Yes, I am jumping on the bandwagon!!!
Kelly...over at Kelly's Korner has been hosting a "Show Us Your Life" Friday for quite a while now. I always enjoy reading everyone's posts but have never joined the party myself. Well this week was one that I just couldn't pass up and I thought it would be a great place to jump on board. Why?
Well, because this week is about one of my very most favorite things ever.
What is the topic, you ask?
"How you met your husband."
And yes, that means that my sweet husband, Kyle, is one of my very most favorite things ever!! And I love the story that God gave us....
This is Kyle and me at our wedding rehearsal dinner.
I couldn't help but choose a fun picture because our story is so much fun.
So you ready for the story?
I will back up just a bit but here it goes....
I'm in the second or third grade and attending G.A. camp with my church. I remember plainly my Mrs. Nancy telling all us girls one night while we were settling down for bed how important that is was that we start praying for our husbands. So, that's what I did, I started praying for my husband. You'd think that since I started praying so early that I would be well prepared by the time I turned 18 to meet and marry the man of my dreams. Not so much!
Junior High came and went...no man of my dreams.
High School came and went....no man of my dreams.
Don't get me wrong, lots of great guys who were great friends, but just not the guy for me.
But that is okay because I am heading to Ouachita Baptist University for college in the fall of 1995 and I just know I will find "him" there. Seriously, lots of available Christian guys and after all the school motto is "Ring by spring or your money back!" Ha!
Well, it was true...partly anyway, lots of available Christian guys. And they made for amazing friends whom I cherish to this day. However, the motto did not hold true for me, there was no ring on my finger by that spring....nor by the next spring, nor the next, nor the next.
God still had not brought him into my life.
But what God did do in those four years at OBU was completely change my heart and perspective on the matter. I learned that I hadn't come to Ouachita to find a man but to grow closer to the Lord. God taught me early my freshman year that I needed to quit looking.
Specifically He took me to a verse in Proverbs and pointed out to me that it wasn't my job to be on the hunt.
It says in Pro 18:22 "The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD. "
So I quit looking! And life was good. I still kept praying for the man of my dreams, that he would be looking and that he would find me, and that I would be a treasure when he found me.
I graduated from Ouachita in December 0f 1999 a single woman.
Taught a semester of science in Texarkana, Arkansas. The man of my dreams did not find me.
I wanted to keep him looking hard so I moved to northwest Arkansas where I taught for another two years. I loved living there and really enjoyed the school where I taught but for some reason I really felt like God was calling me to a new place. Maybe God was wanting to keep this "treasure hunt" interesting for the man of my dreams! ha!
What exactly did I feel like I was supposed to do?
Go to medical school!
Yeah, crazy, I know, but that is what I started pursuing.
I told God that I was willing to do whatever He wanted me to do and go wherever He wanted me to go. I was all in! All His and ready for it to be me and Him only...forever. Maybe there was no man of my dreams. And I was COMPLETELY okay with that for the first time ever. And completely ready to do anything and everything that God had in store for my life.
What did that mean for me?
Well, first that meant a move to Holly Springs, MS to be a nanny for a family with two children. I had other options...cool options like Greenwich, CT and NYC. But I really felt like God was telling me to pick Mississippi. Crazy, I know. As a part of the nanny gig the family paid my tuition at Ole Miss where I finished up the one class I needed as a prerequisite for medical school. I fell in love with the family and became a part of the family myself. I applied for medical school. And I waited to see what would happen.
In the mean time, some of my very best friends from college moved to West Memphis, AR.
I had the weekend off from my nanny job and had no where in Holly Springs to go nor any friends there with whom to hang out. West Memphis was only about 50 minutes away so I spent the weekends with my best college buds, the Carozzas. Marc was in optometry school and so he studied a lot and Ashley and I got to have lots of fun together. One of the fun things that I got to do with them on the weekends was go to church. At first we had fun visiting different churches trying to find the right "fit" for them. You see, it was church for them because they lived there...I was just tagging along for fun.
Now, pay close attention here, it gets good.
One particular Sunday morning we went to a church that another friend from college told us we might want to check out. We went, the people were super friendly and we even met a guy that was about our age who was pretty cool. Then as we finished the singing and the preacher came up to preach, we realize the cool guy about our age was actually the pastor. Young preacher man, cool. On our way to the car, my friend Ashley leans over to me and says in my ear, "hey, did you notice that the preacher man wasn't wearing a ring?" I rolled my eyes at her and just said "Ashley....I don't live here remember, and I'm planning on going to medical school." To which she replied, "I know, I know." And that was the end of it.
Marc and Ashley did end up at that church with the cool young pastor guy. And I went to church with them almost every weekend. We all became great friends. And I got accepted to medical school. Took the summer off before medical school and just played with my friends in West Memphis, including the cool preacher guy, and took a mission trip to the Amazon.
I had whispers from some here and there about the preacher guy but my mind was still set on medical school. Remember, me and God only forever...whatever He wanted me to do.
In the Fall of 2006 I moved to Little Rock, AR to live with my sweet sister and started medical school. The second week of school I got a phone call from the cool preacher guy and he said that he had to come to Little Rock a couple of weeks later and wanted to know if I'd like to get together for dinner. "Sure," I said. I always enjoyed a chance to hang out with my friends.
Then I asked, "Why do you have to come to Little Rock?" And his response, "I need to see you."
WHAT?????
Totally caught me off guard.
So we had our first date and it was great.....but I was confused.
God? What about me and You only forever??? What about me just doing whatever you want me to do for the rest of my life???
God, I don't know what to do with all of this!
And so we kept dating and I kept studying and I did lots of praying.
Then one night God and I had a very serious conversation where God was the one asking the questions. It went something like this.
Me: God, what do you want me to do?
God: What do you want to do?
Me: I want to do whatever you want me to do. What do you want me to do?
God: What do you want to do?
Me: I want you to tell me what to do.
God: What do you want to do?
Me: God, I just want to please you, I want to obey you, I want to do whatever you tell me to do.
God then brought a verse of scripture to my heart.
Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart's desires.
God: What are your heart's desires?
Me: God, you know I've always wanted to be a wife and mother. But, I've given up that desire.
God: I'm ready to give it back to you. You have learned to delight in Me in every situation and place I have put you and now it's time for you to have your heart's desires.
It was at that point that I knew I was done with medical school. I retired early (I prefer that terminology...quit just sounds like a term of failure and I wasn't failing) from medical school. The cool preacher guy and I continued dating and we were engaged four months later. Eleven weeks after that we were married. Crazy, I know. That was fast. But when God puts the pieces together and says go for it....why wait? Besides, we had both been waiting a really long time on the other end of this deal.
So, here we are six years later....cool preacher guy and cool preacher guy's wife! What an amazing six years! I love getting to be married to one of my most very favorite things ever!! Oh, and he is one amazing Daddy, too. See, God dumped on me my heart's desires...wife and mommy. I am extremely blessed beyond measure. I am so thankful that God told me my freshman year of college to "quit looking" and let him find me. And I am so thankful that Kyle didn't quit searching before he found me!
Oh, you wanted the quick version.
Okay: Seven years ago I was spending the weekend with some friends in West Memphis. I went to church with them on Sunday morning and met a preacher named Kyle. Turned out he was single and I married the preacher!
Kelly...over at Kelly's Korner has been hosting a "Show Us Your Life" Friday for quite a while now. I always enjoy reading everyone's posts but have never joined the party myself. Well this week was one that I just couldn't pass up and I thought it would be a great place to jump on board. Why?
Well, because this week is about one of my very most favorite things ever.
What is the topic, you ask?
"How you met your husband."
And yes, that means that my sweet husband, Kyle, is one of my very most favorite things ever!! And I love the story that God gave us....
This is Kyle and me at our wedding rehearsal dinner.
I couldn't help but choose a fun picture because our story is so much fun.
So you ready for the story?
I will back up just a bit but here it goes....
I'm in the second or third grade and attending G.A. camp with my church. I remember plainly my Mrs. Nancy telling all us girls one night while we were settling down for bed how important that is was that we start praying for our husbands. So, that's what I did, I started praying for my husband. You'd think that since I started praying so early that I would be well prepared by the time I turned 18 to meet and marry the man of my dreams. Not so much!
Junior High came and went...no man of my dreams.
High School came and went....no man of my dreams.
Don't get me wrong, lots of great guys who were great friends, but just not the guy for me.
But that is okay because I am heading to Ouachita Baptist University for college in the fall of 1995 and I just know I will find "him" there. Seriously, lots of available Christian guys and after all the school motto is "Ring by spring or your money back!" Ha!
Well, it was true...partly anyway, lots of available Christian guys. And they made for amazing friends whom I cherish to this day. However, the motto did not hold true for me, there was no ring on my finger by that spring....nor by the next spring, nor the next, nor the next.
God still had not brought him into my life.
But what God did do in those four years at OBU was completely change my heart and perspective on the matter. I learned that I hadn't come to Ouachita to find a man but to grow closer to the Lord. God taught me early my freshman year that I needed to quit looking.
Specifically He took me to a verse in Proverbs and pointed out to me that it wasn't my job to be on the hunt.
It says in Pro 18:22 "The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD. "
So I quit looking! And life was good. I still kept praying for the man of my dreams, that he would be looking and that he would find me, and that I would be a treasure when he found me.
I graduated from Ouachita in December 0f 1999 a single woman.
Taught a semester of science in Texarkana, Arkansas. The man of my dreams did not find me.
I wanted to keep him looking hard so I moved to northwest Arkansas where I taught for another two years. I loved living there and really enjoyed the school where I taught but for some reason I really felt like God was calling me to a new place. Maybe God was wanting to keep this "treasure hunt" interesting for the man of my dreams! ha!
What exactly did I feel like I was supposed to do?
Go to medical school!
Yeah, crazy, I know, but that is what I started pursuing.
I told God that I was willing to do whatever He wanted me to do and go wherever He wanted me to go. I was all in! All His and ready for it to be me and Him only...forever. Maybe there was no man of my dreams. And I was COMPLETELY okay with that for the first time ever. And completely ready to do anything and everything that God had in store for my life.
What did that mean for me?
Well, first that meant a move to Holly Springs, MS to be a nanny for a family with two children. I had other options...cool options like Greenwich, CT and NYC. But I really felt like God was telling me to pick Mississippi. Crazy, I know. As a part of the nanny gig the family paid my tuition at Ole Miss where I finished up the one class I needed as a prerequisite for medical school. I fell in love with the family and became a part of the family myself. I applied for medical school. And I waited to see what would happen.
In the mean time, some of my very best friends from college moved to West Memphis, AR.
I had the weekend off from my nanny job and had no where in Holly Springs to go nor any friends there with whom to hang out. West Memphis was only about 50 minutes away so I spent the weekends with my best college buds, the Carozzas. Marc was in optometry school and so he studied a lot and Ashley and I got to have lots of fun together. One of the fun things that I got to do with them on the weekends was go to church. At first we had fun visiting different churches trying to find the right "fit" for them. You see, it was church for them because they lived there...I was just tagging along for fun.
Now, pay close attention here, it gets good.
One particular Sunday morning we went to a church that another friend from college told us we might want to check out. We went, the people were super friendly and we even met a guy that was about our age who was pretty cool. Then as we finished the singing and the preacher came up to preach, we realize the cool guy about our age was actually the pastor. Young preacher man, cool. On our way to the car, my friend Ashley leans over to me and says in my ear, "hey, did you notice that the preacher man wasn't wearing a ring?" I rolled my eyes at her and just said "Ashley....I don't live here remember, and I'm planning on going to medical school." To which she replied, "I know, I know." And that was the end of it.
Marc and Ashley did end up at that church with the cool young pastor guy. And I went to church with them almost every weekend. We all became great friends. And I got accepted to medical school. Took the summer off before medical school and just played with my friends in West Memphis, including the cool preacher guy, and took a mission trip to the Amazon.
I had whispers from some here and there about the preacher guy but my mind was still set on medical school. Remember, me and God only forever...whatever He wanted me to do.
In the Fall of 2006 I moved to Little Rock, AR to live with my sweet sister and started medical school. The second week of school I got a phone call from the cool preacher guy and he said that he had to come to Little Rock a couple of weeks later and wanted to know if I'd like to get together for dinner. "Sure," I said. I always enjoyed a chance to hang out with my friends.
Then I asked, "Why do you have to come to Little Rock?" And his response, "I need to see you."
WHAT?????
Totally caught me off guard.
So we had our first date and it was great.....but I was confused.
God? What about me and You only forever??? What about me just doing whatever you want me to do for the rest of my life???
God, I don't know what to do with all of this!
And so we kept dating and I kept studying and I did lots of praying.
Then one night God and I had a very serious conversation where God was the one asking the questions. It went something like this.
Me: God, what do you want me to do?
God: What do you want to do?
Me: I want to do whatever you want me to do. What do you want me to do?
God: What do you want to do?
Me: I want you to tell me what to do.
God: What do you want to do?
Me: God, I just want to please you, I want to obey you, I want to do whatever you tell me to do.
God then brought a verse of scripture to my heart.
Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart's desires.
God: What are your heart's desires?
Me: God, you know I've always wanted to be a wife and mother. But, I've given up that desire.
God: I'm ready to give it back to you. You have learned to delight in Me in every situation and place I have put you and now it's time for you to have your heart's desires.
It was at that point that I knew I was done with medical school. I retired early (I prefer that terminology...quit just sounds like a term of failure and I wasn't failing) from medical school. The cool preacher guy and I continued dating and we were engaged four months later. Eleven weeks after that we were married. Crazy, I know. That was fast. But when God puts the pieces together and says go for it....why wait? Besides, we had both been waiting a really long time on the other end of this deal.
So, here we are six years later....cool preacher guy and cool preacher guy's wife! What an amazing six years! I love getting to be married to one of my most very favorite things ever!! Oh, and he is one amazing Daddy, too. See, God dumped on me my heart's desires...wife and mommy. I am extremely blessed beyond measure. I am so thankful that God told me my freshman year of college to "quit looking" and let him find me. And I am so thankful that Kyle didn't quit searching before he found me!
Oh, you wanted the quick version.
Okay: Seven years ago I was spending the weekend with some friends in West Memphis. I went to church with them on Sunday morning and met a preacher named Kyle. Turned out he was single and I married the preacher!
7 comments:
I like that story! And it made me cry. So, thanks for having the quick version at the end so that it ended with a laugh. :) Love you lots!
aw such a cool story! and i love that pic of ya'll at your rehersal! haha too cute! xoxo
I could just read it over and over!!! What a love story and I thank God I actually got to be apart of it. 2nd Monkey on her posting, it made me laugh and cry too.
The Carozza's love you guys!
Terry! What an awesome story. So glad to hear of God's blessings & the new church opportunity. Keep in touch & I'll try to remember to add you to my blog roll.
AHHH...i cried and laughed too. made me think that time we were on the phone and i thought there is something more than just her preacher. LOVE IT! what a testimony too. love you girl~
Love your story!
Got here from Kelly's Korner. I love your story. It give me hope. I started praying for my husband in 3rd grade. At 24 I'm still praying, harder now LOL! Thanks for sharing!!!!
God Bless,
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