Sunday, October 12, 2008
A very special girl
After we got settled into our new home in Missoula, we attended a marriage retreat that was wonderful. We met a few friends there from our church and got plugged into a small group that they were in. We made some friends and started forming relationships. One of the ladies in the group worked with the youth at our church and had befriended one of the girls named Molly. One night when we were at our group Molly called and asked if someone could come get her from her house. Her home life was very difficult and she need a lot of outside support. I felt like God nudged me to go along and pick her up. I did and as she got into the van she looked very beaten down. I sat quietly in the back seat and she sat down beside me not really seeing me. I reached over and put my hand on ther leg and said, I know how you feel, I've had a similar background. She was startled by this at first, but she was glad to have someone there for her. As we hung out more as a group we got to know one another better. We had a lot in common and God was breaking my heart for her. She was a senior in high school at the time and had about 6 months until graduation. She started staying over at our apartment on weekends and then at spring break she stayed the whole week. Gradually she stayed longer and longer until the day she turned 18 and she moved in with us for the summer. This was an amazing time of walking with God in order to be wholly available for her, but it was also very difficult in many different ways. During this time God revealed to me what many people had told me along the way in my life...that God had a big plan for me and would use my past to help others. I was amazed at how God fit the two of us together and used my strenghts AND weaknesses to help this precious girl that he cared so much about. I know that this relationship was sent by God and his timing for our move to MT (graduating from CSU a year early) was perfectly placed in order to make me available to her. I'm so thankful that I had this time of learning and growing and will always be thankful for my dear friend whom I still love very much!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The Big Move
We are going to be going back through a few of our major "God things" in the past before we start posting what is going on now. We want to give a little background and also record the ones that are important before details start to blur. Having said that, we are going to skip from when we got together to our move to Montana. This is not to say that there weren't plenty of noteworthy times in between those two events.
In the spring of 2004 Jared had completed his first year of college and I had just graduated from CSU-Pueblo. We were living in Pueblo, CO and were starting to plan the next phase of our lives. We thought about building a house in Pueblo West and started trying to get a loan. Even with Jared's dad co-signing on a loan we were still turned down. This was so frustrating for us especially because the lots were like 8k. God had a different plan and I'm so thankful! Can you really see us living in Pueblo West? After that plan fell through we decided to move to Ft. Collins. I was planing on getting my Master's degree and Jared would finish school there. We even went up on spring break and looked at places to live there. Not long after that I was getting my application done for the grad-school program and took my exam. I some how got completely confused on one part of the test and I tanked on the score! I immediately realized the problem after I submitted the scores and was SO mad that I had made such a dumb mistake on such an important exam. Needless to say based on those scores I was denied entrance to the grad-program. Again a frustrating heartbreak. One day a few weeks later, I got a packet in the mail from a graduate school in WA. So I stared looking at this packet and thought "why not?" Why not move somewhere way out of our comfort zone? So Jared the handy researcher went to work. We found Missoula and the University of Montana. This school would allow both of us to finish the programs we wanted to. We fell in love with the town from pictures and what we had read. Jared had always wanted to live in Montana, and I was starting to come around after looking into the town some more. After graduation we took a trip up to see Missoula in May. It was so beautiful! We were hooked. We started praying and praying and really felt that this was meant to be so we told family and friends. Friends were sad but excited for us and family was in a state of shock. They didn't really believe we would go through with it. Someone even said "I remember when we were young and stupid and did stuff like this". So on that note we geared up to prove them wrong (in a good way). One night after a lot of discouraging talk with family we drove the hour drive home to Pueblo. We were having some doubts and were trying to finalize our decision. We talked the whole way about whether or not this was right. Just as we were turning onto the the exit ramp to our apartment a van pulled out in front of us that had big huge sticker letters spelling out TRUST GOD NOW. We laugh and look at each other and then look back and saw that the van was from Montana! How's that for a sign LOL. So we did, we trusted God, packed up and moved to Missoula with no jobs lined out, no house set up, and not a familiar soul in all of Montana.
God's Provision
We stayed in the KOA cabins for a week while we got phones and went job and house hunting. Within a week I was hired as a personal trainer at Gold's Gym, Jared had a job in at the contractor's desk at Home Depot, we found a brand new studio apartment that allowed pets and was in our budget, and we also found a great church that fit us perfectly. We moved in and with in a few months God was showing us his fist opportunity to serve...more on that in another post.
In the spring of 2004 Jared had completed his first year of college and I had just graduated from CSU-Pueblo. We were living in Pueblo, CO and were starting to plan the next phase of our lives. We thought about building a house in Pueblo West and started trying to get a loan. Even with Jared's dad co-signing on a loan we were still turned down. This was so frustrating for us especially because the lots were like 8k. God had a different plan and I'm so thankful! Can you really see us living in Pueblo West? After that plan fell through we decided to move to Ft. Collins. I was planing on getting my Master's degree and Jared would finish school there. We even went up on spring break and looked at places to live there. Not long after that I was getting my application done for the grad-school program and took my exam. I some how got completely confused on one part of the test and I tanked on the score! I immediately realized the problem after I submitted the scores and was SO mad that I had made such a dumb mistake on such an important exam. Needless to say based on those scores I was denied entrance to the grad-program. Again a frustrating heartbreak. One day a few weeks later, I got a packet in the mail from a graduate school in WA. So I stared looking at this packet and thought "why not?" Why not move somewhere way out of our comfort zone? So Jared the handy researcher went to work. We found Missoula and the University of Montana. This school would allow both of us to finish the programs we wanted to. We fell in love with the town from pictures and what we had read. Jared had always wanted to live in Montana, and I was starting to come around after looking into the town some more. After graduation we took a trip up to see Missoula in May. It was so beautiful! We were hooked. We started praying and praying and really felt that this was meant to be so we told family and friends. Friends were sad but excited for us and family was in a state of shock. They didn't really believe we would go through with it. Someone even said "I remember when we were young and stupid and did stuff like this". So on that note we geared up to prove them wrong (in a good way). One night after a lot of discouraging talk with family we drove the hour drive home to Pueblo. We were having some doubts and were trying to finalize our decision. We talked the whole way about whether or not this was right. Just as we were turning onto the the exit ramp to our apartment a van pulled out in front of us that had big huge sticker letters spelling out TRUST GOD NOW. We laugh and look at each other and then look back and saw that the van was from Montana! How's that for a sign LOL. So we did, we trusted God, packed up and moved to Missoula with no jobs lined out, no house set up, and not a familiar soul in all of Montana.
God's Provision
We stayed in the KOA cabins for a week while we got phones and went job and house hunting. Within a week I was hired as a personal trainer at Gold's Gym, Jared had a job in at the contractor's desk at Home Depot, we found a brand new studio apartment that allowed pets and was in our budget, and we also found a great church that fit us perfectly. We moved in and with in a few months God was showing us his fist opportunity to serve...more on that in another post.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Our Begining-A God Send and a Happy Holloween
In 1999 Jared and I were 16 and Juniors in high school. We had been friends for about a year, and then in October this progressed to a dating relationship. God brought us together and has blessed us together since. Here is a brief story of how we got together.
From Whitney's perspective:
The year preceding us getting together had been very tough for me. My best friend and her family (my "adopted" family) moved away, I had my first break-up, and my step mom left my dad. I felt very alone and was going through a very dark emotional time. Before the school year started I knelt down and prayed that the Lord would bring someone into my life. I didn't care if it was a friend, parent, or boyfriend but I need someone. I had enjoyed Jared's friendship and felt lucky to have such a good guy friend and had never had any more feelings for him until the week of Oct. 25th when something changed. Jared attended a choir concert of mine and afterwards invited me to listen to a song he wanted played at his wedding...smooth. I did and it was very sweet, it was a rock ballad :) Later that week he came to watch my state cross country race in Denver. That night after the XC meet my friend had a Halloween party. Jared had planned a surprise for me at the party and lead me on a creative treasure hunt. At the end of the hunt he was standing out on the porch all dressed up in a suit. He manged to get out a few words and then asked if I would like to date him. I said yes, gave him a huge hug and so began our love.
From Jared's perspective:
Well I pretty much thought she was really cute and wanted to get to know her better so I put my best moves on her in Biology class which included taking and hiding her shoes, catching her a frog from the river, and playing the Fishy song by philmore for her. Apparently they did not work to win her over in a romantic way. I just remember thinking that she deserved better than her current boyfriend at the time. I got a hold of her at the end of the next summer and took her 4-wheeling to one of my favorite spots. I tried my best to see how she felt about me without directly asking. She basically said she liked being friends and didn't see anything ever happening. Anyway I continued to pursue her, I went to all of her cross country meets and choir concerts. After Whitney's state cross country meet I asked one of our friends if she thought Whitney would say yes if I asked her out. She said NO but apparently I didn't take her advise very seriously. A few days later I went to a memorial service for a girl I knew through a church group. After I left that I went to our friend's Halloween party where I sent Whitney on a scavenger hunt with me at the end. Thankfully she said Yes! I was so relieved, I don't even remember anything I said because I was so nervous.
There you have it! It has been a great 9 years of dating and 6 years of marriage and we feel so blessed to have eachother!
From Whitney's perspective:
The year preceding us getting together had been very tough for me. My best friend and her family (my "adopted" family) moved away, I had my first break-up, and my step mom left my dad. I felt very alone and was going through a very dark emotional time. Before the school year started I knelt down and prayed that the Lord would bring someone into my life. I didn't care if it was a friend, parent, or boyfriend but I need someone. I had enjoyed Jared's friendship and felt lucky to have such a good guy friend and had never had any more feelings for him until the week of Oct. 25th when something changed. Jared attended a choir concert of mine and afterwards invited me to listen to a song he wanted played at his wedding...smooth. I did and it was very sweet, it was a rock ballad :) Later that week he came to watch my state cross country race in Denver. That night after the XC meet my friend had a Halloween party. Jared had planned a surprise for me at the party and lead me on a creative treasure hunt. At the end of the hunt he was standing out on the porch all dressed up in a suit. He manged to get out a few words and then asked if I would like to date him. I said yes, gave him a huge hug and so began our love.
From Jared's perspective:
Well I pretty much thought she was really cute and wanted to get to know her better so I put my best moves on her in Biology class which included taking and hiding her shoes, catching her a frog from the river, and playing the Fishy song by philmore for her. Apparently they did not work to win her over in a romantic way. I just remember thinking that she deserved better than her current boyfriend at the time. I got a hold of her at the end of the next summer and took her 4-wheeling to one of my favorite spots. I tried my best to see how she felt about me without directly asking. She basically said she liked being friends and didn't see anything ever happening. Anyway I continued to pursue her, I went to all of her cross country meets and choir concerts. After Whitney's state cross country meet I asked one of our friends if she thought Whitney would say yes if I asked her out. She said NO but apparently I didn't take her advise very seriously. A few days later I went to a memorial service for a girl I knew through a church group. After I left that I went to our friend's Halloween party where I sent Whitney on a scavenger hunt with me at the end. Thankfully she said Yes! I was so relieved, I don't even remember anything I said because I was so nervous.
There you have it! It has been a great 9 years of dating and 6 years of marriage and we feel so blessed to have eachother!
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