It all began about 20 years ago (I know...we can't believe it either) when we met for the very first time at Camp Sonshine! We both worked at Camp, Sparkle as a counselor and Nathean as one of the directors. I (Sparkle) will admit that I thought Nathean was cute (and that his British accent was to DIE for), but at the time, neither one of us ever would have imagined being anything other than camp colleagues. We got to know each other in a working capacity over a couple summers, but were never terribly close. Sparkle left camp and moved to California for the next 15 years while Nathean continued living and working in Maryland. So much happened during those 15 years! We both got married (although not to each other), we each had kids, and then we each got divorced. From our perspective, that would have been the end of the story, but one day Nathean messaged me and our road to forever began! It's so amazing to see how God works. Neither one of us, or anyone who knows us, ever would have imagined in a million years, that the two of us would meet, fall in love, and get married.

People who know us will tell you without hesitation or reservation that Nathean LOVES soccer and Sparkle LOVES football. Being from England, it isn't surprising that Nathean loves soccer. His favorite team is Arsenal. He's been playing since he was young, in his spare time he's a soccer coach, and currently his full time job is as the Director of Operations for the Maryland Youth SOCCER Association. Fortunately, for Sparkle, he loves a variety of sports, including football, and grew up as a San Francisco 49ers fan! Football is Sparkle's favorite sport and has been since she was a little girl watching games with her dad. During the fall, Sparkle's Facebook page is covered in a live and running commentary on her favorite college football team (Stanford Cardinal, of course!). She loves college football, the NFL, and even enjoys some light touch football with the fam on occasion. Sparkle knows NOTHING about soccer. Despite significant ignorance in regards to the game of soccer, Sparkle enjoys watching World Cup matches and it just so happens that in the summer of 2018, the World Cup returned! In true football fashion, Sparkle began live blogging her thoughts and comments on some of the games she was watching. Nathean saw some of her posts and began commenting on them! After 15 years of little to no interaction, we started talking about soccer (Nathean ended up doing a LOT of explaining of soccer basics, but using football analogies helped a lot!) and it reopened doors of communication. The two of us had never really spent that much time talking to each other, especially not one on one, and even though all of these conversations were through chat, an actual friendship between the two of us really started to develop.

By Aug 2018, Sparkle had gotten a job offer in Maryland and decided to move back home. By this time, Sparkle and Nathean had developed a great friendship via chat but realized there were some things that you just had to talk about in person. Once Sparkle had gotten settled in Maryland, the two decided to go out for dinner to catch up. It was supposed to just be dinner. Nathean made all the arrangements. He got them reservations at the Stanford Grille and met Sparkle there after he got off of work. They talked for hours. And still had tons to say. When they finally looked up, they were one of the last two tables in the entire restaurant. Nathean suggested they should do this again...the next week. A week later, they met at a different restaurant for dinner. Once again, the hours flew by! By the end of the night, Nathean suggested they should make their dinners a weekly occurrence! The rest, is history!

I had such a great time the first night I went to dinner with Nathean. I had been worried we would fall into those awkward silences with nothing to talk about, but we talked so much we barely remembered to order and eat! Lol. I honestly went to dinner thinking we would just be the friends who did the obligatory “you’re back in town” get together and then move on with life. But, by the time dinner was over, I realized I actually wanted to spend time with him again! Nathean is the most pleasant surprise God has ever given me. If you had asked me the night of our first dinner if I ever would have thought we would date, much less get married, I would not have even been able to imagine it. But I’m so glad God can give us more than we ask or even imagine! There isn’t a day that goes by where Nathean doesn’t demonstrate his love for me in some tangible way. He is smart and funny. He loves the Lord with his whole heart and is such a passionate worshipper. He is always there for me with a word of encouragement and loves the girls like they are his own. He even manages to survive my hangry moments with grace and patience! I can’t imagine doing life without him and can’t wait to start forever with him!

Needless to say, I'm in shock on a daily basis that Sparkle and I will be spending our forevers together. When I look back to our time at camp I never would have imagined marrying one of the "locals", that crazy bunch of camp counselors that we would corral on a weekly basis for pizza and discussions of "ummm, not too much frequently!" Like a fine wine, Sparkle only gets better with each passing day. There isn't a day that goes by that I’m not dazzled by how smart and intelligent she is; how the grace of the Lord keeps her during the most crazy of times. There have been and continue to be so many incredibly difficult challenges thrown her way and I can only stand back and admire the fact that she is still standing strong, still passionately pursuing the Lord, still finding the energy to be a stellar mother to her two wonderful, energetic daughters, and a soon to be step-son! How she manages to accomplish so much on a given day, constantly keeps me amazed. She loves and pursues me like no other person, constantly looking for ways to show me how much she cherishes me and our relationship! I feel so special! They often say that the Lord leaves the best for last and on this occasion, by jove, I think he's gone and done it again! My "latter" will surely be greater than my "former" because Sparkle is in my life!