Our Love Story Told {Part One: Meeting Him}

I love a good love story.  It’s fascinating to hear how couples met and ended up married.  I love hearing people’s stories, but especially their love stories.  Let’s face it, marriage is hard at times, but it’s important to look back at how it all got started.

With that, I thought it was time I wrote out and published my own love story.  Perhaps you will find it silly, entertaining, or maybe you will be encouraged in some way.  Who knows?  Since this is personal, there’s always a bit of nervousness with putting it out there for the world to read.

But, if for no other reason, I want my love story to be told for my children.  I want them to know that despite the ups and downs we will face, we made a commitment years ago.  And our commitment was based on prayer, thought, and faith.  We don’t have this whole marriage thing down yet, but we are committed.  I want them to see where and how it all began.  I hope they see that God was in it from the very start.

But, before I dive into how it all started with Kev and I, let me set the stage a bit.

My parents wouldn’t let me date until I was 16.  It wasn’t a big deal to me because I didn’t have guys beating down my door or anything.  It just so happened that before my 16th birthday, I met a guy while participating in the high school musical.  I was a sophomore year and we ended up dating for 2 years.  He was the best first boyfriend a girl could ask for, but I broke up with him.  He did nothing to deserve it and I was a silly girl at the time.

A few months later, I casually dated another guy who went to my church, but that relationship was short-lived and was no comparison to my first relationship.  I was the “dumpee” this time.  But, there’s no need to re-hash all that.  🙂

I was single during my first two years of college.  Those years were great and had a total blast, but there were moments where my insecurities crept in.  I had some guy friends, but none that I would consider close.  And none that had expressed any interest in a romantic relationship.  Overall, that was okay with me and I enjoyed taking some time off from dating, but there were times when I hated having to figure out what guy friend to invite to my sorority dances.  And as other friends started dating, there were moments of loneliness and wondering why no one found me worthy of at least initiating a first date.

During the second semester of my sophomore year, I felt like it would be fun to work in youth ministry during the summer.  After lots of prayer, I landed an internship at home in Baltimore with Youth for Christ, a para-church organization for middle and high school students.  I was excited to focus my efforts on ministry for an entire summer.

My summer internship with YFC was fantastic.  I met lots of ministry leaders, students, and got my feet wet in a couple different ministry settings.  Towards the middle of the summer, I joined my old youth minister and his students for a week-long youth camp located in Western Maryland.  I had attended the camp  numerous times as a student and was excited to chaperone with such great people.  My youth pastor and his wife were a huge part of my spiritual growth as a student and a lot of fun as well.

It was at this camp that I met Kev.  He was serving as an interim youth pastor for a church in Delaware and he happened to be at the same camp during the same week I was there.  We officially met during one of the morning Bible studies for youth leaders.  During our Bible study time early in the week, we were asked to break up into groups with the people sitting near us.  Kev happened to be sitting right in front of us, so he ended up in our group.  I honestly don’t recall much about our official “meeting,” but I do remember the smiles I received from my youth minister and his wife after our Bible study was over.  Apparently, they saw or sensed his interest from the start.

The rest of the week consisted of awkward chit chat.  We both spent the majority of our time with our own students, and I was always way too nervous to initiate any sort of meaningful conversation.  My youth minister happened to be rooming near Kev in the guy’s cabin, so he did his best to screen him for me.  On the very last night of camp, in a very awkward conversation, he asked me for my email address.

Email was safe and harmless, so I obliged.  I came home from camp and immediately told my mother about him, even though he was still practically a stranger.  I told her I would probably never hear from him again since he was still in college  in Mississippi, but at least wanted her to know {especially since he was 5 years older than me}.