When I first met Tim he was working on growing out his hair. It was pretty long... so I thought. We met at our church and were in the same small group for about a year and a half before either one of us gave the other a second look. But once we did give that second look, it didn't take us long. Plenty of people try to claim they saw it coming, but it's a little hard for us to believe because we were completely oblivious. This photo has become known as the "prophecy picture."
By the time we actually started dating his hair was so much longer! It was between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2010 that we began spending more time together, including one of my work performances, Tim's graduation, and an audition for the Amazing Race. It was at this audition that I fell for Tim. There's nothing like spending the night in sleeping bags on a casino floor to really help you get to know a person. See all the hair?!
So yes, while we were hair twins, we were beginning to learn that we had other things in common as well. Over Christmas we were visiting our respective families and spending lots of time talking on the phone. That's what did it for Tim. It was all he could to do wait until we were reunited on New Year's Day to ask if I would like to date/court him. Our families were both on board and we were excited!
Little did Tim know that I started writing some letters to him after we did the audition. They were in a journal with my writing on only one side of the page in hopes that he would write back on the opposite page. Throughout the course of our dating and engagement, we filled that little journal up with our Love Stories. It was one of the things that really helped us learn about each other and helped us communicate in the beginning. We love sharing it with people now.
A big part of our story includes Tim going through Celebrate Recovery while we were dating. He was getting over some of his past hurts and habits, and we were blessed to get to walk that road together. It gave us the chance to really go through some of the nitty gritty of life and come out on the other side together. He learned that there is forgiveness, I learned how to be a helper suitable, and we both learned that we can trust each other. We are so thankful to have our Savior as the foundation of our marriage!
How about a timeline? We started dating on January 1, 2011, got engaged on March 30, 2011, and were married on June 25, 2011. That didn't take too long! (Ps- Tim cut his hair off sometime in March before we got engaged.) Both sets of our parents had rather quick dating and engagement periods themselves, so they didn't have any objections. And considering they have both been married around 30 years, we were encouraged that it can work. We had a wonderful budget wedding- it's only one day of your life, after all- that was SO fun. It was such a happy day followed by a honeymoon in Chicago... and the rest, as they say, is history.
Well, maybe not quite. We really try hard to not grow complacent in our marriage, but work hard at it. We have loved it so far and are looking forward to the many more years that some of our favorite couples tell us "just keep getting better."
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