How We Met
The story of our love is beautiful, unique, and melts my heart every time I think about it. I remember meeting Jordan like it was yesterday. We met in a pretty unconventional way, he was my “stalker”, well not really, but we joke about it that way now. Jordan’s friend had moved from San Jose to Phoenix and ended up going to the same church and college that I was attending. When I met his friend, he would post pictures of the young adult group we both attended and Jordan just so happened to see a picture of me pop up on his social media feed and asked his friend about me, claiming that he would meet me someday and hoped to make that girl (myself) his girlfriend, and eventually his wife. His friend ended up laughing and told him to “get in line” thinking he was ridiculous for trying to land me as his girl. This led Jordan in April of 2014 to follow me on ALL social media sites and to message me on my music page, he was my biggest fan, but I didn’t see it at the time. At first, I can’t lie, I totally thought he was creepy. I mean, who wouldn’t? That’s a little out of left field to fall for someone who doesn’t even know you! I remember telling my sister and a friend, “who is this guy and why does he keep liking my photos?” but for some reason, I just let it be, did not respond back, and thought it would amount to nothing, with me never even crossing paths with him. Looking back now, I can’t even imagine what would have happened if we never met. That all changed August 24th, 2014 when he showed up on a Sunday morning at my church. I attend a HUGE church and what are the odds he would be there with our mutual friend, sitting literally a few rows behind me! I remember leaning over to my sister and telling her, “lets just act like nothing ever happened and introduce ourselves as normal”. Well, after service I went up to them to say hello and the next thing that came out of my mouth was “can I give you a tour of the church”. WHAT? We go to literally a mega church of 13,000+ on a weekend and I offered to give him a tour of our campus grounds. I must have been out of my mind. “Why did I just ask him if he wanted a tour?” I thought to myself. Well, the tour ended up being 40 mins long, and I wasn’t sure why, but something about him (although I swear I didn’t like him at the time) really caught my attention. I wanted to know him. I wanted to spend time around him. I wanted to be friends with him.
At the time, both Jordan and I had come out of pretty bad relationships in the past, we had both been very hurt and very scarred by our experiences. However, I have no doubts in my mind all the hurt and pain we walked through, led us to find each other and to fall in love, and become stronger together in Christ. While he never stopped liking me, after much prayer on his part (I still didn’t like him…so I thought), he decided he was supposed to be my friend, and not try to win me over, but just be a good friend to me. We shared the same friend group and we both started going to the same college so we were bound to see each other often. Well we did, we saw each other a few times a week and from there our friendship flourished. He encouraged me, like he did everyone else and I began to fall for him, his heart for others, and his love for Jesus. He stood up for me, had my back, and he stood out among the rest of everyone I knew, I just didn’t know why. I saw that the Jordan I made up in my mind as the “Facebook mega fan” or “creep” was not the Jordan at all that he was, he was kind, compassionate, caring, sensitive, strong, funny, real, and an amazing man. We began to talk more and more, and obviously (because he never stoping liking me), we began to spend more and more time together. Come October 2014, we started to pursue one another. I knew in that moment I was walking into something far different than I had experienced before. We spend the following 6 months, just getting to know each other as friends, before he asked me to be his girlfriend in March of 2015. Those six months from October 2014- March2015 were such a learning experience because I got to know Jordan, his personality, and everything about him. We both got to know each other and we fell truly for each other. I longed to be his, and I know he longed to be mine (after all, he knew all along). Come that day in March 5th, 2015 Jordan took me hiking up a mountain and blindfolded me, lighting candles all around the mountain and asked me to be his girlfriend, dedicated Haggai 1:8 to our relationship, about going down the mountain and building a life together that would honor God.
I remember asking my mom, “how do you know who you are supposed to spend the rest of your life with” and she would always respond, “you just know when you know”. Well I look back now and know she was so right. I remember calling my mom as I was driving one day, and in tears I told her, “Mom, I know its Jordan, he’s the one”. I just knew in that moment I didn’t have to look any longer, I wanted to be with him, always and forever. Well, he wanted the same and our relationship only grew from there. Moving into the summer it was amazing, and beautiful. We had the best summer ever and got ready start our senior year of college together. We had ups and downs and as I battled a series of health issues, he was my biggest support, my best friend, and truly there for me in sickness and in health. I look back now and I am so thankful for my health and for my sweet man being my support and leading me time after time, and helping to always push me and build my faith in the Lord. I am so thankful for health, life, and for the blessing I have in Jordan. He is more than I ever dreamed. Our love truly is beautiful and I can’t believe I get to love him forever.
how they asked
Jordan asked me to Marry Him just two days after we graduated college! . We had planned for both my family and his to take a trip to San Diego to celebrate our graduation together. Well, little did I know he had been planning to celebrate our engagement that trip as well. Sunday, April 24th he told me he had planned an “all day date” to celebrate our graduation. We started the day out at Hotel Del Coronado with a delicious breakfast (it was probably the best i’ve ever had) and from there he told me he had a reservation for something after breakfast. I kept wondering why he was making so many “reservations” for our day date, I totally assumed it would be a casual day date, doing whatever we decided the day of. After breakfast he took me on a gondola ride (w/ a real gondola all the way from Venice, Italy!) that was right in Coronado. After the gondola ride, Jordan told me he had yet another reservation for something I had never done before. As we drove to the next place I looked to the right of me and saw horses, he had planned a horse back ride along the Beach! After that, he told me to change into something nice for dinner he had planned. Once we got back into Coronado, he parked the car and told me “I have a confession”. He proceeded to tell me we were not going to dinner, but actually having a dinner picnic on the beach with a picnic basket he had packed with our favorite foods. We got down to the beach and ran into the waves crashing up against us. We started running because we were soaked from the knee down and started laughing. He found a spot and said, “this is the spot for the picnic”. Once we got there he told me to wait while he grabbed something, reached into the picnic basket for a blindfold, blindfolded me, telling me not to peek, and sprinkled rose petals all around me on the beach sand. Taking off my jacket and then my blindfold he asked me to be his wife, got down on his knee and proposed. I said “yes, yes, of course yes” and both of us were so emotional and so excited about what just happened and the fact we get to spend forever together! He spun me around and I saw he had even gone to the work of hiring a “secret photographer”. The pictures capture the moment perfectly and I can’t wait for be his wife forever, to love him forever, and to be married to the most incredible man I have ever met. xoxo here’s to the best day ever thus far!
