We are so blessed that you would stop by our Wedding website and are thankful to have each of you in our lives. God is so Good to bless His people with loving and faithful family and community both close by and all over the world! In this section of our website you can learn all about us, our upbringing/testimonies, and how God brought us together.
I grew up with very loving and charismatic parents who have always had a heart for God and His ways above all else. We were always extremely active in church but my parents also always made a point to teach their children in our home. I went to kindergarten but shortly after that season my mom was convicted to home-school her children after reading this scripture- "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up..." ~Deuteronomy 6:7 I was taught and raised to do everything in purity and in righteousness and to save myself in purity for my future husband. Jordan will be my first for every intimate thing. I have never kissed, held hands with, intimately hugged, or been with another man. Jordan Is and will be my first and only. When I was about 9 years of age my parents were introduced to the Hebrew roots of our christian faith. This basically supports the scriptures in the New Testament that speak of Yeshua (Jesus) not coming to abolish the Law but to fulfill.... this included an entire mindset change from thinking from a western culture mindset to an Israeli Jewish mindset; to take on the "mind of Christ." We began keeping Shabbat and the holidays detailed in the Bible and commanded by God to His people Israel and anyone who wished to join themselves to Him when I was between 10 and 12 year of age. It was a process of learning what would become our lifestyle. From an early age my parents would talk of the importance of Israel and instilled a love and passion for Israel and her people in my growing up years. In 2014 I made my first trip with my family of 9 and served in vineyards and olive groves in Judea and Samaria for 3 and a half months. My life was changed and I knew that Israel was as much my calling as breath is my life. Since that initial trip God has opened every door for me to be in the Land of Israel every year since 2015.
My parents have always been diligent in teaching us about the Lord and His ways. They raised my brother, sister, and I in a home filled with His Word and the stories of His love. While I was growing up I went to a Baptist Christian School and attended Sunday school, while also attending Synagogue on Saturdays. In my adolescent mind, I thought that everyone did this. Some of my greatest memories as a child are in Synagogues watching them with the giant Torah Scrolls. A key roll in my life was Tony Fadley who was the pastor of Whole Loaf Community Church. Whole Loaf would gather for Shabbat and have big potluck dinners with a teaching every Friday night. I still have these memories of Pastor Tony saying the blessing over the Challah bread and tearing it in half just as Yeshua's body was torn for us. Pastor Tony was the one who taught my brother and I during our Barmitvah process. Another huge piece of my life that everyone should know is that my mother had a dance ministry that would teach churches Hebraic Roots through big events with lots of dancing. She also founded the Sister City Program between Cocoa Florida and Beit Shemesh Israel. When I was about 6 years old I went to Israel for the first time and the Lord has brought me back again and again. So my whole life I was raised with this love for Israel and the importance of our Jewish roots because we are grafted in and without them there is no us. We are all part of this grand story, His story.
Our story begins in October of 2018 with me actively looking for more information on Bridges for Peaces' one year internship program in Israel. There wasn't enough information online for me at the time so I started friending Bridges for Peace staff and interns on Facebook. I hesitated for weeks to friend Jordan, but on October 29th, 2018 I did so, but not expecting for anything to come of it other than my ability to watch his posts and learn more about the internship program. Jordan almost immediately accepted my friend request and sent me a Facebook messenger message, "We haven't met, have we?" That message sent us into nine months of texting, emails, one phone call, and one FaceTime call before meeting in person on July 28th, 2019. We met early that morning in the Tel Aviv airport in Israel. I was no nervous as my brother Gregory and I took the train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv that morning but the second I saw Jordan in person I lost all nervousness. I gave him no heads up that we were on our way or even in the airport. I remember walking in and my brother pointing him out, "is that Jordan?" He had just bent down and was stretching touching his toes. When Jordan first saw me he hugged me and took a step back and I like to say that we had a mutual understanding in that moment, without uttering as much as a single word, that our worlds were destined to collide; our hearts were made for one another, we were simply one separated soul that had finally come back together. The immediate feeling was home.
On this day in Israel our tour group visited Ein Gedi, the oasis in the middle of the dessert where David of the Bible found refuge and hid from King Saul- 1 Samuel 23:29 and 24:1-2 We hiked up the mountain, through Indiana Jones like tunnels to reach the top waterfalls and found a nice place to sit, talk, and cool off in about three inch water with the waterfall just behind us. Later that day while on the bus Jordan told me that he knew he could never let me go. On that Ein Gedi trip he looked at me and says heard the song, That's Amore and that was it for him. Later that evening we found ourselves at a bedouin camp in the middle of the desert where we all set up our sleeping mats in a large bedouin tent, enjoyed the most amazing middle eastern feast also in a bedouin tent, and much later in the evening enjoyed a time of worship with our group. At the end of worship we were told to walk out into the dessert outside of the camp, either alone or with another person, and just have that experience with God and to soak in the magnificence of the vast wilderness we were in. Jordan asked me if I would join him and on our way out there talked about his experience alone in that same place two years prior. We walked out pretty far and found a spot among rocks to sit and pray together. This was the very first time that Jordan prayed over me and it was such an incredibly special experience. It was just the two of us with God in a wide open dessert underneath the brightest stares that light up the entire expanse. This was our "Ein Gedi Day" and the day we knew that there was no other option but to pursue forever.
Jordan returned home to the states a few days before I did and got straight to work at Re/Maxx Elite in Merritt Island FL. To say that I missed him and exploring the streets of Jerusalem together was a total understatement but there was so much to be done and at that point in time we had it in our brain that we would be betrothed in December and Married around Passover time frame....but God had another plan for us. Flying home from Israel I felt so many different emotions; I was leaving the Land that has my heart, my best friend (aka Gregory), and the man that I knew I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with was in another state. It wasn't too terribly long before Jordan was on a plane and headed to Jasper AL. I was delighted to finally have the opportunity to introduce him to my family. On that trip Jordan asked to marry me and dad said...no. The second time he visited we went on a group trip with my middle sisters to Arkansas for a friends wedding and had such a blast and beautiful time of bonding. After that road trip and just before Jordan boarded his flight to FL., on Oct. 22nd, 2019, Dad called and gave him his blessing to pursue me with the stipulation that he move to Jasper to be close so that dad could watch and get to know him. Jordan made one more trip to visit and I made one trip to meet his family before he moved to Jasper on January 30th, 2020. Jordan and I are both so blessed with the most amazing broker and real estate team around us and by their continual help and support. I've always heard from couples that you should experience all four seasons together before getting married....and while that's definitely not the way I was raised or the picture that I had in my mind, I believe that God knew it was exactly what we both needed. Since Jordans move to Jasper we have both experienced and walked though so much together and with our families. This season though long & hard has knitted us together so much tighter than we could have ever imagined.