this is us

I (Janna) was at a place of being content in my singleness. I was fed up with the dating scene, one unsatisfying relationship after another and one disappointing online match after another. I could not seem to find a man who loved God, loving animals, and was a non-smoker/alcoholic. I reached a point in my relationship with God where I could say "God, if there is no man for me, that is okay. If you want me to be single I will. You are enough and I can be okay with that." In the midst of this acceptance, I still struggled with the idea of living alone in regards to safety. I am most definitely independent and can take care of myself but with the rising crime and horrifying things happening in our culture, I was feeling very scared about the fact that I would need to find ways to physically protect myself, my home, and my future animals. God knew my deep desire for a husband was partially because I appreciate the protection and security that a husband can provide. During this processing, I was still loosely on the dating apps. I wasn't scrolling as much as I used to and I definitely was not responding to messages as quickly. I wasn't putting much hope into anything happening. It was more of an attitude of- "If it works out it works out. I'm just leaving the door open." It didn't work out with two white women before and I (Jordon) thought to myself, "I'm done with this," then I remembered the saying, "Three strikes you're out, not two so there's still a chance for a homerun." I remember sitting in my car one day having a very emotional conversation with God. I was asking Him to lead me and help me stop beating myself up for the past relationships not working out, and to instead let them strengthen me if I were to have a future relationship and meet the person I've been looking for. God allowed me to meet some other people that I was interested in, but I was able to take what I learned from before and apply that to my mindset of not having to settle. I knew that what I was looking for was not in them. The Match Story: A close friend at the time had recommended to me (Janna) that I start swiping on guys outside whom I'd normally swipe on. I had to be honest with myself and realize I was being picky. I was quite stuck on the white, country looking men (despite my dating history of various races) so I decided if I came across profiles who checked off my main deal breakers but weren't quite my stereotype that I'd still swipe right. I came across Jordon's profile on Bumble and my first thought was, "Wow, he looks strong, he is handsome and he loves God and dogs," (even though he was not white and country, haha) so I went ahead and swiped right. I (Jordon) came across Janna's profile on my birthday, April 18th 2021. After glancing through her pictures, I could tell she was full of joy, loved animals, and was high maintenance due to what she was wearing and her fancy hat, haha. After reading her bio, I realized we had a lot of things in common but I didn't think she would swipe on me so I closed the app until later that evening. When I opened the app again, she was the first profile to pop up and I thought "What's to lose? Either she swipes back or she doesn't," but I wasn't really hung up on anything coming of it. The next day, when I hopped on the app, I saw we had matched and I thought it was by accident so I waited to see if she would message me (since on Bumble, the women message first). I (Janna) DID message him one of my normal icebreaker questions (which was part of my "filter process" lol). What surprised me about Jordon was the fact that he gave me thorough responses other than the 2 word answers I was given from others. He was very expressive and interested in getting to know me. We hit it off right away with conversation flowing and laughing a lot as if we had known each other for a long time. We both felt like each other was a breath of fresh air and felt like God had brought us together at just the perfect time.