. Despite a lot of dire predictions for the viability of navigating this time as a couple, we kept dating.
Long distance with 9 hours of time difference is hard. If anyone says differently, they either haven’t tried it, or they are way better people than we are. During this time of long distance we learned to value even the simplest things: WiFi, FaceTime, texting, emails, and more FaceTime. We also learned that if we worked it just right there was a three hour window in the day where I could take a late lunch in Atlanta while she was getting ready for bed in Lilongwe. Talking during these “golden hours” became our daily routine.
After a year in Africa, Jana moved back to Orange County, CA in the summer of 2018. We were still long distance with me in Atlanta, but the three hour time difference seemed like such a breeze compared to the nine hours in Africa. In the fall of that year, I was able to return to school to finish out my senior year of college. After almost two years of long distance we were finally in the same state again. Though we were technically still “long distance,” the two hour drive between Santa Clarita and Orange County just didn’t seem very long compared to the drive to Africa.
This last year has been a whirlwind: finishing school, new jobs, and more change than either of could have planned. However, after enough time to make everyone go “finally!”, and in the midst of global meltdown, I got down on one knee and asked Jana Houchin to be my wife on Wednesday, April 22. Even though we have been together for several years and have been talking about getting married for a while now, it still is pretty crazy she said yes. Not only is she marrying a nerdy composer, but she’s trading in her last name, Houchin, for a lifetime of explaining how to pronounce “Inabnit.”
Though very little of our relationship has been what is typically considered normal, as we look back on it we are reminded of just how faithful and gracious God has been to us. In every stage of our relationship He has provided exactly what we needed. Be it friends to come alongside us, passages of Scripture in which to find refreshment, coffee shops in which to find solace in a good cup of our favorite drink, or the amazing families we get to be a part of, He has always given us what we needed to make it through. We are so excited to enter this next phase of our relationship and look forward to getting to celebrate with each of you what God has done in our lives on September 27th, four years, one month and a day from when we first started dating.