Amanda and Joe didn’t meet in what most consider “romantic”, but it doesn’t at all take away the power of what we are now celebrating. Both walking with The Lord and desiring to share their life with another, they inevitably ended up on Facebook Dating for a very short stint and found each other. Amanda found something most intriguing about Joe so she clicked “like” and swore she’d never return to the app... until 3 days later when she received a message from him, creating the greatest first conversation of all time: 90s music, potatoes, and Jesus! They talked endlessly for the next few days until Joe asked Amanda to coffee in Seaford since her worksite that day was in the area and in a matter of 20 minutes, they meet. When Joe walked into Every Fiber Coffee Co., a nervous Amanda, suddenly soothed by his arrival, found him to not look like his facebook profile but in fact better. She saw the light and joy of the Lord all over him; she was drawn in. They sat down, Amanda scarfed down a tuna wrap, and Joe told her about himself and his past and what Christ had done in his life. Although he was nervous and couldn’t make eye contact, she didn’t bat an eye. They talked for a while and then walked out to their cars thus deciding that was the meet and greet with the official first date being Black Friday 2019. Then the butterflies were released and neither of them could contain their excitment.

Friday night came along and they decided to see a movie. They got their tickets and decided to walk around cracking pun jokes at Marshall’s across the street until the movie started. After the movie, they did not want to end the night quite yet so they decided to walk around Walmart for a bit. On the way out, Amanda checked out the flower display, didn’t see what she was looking for and continued out the door. Joseph leaned in and asked “oh, so you like receiving flowers?” She giggled, “Actually no, I hate receiving flowers... but there is one flower I would receive.” as she realized she said too much! “Well you see,” she began, “it’s a me and God thing so you’d have to seek Him to find out.” They continued to the car as he thought about it, “A God thing, huh? Challenged accepted.” Amanda then prayed and told God, “if this guy really is my Purple Rose, then You’ll tell him... I’ll leave that to You.”

A few dates in, Joseph and Amanda spent a date at a local Christmas musical to celebrate the holidays. On the way home, God was in the midst of something. Silence turned to prayer on the drive back to Milford in Joe’s car. As Amanda had Joe’s hand in her hand sitting on her lap, everything in her desiring to fiercely pray for Joe’s heart and revival. So she did, silently. By the time they reached her driveway, God was heavy in the car. Prayer turned into worship and it was in that 45 minute spontaneous worship moment in the car Amanda turned to look at Joe in authentic prayer and worship that she turned to God and prayed, “I’m not sure how this works... or even if this is allowed... but I give You permission, God, to tell Joe about the purple rose if You haven’t already.” She turned to look at Joe again and began worshipping and praying again, a few moments later she looked to Joe again in awe and said to God, “Him. I want HIM. I don’t know if there is ONE person that each of us are destined to be with or if we choose... but I choose this guy. I want him.”

By Christmas time and the end of 2019, Joe had met pretty much all of Amanda’s most important influences. She met his Teen Challenge family, he met her family and church family and by suprise, extended church family. He quickly learned how community-oriented she really is. December 15th in the church parking lot after service at The House of Praise For All People, Joe asked Amanda to be his girlfriend. She smilingly said yes and they went on a date to sushi and a movie. After the date, they returned to the church parking lot to drop Amanda off to her car and both go home. They shared a hug, and their first kiss. And an awkward one. But nonetheless it was their first kiss. Joe knew he was going to marry this girl.

As Joe and Amanda continued to get to know one another in their dating/courting relationship, they had hard questions to ask but found themselves growing closer to Father God for dependence. How grateful to see the fruit of God’s goodness send them right back to Him. Valentine’s Day came quickly and they were both eager to share it together. After work, Amanda went to Joe’s assuming they’d have a simple dinner and maybe watch a movie and she would go home. Instead, she was greeted with Joe proudly standing in the living room and walking her to the kitchen where he made a romantic chicken and shrimp alfredo dinner with candles, flower petals, and love. “I did what I could.”, he would say, as Amanda thanked him for the beautiful effort and thought. After dinner and a trip to the movies, where they realized they are too old to go to see a movie at 10:30pm, Amanda went home and returned the next day for lunch with her parents. As he got ready, she sat on his couch in waiting and glanced over to the end table to find a bouquet of purple roses. She lost her words and couldn’t piece together a sentence as she just looked at them. When Amanda saw the roses on the end table and Joe was ready to leave, she couldn’t wait to tell him the full story... and that she did.

Purple roses were something God showed Amanda in the middle of the night in October 2014. She woke up and felt prompted to pray for specific things. After some time she tunred over to sleep but when she closed her eyes, she saw this one delicate deeppurple rose and vibrant green stem laying horizonally on a black glass table with a black backdrop. She never saw flowers the way saw that before. She quickly propped up, grabbed her phone and googled the significance to a purple rose. The primary significance to purpleor lavendar roses are Enchantment, Majesty, Love at First Sight. In essence, if someone were hand you a purple rose, they are communicating “I have loved you from the beginning.” Amanda did understand why she was so excited about this. She asked God and He simply told her, “Your husband is a purple rose from Me to you, and you are a purple rose from Me to him... only you are more beautiful than a purple rose.” With that, purple roses became a symbol of God’s love toward her. Her future husband would her reminder of God’s passion for her, thats why she didnt directly tell Joe what flower on the date. Amanda didn’t see a real purple rose until April 2018 in the Walmart flower display case on a really emotional night. She kneeled in front of it and began crying, “God, You did this for me!” That night she asked God more about seeing it and He told her, “I’m going to blow your friggin’ mind.” By Fall 2018 Amanda whole life changed and all of her dreams began coming together. She leaned on God and stepped into her passions and zeal and she grew. She found herself pursuing her purpose, although wishing she had someone to share it with. Then November 2019 came and she met Joe.

By early March, the coronavirus made its way to America and the government began to shut things down. Amanda and Joe planned and still made a trip to New England to see friends and celebrate Joe’s birthday. It was one of the worst trips ever, between the country getting shut down and a list of things going wrong, they still made the best of it that they could. They returned to Delaware, Amanda was temporarily laid off and they spent almost every day together. Conversations of the future came up often, even before the shelter in place went into effect. Amanda was under the impression that Joe would propose in June or July of 2020. But then May 8th came along. Amanda spent the day facetiming students from her youth ministry. The last student of the day had some internet issues. In the midst of figuring this out, Joe texted her and said he was on his way to her house but noticed that something was wrong with his car so he pulled into their church parking lot, which he normally passes anyway. He asked if she could pick him up and take him into town to pick up oil for his car. She said yes and went over there. She pulled up to him, and even looked under the hood with him. He asked if she could help him and go into the right side backseat and grab a wrench. She went ahead. She opened the door and her first thought was, “those aren’t tools.” She stared into the backseat that was full of balloons, purple roses, and a large posterboard that read “Amanda, will you marry me?” She stammered in confusion and shock and surprise. She looked over to him as he stepped forward, he took a knee with passionate and emotional eyes and with a cracking voice asked, “Will you marry me.” Still in shock and with her mouth covered by her hands, she responded, “well yeaaahhhh!!...... so we’re like, fiancés now? What do we do now?!”