Answers to Prayers

It was now 15 months since we had officially broken up and the journal encompassed every end of the spectrum concerning our relationship. It took a week for Jesse to pick it up, but when he did, he read the entire thing in one sitting. He was completely moved by the amount of love that I expressed for him, even in the darkest times. He had never felt that much love from anyone before, not even his parents. He knew that the love that I had given him was a tangible picture of God’s unconditional love for him. He also knew that he couldn’t imagine his life without me. He had tried to deny it many times, but admitted that even when he didn’t want to be with me, he still knew we would ultimately end up together. When he sat down to talk to me about it all, he described all of this to me. Neither of us was sure what to do next, but we wanted to make sure that it was according to God’s will. So while we both knew that we would end up getting married at that moment, we knew that we needed time to wait and pray for direction. While I was so happy to be where we were, it was really difficult knowing how to define our relationship. We talked about the kind of house we wanted to live in someday and about our future family, etc. But I couldn’t hold his hand even though it brushed up against mine and I couldn’t call him my boyfriend or anything more. Fortunately, we got the green light to go forward with our relationship before too much longer. Jesse went to my brother first and got his permission to date me, since my brother is the primary male figure in my family. And then on January 5, 2008, he informed me that we could now be together. I say “informed” because it went a little something like this: “So, we’re going out now.” I laughed and told him that he better not propose to me like that (“So, we’re engaged now.”)!

A month later, Jesse had lunch with my mom and asked her for my hand in marriage. And on February 12, 2007, Jesse and I spent a beautiful day at the coast where he later got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I, of course, responded, “ABSOLUTELY!” (You don’t wait 2 years for someone and hesitate…!) The speech he gave was short and sweet, but was followed by a moment that has defined our marriage. After kisses and hugs and pictures, we sat upon a big boulder on the beach and lifted everything up to God. We asked Him to teach us how to love each other as God loves us. We surrendered all of the wedding planning to His hands, asking Him to be over every detail. We prayed that our relationship would be a testimony to all who see it, and that our love for each other would overflow to those around us.

Four and ½ months later, I celebrated the greatest answer to prayer that I’ve ever received by marrying the love of my life. The months that led up to this were filled with joy and excitement, and as I stood in that dressing room, I had a complete peace about every detail of the ceremony. As Jesse and the groomsmen stood out in the courtyard posing for photographs, I watched from a 2nd story window and gazed at the amazing gift God had given me down below.

When it was time to walk down the aisle, the chapel doors opened and Jesse’s face lit up. Those who were there describe this as one of their favorite moments. They could just tell how excited he was and how much he loved me. Every piece of the ceremony was scripted to tell the story of our love. We chose the songs specifically to describe our love for God and had them sung in the midst of the ceremony in a time of worship to Him. Our vows were picked because they specifically depicted our goals for our marriage. Our candles were lit by both of our parents to symbolize the roles they played in bringing us up. And we lit the unity candle with these candles during a slideshow of our childhood photos and the song “God Blessed the Broken Road”. Furthermore, the entire wedding party, band, and ushers were comprised completely of our youth group members. Each decision made to tell a little bit of who we are and what God has done in our relationship.


It began with God changing our hearts towards each other. Then He revealed a love that neither of us had ever experienced before. He allowed us to lose our relationship to engrain His love for us deeply on our hearts. Although in different ways, we each learned the depths of God’s love for us. And then He brought us back together, creating a union made to mirror His love to other people. Jesse and I believe wholeheartedly that our marriage should be a testimony to all who see it and hear its story. We take that calling seriously in the affection we show towards each other, the way we talk to each other, even the way we argue with each other. We know that God has put us in each other’s lives for a purpose greater than we can achieve on our own and, even more, greater than we could ever know. We look forward to seeing where God takes us on this journey and praise Him for all He has done and will do. This is a love story continually being written by God…