How I Met My Hubby

For those of who never heard the story of how Daniel and I met-I'd thought it'd be fun to share. In light of our recent anniversary celebration, seems like the perfect occasion...

I was 15 years old. Daniel was 14 years old. (I know, we were young) I was just entering my sophomore year of high school, while Daniel was entering his freshman year. My friend and I decided to attend our church's high school youth group on a Tuesday night. It was a really neat night of worship and fellowship. They decided to make it an open night mic that night, in which anyone who felt led to talk could speak. Well Daniel got up there and was sharing his beautiful heart for the Lord. I thought he was the cutest thing. He had this bowlcut type haircut (not as bad as it sounds haha), full set of braces, and a cast on his right arm. But I remember thinking he was so handsome. But it wasn't so much that I was drawn to his appearance; I was honestly drawn to his heart. Even at the young age of 15, I was enticed by his love for the Lord. I leaned over and told my friend Elise that night (in which she would vouch for) that I; in my exact words; "was going to marry that guy one day". I mean, at 15, I honestly wasn't thinking marriage, but I saw a quality in Daniel that I absolutely loved and was completely drawn to. It was the fact that he was so on fire for Jesus! I remember thinking how rare and beautiful it was to see that kind of passion in such a young guy.

As time passed, we would see each other at church and slowly began to build a friendship. I still remember the day he came to church after he got his braces off, I couldn't stop staring at his gorgeous smile! To be honest, I don't think I paid too much attention to the study that night because I couldn't keep my eyes off him. We later exchanged phone numbers and really began to start 'liking' each other. We both had never had a boyfriend or girlfriend before and decided we really just wanted to be good friends before 'titling' ourselves as anything other. We truly began to become best friends; constantly encouraging eachother in our walks with Christ. Even though we both began to develop stronger feelings for eachother, we decided instead of telling them to each other that we would write down the things we felt on paper, put it in an envelope and give it to each other at the time we felt it was right to do so. Looking back, even at such a young age, I see so much maturity that we had in our friendship and then later into our relationship. The Lord was truly at work in our hearts and was preparing our hearts for each other. During this time we decided to put all feelings aside, we made up this rule for ourselves called the 'No Touch Rule'. Which was a basic promise to each other and to the Lord that we would not get distracted by our feelings for each other and solely focus on Jesus. We decided we would not hold hands, hug, or kiss at all and really just be encouragers to each other. It honestly was one of the neatest times in our friendship/relationship. During this time is when we both actually discovered that we were truly in love each other. We both felt that strongly revealed to each other at distinct different moments.

During this time we were both 16 years old... I know it sounds young and sounds crazy to think two 16 year olds can really know what love was, but we really did. I still remember the night that Daniel told me he loved me. It was March of 2005, I was dropping him off at home (yes, I got my license before him, so sadly I was doing all the driving-but he made up for it)..Well like I was saying, I was dropping him off at home. And before he got out of the car he told me that there was something he wanted to tell me. (Reminder:this also was during the time of our 'No Touch Rule' so we hadn't been really having any physical contact). He then grabbed my hand and began to tell me that he was in love with me and that he knew that this was true pure love because our relationship was built on the Lord and that God is true love and the creator of love. It was soooo sweet! He then leaned in and kissed me and it was amazing!! I remember after he got out of the car, that I screamed with excitement and began to call my girl friends up to share in my excitement!

We officially became boyfriend and girlfriend June 23,2005 and the rest is history! Ha ha. I think that pretty much sums it up. I feel so blessed. Looking back, I really just see how the Lord was apart of it all and orchestrated everything perfectly into place in His timing. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd be in love and married at 19, but I can only praise and give God all the glory for that!