The Story of Us: Dating Years

This April 7th has marked a decade of togetherness for Me and Brian; ten years of sharing dreams, making our two lives into one, growing up and growing our family. A lot has happened in the past ten years. We are definitely different people than we used to be. And that's a good thing. When we first started dating we both had come out of bad long term relationships and were both a little broken. I contribute Brian with saving me by introducing me to Christ and with showing me what true love can be.  

Our dating years consisted of spending time together at every chance we could get, we were 18 and 19 after all. I remember a handful of times staying up all night talking and watching movies and then driving home at sunrise to sleep for a couple of hours before going to work at Gap. Life was exciting and new again. 

As I stated, Brian introduced me to God; he was gifted the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren for Christmas and we spent a week and a half completing it together. He grew up in a Christ-centered home and when I had questions, I went to his Grandma (G-ma). We found a church, recommended by my BFF and started our own little "Tribe" (dubbed thus by our Pastor Roger) along with Brian's brother Aaron and my friend Amrha. That summer I was baptized. This was our first year together.

Second year of dating saw me starting a new chapter, job-wise.  I started working at a preschool and I had found my calling.  I enrolled in Community College and began in earnest my adult career.  Brian was super supportive and his mom even recommended me for the position at said Preschool.  I was my future Sister in Law's first teacher :)  ***Funny story, bro: my brother in law called me "Miss Whitney" for years and I wasn't even his teacher!  Pretty sure he stopped only about 2 or 3 years ago, after 8 years of knowing him! (granted, I first met him when he was 4, so I'll cut him some slack.)

2 year old Hailey on the left: so. stinkin. cute.

Our third year saw great changes for Brian; he got a job at Whole Foods, bought his first car, and began to save money to buy me an engagement ring.  We found a new church that actually met in the same building as my first job (a movie theater) and I loved "coming back home", so to speak.  After a trip to Arkansas to visit Aunt Cindy and her Family, we came back home abuzz with what-ifs and our future.  And the next month, Brian asked me to marry him, on our 3 year anniversary.

The next chapter in The Story of Us: Our Engagement.

The Story of Us: How we met