Hey Danielle’s gals.
I’m a big old fan of D’s and I cannot believe she’s about to have that precious baby girl.
Are we over the moon already or what?
I’m super thankful she’s letting me share my love story here this week.
So let’s jump right in.
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| woo-hoo! |
To keep things simple I’ll tell you she was the new Christian with a past and he was the hot guy in youth group who had it going on. If you’re wondering why he took a second glance, well – me too. I still wonder. And then I think “bahahhahahaha, too late now sucker!”. Just kidding.
Fast forward a few years and many movies and lots of Starbucks later.
We went to college together.
Broke up.
Got back together.
Did ministry together.
Endured a few months of me being incredibly impatient for him to propose.
Our engagement season was sweet for sure, but nothing that I’d want to write about.
I was way more focused on how my dress would look on our wedding day than I was concerned with the state my heart was in as I prepared to marry.
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| young and in love and a little, well a lot, naive. |
And our early marriage was full of bumps (trials) and bumps (of the baby kind). Pregnant eight months in and convinced we were able to do this thing. A precious life for us to shepherd. And then another. And then another. And a few moves, including cross country, and still lots of ministry together.
But that was when the real love story started in my eyes.
I have this mental picture of us, in this one house we lived in, during a super hard season of our life. We had nothing. I mean, we had SO MUCH, but in the world’s eyes we had nothing. Very little money. Very little worldly success. Very little sleep.
And every night, when my precious handsome husband would come home after hours and hours of seminary studying or job searching around the city or working multiple jobs just to make ends meet, he’d come home to me.
Busted looking stay at home mom.
Tired, worn out, smelling like baby poop.
And the story could’ve ended like that.
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| some of those hard years |
We could’ve seen that we had nothing to offer one another and just walked away. He could have said, “this isn’t what I bargained for” and I could’ve responded likewise. Or maybe worse, we could’ve beaten one another up with our words and tried to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and make ourselves into something presentable.
But instead, a real love story sprouted.
We preached the gospel to one another. Sometimes not always in words, but in deeds. And in showing up. And in looks. And in hugs. Somehow we began to see that the REAL love story was the one of our Savior – who loved us despite our bustedness. Loved us before we were lovely or loveable or good. And of course, we saw that because of His great love – we could love one another. Even if we had absolutely nothing to offer one another.
Except for Him.
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| present day. datenight. |
And now, some of the rough times are over. I’m sure some are yet to begin.
But we can sort of grab one another’s hand in the morning and ask the Lord what He has for us today. Because He’s given us each other. And Him. And these kiddos.
And if He took it all away,
we’d still have Him.
I love her heart.
completely and utterly adorable! jessi, we love how much you love the lord!!
jessi this is great.
beautiful!
Beautiful, Jessi. I loved reading this. 🙂
this is wonderful! sounds a lot like my and shawn's story..at least with the wedding and post wedding stuff. 🙂 thanks for hosting love stories, danielle.
I love this girl and I loved watching these two kids grow up and fall in love with each other.
We are on our 2 second child and still use the honest diapers brand. With my 1st daughter we tried some less expensive brands and they all leaked. Honest NEVER LEAKED….My new little one is 4 months and sleeps all night long. When she gets up in morning, the diaper is so full to the max but the sheets and her clothing are all very dry!!
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