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!