Wow! That is one of the many words that comes to mind when we think about our relationship and how far we have come together. Awesome is a favorite too. To think it all started when Marie forced me to go to her friend Anna's choir concert and then on the way home would not stop talking about other guys until I finally asked her if she had a thing for me. Way to make the first move bro. Anyway, after that Marie proceeded to answer the question with an answer of "If you asked me out I wouldn't say no." Leaving me not finding out any information about my question but also thinking that her answer basically means yes. The drive continued and I finally mustard up the courage to tell Marie my true feelings and then Marie told the whole truth at that point. From then we were freaking out about if we should date or if the time was not right. While discussing that we came to the interstate exit close to my parents house so we decided to pull over into a CVS parking lot so we wouldn't be having this conversation in the drive way of my parents house. We forgot to mention that it was around 11 o'clock at night so we were the only car in the parking lot. We were talking about our plan to pray about us and ask our disciplers if they thought we were ready for a relationship and then BOOM police lights light up the parking lot and a police car pulls up to the car and asks if everything was okay. Everything was but it was pretty scary. We then parted ways to enact our plan. Marie had talked to her disciplers, Liz and Brooke, and I went to my discipler, Matts, wedding thinking he would wait like a week to talk to him. But God had other plans, when I told Matt that they should talk after he gets back from his honeymoon Matt took me aside on his own wedding to talk to me. #RealDiscipleship After that night Marie and I began our journey to knowing each other more and God more through our relationship.

I would like to tell you the story of when I broke up with Christopher. 1 week into dating Chris said out of nowhere, "I'm in love with you." to which I responded "I look forward to feeling that way about you one day." 3 months later I broke up with him. Long story short I was so scared and I didn't trust that what Chris said to me was true and I didn't trust God with my future. After our break up I was devastated and more heart broken than I had ever been. I continued to talk to Chris every day and he would tell me things like "God is in control" and "I know this is really hard for both of us but God is still good and we can trust Him and the work He is doing in us." After a week of feeling upset and confused Chris gave me an ultimatum, I either needed to come to terms with our breakup or I needed to really commit to us being together... I think you know which one I chose. It took Chris giving me an ultimatum before I realized that I wanted perfection and the promise of a future with no pain or difficulties, when what God wanted was for us to help each other become more like Him, which is sometimes painful and difficult. God made it clear that I didn't need to be with Chris, but that being in a relationship with someone who truly loves God was a gift, if I wanted it. Through 3 really difficult months God exposed so much of where my trust was and where I was finding my identity, imagine what He can do with the rest of our lives. Every day with Chris I'm reminded of our humanity and our flaws but I'm also reminded of the goodness of God and the promise of a future filled with growth. The fact that I get to build that future with a loving, fun, kind, talented, passionate, handsome and wonderful man is proof that God gives us things we don't deserve because He loves us.