Love Story part 4 - Getting Serious

Josh and I at a Servant Leader Retreat with the Pleasant Ridge Youth Group

When I finished the last installment I was thinking that this next one would be the engagement story....but I realized I left out some important details.

My junior year Josh and I were getting pretty serious. We had discussed getting married and knew that was the direction we were headed in. We spent a lot of time talking and praying about it all, wanting to make sure this was the right thing. We had talked about rings, talked about dates and even talked at times about what the wedding would be like.

There was a lot going on that year. I was planning a mission trip to Tsumeb, Namibia that summer that Josh would accompany me on. Since missions is such a big part of who I am I really wanted him to be able to share that with me. I knew (even though I was in denial) that marrying a youth minister would detour my plans to be a missionary overseas but I still wanted to be involved in what I was passionate about. I also had an internship that year at Hope Haven - a transitional living facility in Abilene. Then there was the usual family drama, homework, work and other ACU activities.
So, while I was busy with all of that in Abilene, Josh was busy working at Pleasant Ridge in Arlington as the youth minister resident. I finally had a car in Abilene that year and drove to, or got rides to Arlington whenever possible. It was a neat experience to be able to get to know the youth group kids Josh worked with, families at Pleasant Ridge and to be involved in that part of Josh's life. I went on retreats, Senior Night Out and all the regular stuff like devos as much as I could. People have asked me if it was hard to get married when we never lived in the same town for very long. It was hard but it was also a good experience to be dating while he was already in ministry. I got a clear picture of what life as a youth minister's wife was like - the good and the bad parts. I was able to form some close relationships with the kids he worked with and I looked forward to being around even more.
On a side note, one of the frustrating things was when I would come into town for the weekend and we didn't really get to go on a real date because Josh has youth group activities or wanted to go play football after church on Sunday.

As all this was going on we continued to think more seriously about the future. We looked at rings, talked about time lines of getting engaged etc. We wanted to get married the next December. Part of that was because I did not want to get married, graduate and move somewhere all within a few weeks time (we knew that Josh's resident program would be over in May 2004). Another silly reason for the engagement timing was that one of my good friends was the Keeper of the Key in Siggies and I wanted her to be able to plan my big Pass the Key night. That didn't end up working out, but it was OK. My best friend Jackie Beth and I had a code for when I called to tell her I was engaged. I was supposed to call and tell her that I "got a tattoo" so that if she was around other people no one would know what we were saying (remember that for the next segment). I had even started looking at dresses and beginning to wrap my brain around all that was involved to plan a wedding.

Continued soon....


a date at the Zoo



Senior Night Out in Arlington - Josh and "Partnuh" Jenny and me.