new beginning

Danny and I met at a youth retreat called NCYC in December. We had both 'known of' each other from the previous year but that was it. We were both attending the retreat as staff volunteers. Danny was the MC and part of the organization committee whereas I was a small group leader. On the last day of the retreat, as I was gathering my church youth students to go into the shuttle bus, Danny came up and asked me for my number. I thought he wanted it to ask me to help plan for the retreat next year so I just gave him my number and left, unsure of what happened. Then we kept texting and met up for lunch at TGIF in January and started dating later that month!

The TGIF date was terrible. To give you a little context: it was supposed to be a casual, grab-a-meal-together, figure-each-other-out thing - clean, simple, no pressure. If things worked out, awesome! If not - that's great too! Nobody has to know. But I get there, and this girl who's essentially still a stranger says to me, "My friends and family are so excited that I'm here... Did you know our dads know each other?" ☉_☉ I ordered the fajitas... they were meh. We sat there together for about an hour, but there was no 'spark'. She didn't seem interested in me and the conversation was guarded and forced. Later on, when we were dating, I brought up how bad that first meal together was, but Jeanie pretends like it was 'fine'. But it was clearly not 'fine'. I remember feeling thoroughly dissatisfied with both the food and my inability to even get the conversation rolling. I tried. I failed. I was leaving. But as we leave, Jeanie says, "I have about an hour left before I have to go. Do you want to get some donuts?" There's a character limit on this story, so in short: We talked & through that donut shop conversation, God showed me a glimpse of the story he was unfolding in Jeanie's life. About how he loved her & cherished her & called her his own. And about a month or two later, I knew I wanted to do the same.

In a lot of ways, Jeanie is my opposite. I am messy. She is clean I hate planning. Her plans have back up plans. I enjoy things by thinking them apart. She enjoys things by the feelings that they give. I tend to see vices first. She graciously sees the good. Risks make life fun. Risks are to be avoided. My Korean is bad. She's almost fluent. I always think I'm right. She knows that I'm not. In our relationship, she has been the wise voice of caution. She's constantly displaying grace, forgiveness, and lots of patience. Her willingness to speak frankly, honestly, and vulnerably has saved us from many pains along the way. And whether it be teaching her class of 6th graders at school, keeping up with friends far away, working on some cute craft idea, or writing a hand-written letter, she's ever so diligent. These are some of the things I love most about Jeanie, and I hope you get a chance to get to know her soon!

So Danny is Korean, a pastor's kid, and grew up in NC like me. But other than these things, we're pretty much as different as it can get. We both love eating, but he loves Mexican food (which is not my go to) while I love Japanese food (vise versa for him). Then we both like movies, but our movie genres are totally off. I'm more about the action whereas he's more about the thinking (what the director meant when using this angle, the main theme, etc etc). Yet, God picked the right man for the job! Danny has consistently been an encourager and "sandpaper" for me, allowing me to become more and more like Jesus. It has been quite the journey thus far, but it has been so much fun and there is no one else I would want to go through my life's joys and challenges with.