Our Story

I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner, but this girl has been busy.  So here is our story from the beginning.

Jeff and I met on eHarmony.  We started communicating August 30 and haven't missed a day since then.  From the very beginning our emails were very open and transparent.  I could tell right away that this guy was special.

He was in Iraq, so the time difference was a bit of a challenge when we started talking on the phone.  We made it work though. He'd get up early and I'd stay up late.  We would talk for hours and hours and hours. The most we talked on the phone was 9 hours in one day.  Our average was 2-4 hours though. (I need to clarify that Jeff was not in the military, but a private contractor on an Army base.  He's a paramedic.)

He took an R & R in November to come meet me.  It was simply wonderful to be together face to face and see that we work in person and not just on paper.  When I looked out my peep hole and saw him standing on my stoop, I thought he looked even better in person than he did in his pictures.  Our visit was amazing and we made our relationship official.

He went back to Iraq to finish up there and we went back to email and phone conversations. We had already made plans for him to visit the week between Christmas and New Year's.  He would get to meet my parents on this trip. I picked him up from the airport on Sunday afternoon and I got to introduce him to my parents that evening.  And let me just say, I was so proud to introduce him to my parents.

We had a great week together.  He talked to my dad on Monday and got the thumbs up.  Dad's words were, "He's a keeper."  He wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know. On Tuesday we went to look at engagement rings. Jeff did try to do this on his own, but it was difficult for him to look and order something when he had been in Iraq until just a few days before.  He appealed to my practical side and said he needed some direction of what I liked.  You see, he had me totally convinced he wasn't going to propose until later in January.

On Wednesday, we met my brother and his family near Peoria since that was the half-way mark for each of us.  We had a great time and the kids simply loved Jeff.  Ethan was pretty much attached to Jeff the entire day.  I asked Ethan if I should marry Jeff and he looked at me like that meant I'd take him away from him. I explained he'd get to be his uncle and he very much liked that idea.

For New Year's Eve we decided to stay home and watch a movie. We both love old movies and he thought I'd enjoy True Grit.  We started it at 10:00 to make sure we'd stay awake till midnight. I looked up and noticed that it was midnight and he said to turn the movie off.  When I turned to get the remote, he dug the ring out of the couch. He had gone down earlier that day and hidden the ring beside the seat cushion. I turned and there he was, holding out the ring.  I simply couldn't believe it!  He asked me to marry him and I said, "Yeah."

He told me that my dad wanted us to wake them up when it happened.  He told me my dad had known since Monday when they had talked. So we went upstairs to share the news with my parents.  They were both very thrilled for us.  We also called Bekah since we knew she'd be up with the time difference to Japan.  We took a picture of the ring and I called to tell her to check her email.  Boy, did she squeal in my ear.  It was great!

He is simply everything I've prayed for in a man and even a few things that are icing on the cake.  He's perfect for me and it is so very evident that he is the man that God has for me.

So there you have it.  Our whirlwind romance.  It's fun to begin planning for our wedding and the start of our lives together as Mr. and Mrs.  Thanks so much for all your prayers.  Keep them up.  We want a wedding that will bring glory to God and will reflect our love for each other.

He currently lives in Texas and the plan is for him to move to Creston in March.  It's wonderful to be in the same time zone, but I'm looking forward to living in the same town even more.

See, the kids think he's the coolest.....me too!

Dinner on Sunday night after I picked him up. We exchanged Christmas gifts.  Guess who gave me a new camera???

Here we are on New Year's Day.....we had just gotten engaged very early that morning.