i don’t think i’ve ever written anywhere about how jay and i ended up together. so this may be a bit lengthy, but here we go…

i will start off our story saying that i had never really dated before jay. i waited it out..and waited, and waited. i gave my dating life over to the Lord and decided that when the time was right…when it was HIS time, He would bring someone into my life. some guys came and went but i still waited to see who the Lord had picked out for me. it was a huge lesson of patience.

after moving back home from texas in 2008, i decided that i would go to a christian university nearby in the fall. i moved into a dorm and classes started. there was one class, however, with a hippie-bearded-bandana-wearing tall guy. at first, i just noticed that he was extremely outgoing (opposite of me) and had my kind of style ;)

a few days into the class i accidentally (yes, accidentally…not meaning to…) sat by him for the day. he started talking about how wonderful it would be to raise a family on the mission field and i, on the other hand, was a little taken aback. anywhoo, we started talking more, writing notes…you know how it goes :) little did i know that he had planned to go to africa and skip that semester of school. i’m so glad those plans were changed.

the more i got to know him, the more i saw how gentle and kind-hearted he was. he truly loved the Lord, which i adored. there was something different about him than a lot of the other guys i seemed to run into. every time i went to meet him he had on a new western shirt and a different kind of bandana….and that was the sign! yes, he was the one. (haha, only kidding!)  by Christmas that year, after praying and asking for my dad’s approval for courtship, we we started dating. by late spring, we were happily engaged. i was planning on going to a tom’s shoes internship in california the following summer but that didn’t go through.

we were only engaged for six months and married in september. i am very thankful our engagement was short. i am also thankful that God gave me the grace to wait for the right guy even when there were times when waiting was hard. it was more than worth the wait.

so all of you lovely ladies out there, i promise you from the bottom of my heart that waiting to find the one whom you’ll one day marry is worth it. enjoy your singleness (if you are single) in this moment and one day, when the Lord sees fit, he will bring you your own hippie-bearded-bandana-wearing guy ;)

…and that is how our journey started.

love,
arielle