Daniel and I met in November of 2004. He had just come back from his last tour in Iraq and happened to be hanging out with some of my best friends. We met at a local restaurant while I was on an hour break from one of my college classes. He was sitting at the head of the table with two of my friends. I noticed he was a new face, said “Hi” and went on with my business.
We didn’t really connect instantly that night but three months later after he returned from Colombia, on my 22nd birthday, we started hanging out and that was the end of that.
We dated for a while but I didn’t think it was going anywhere because I felt that marriage just wasn’t in his vocabulary. It wasn’t until we went through a painful trial in our lives that we realized we were meant for one another, at least meant to help and encourage each other.
This past fourth of July, Daniel and I headed to our church to celebrate as we had done the past five years. He knew the ritual, go to service, and hang back with our fellow brothers and sisters as we acknowledge the people who fought for our freedom. Daniel asked me, “What’s the one thing you want the most?” I joked and told him money. Then I got real and said, honestly I have everything I could want at that point, great friends, supportive family and a wonderful church, and of course him.
I asked him what he wanted. He hesitated and looked up at the fireworks. Then I asked him again. This time he got down on one knee, told me that he wanted to make me happy and asked me to marry him. I told him, yes and “finally.” It was the most memorable night of my life.
Before our engagement, I actually began reading articles on Boundless about dating and marriage to find advice to share with one of my best girlfriends who seemed to have a difficulty in the dating scene. I came across the article series “Biblical Dating.” As I began reading, it got me thinking about my relationship with Daniel. I started sharing these with him and several of my friends. I suppose after reading them, Daniel was impacted by it because he made the decision to finally ask me to marry him. Many things began to change in our relationship, many amazing things.
One of the biggest changes since our engagement and even prior to the engagement was our attitude towards one another. In the past we had always been tempted to sin in sexual immorality, but as we started growing in our walk with Christ we learned to stay away from it. Sure sometimes it was difficult but we found other outlets to divert our attention away from it. We actually took up rock climbing and other outdoor activities.
In the beginning of the engagement he wanted to have a very, very lengthy engagement. After much prayer and counsel we realized having too long of an engagement was not the route we wanted to go and pushed our wedding date. We have been able to stay strong in it, not only because of our relationship with God, but because we have amazing brothers and sisters in Christ to help us.
Even though this is such a huge thing happening to us, I believe this wouldn’t have come if I wasn’t compelled to help a friend out. I love, love, love Boundless and Daniel and I enjoy the articles and blogs.
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