John and Elizabeth: The story of our Friendship, (and Subsequent Courtship)

The Journey Thus Far – the story of our friendship (and subsequent courtship)

As many of you already know, the story of our relationship spans almost as many time zones as it does years. The distance is something neither of us would have chosen, but something which we have come to appreciate as God has shown Himself merciful each day. Our relationship has been dotted with joyful reunions, tearful and heart-wrenching goodbyes, long phone conversations, and, of course, many bouts of frustrating phone tag. In light of this, we are excited to see this chapter of our lives ending and look forward to being together once and for all.

The story of our journey began in the fall of 2004 when we were both in the country of Romania. Elizabeth and I ended up on the same school team, teaching and ministering together in the public schools of Bucharest, the capital city. It was my third semester of teaching in Romania and her first. Elizabeth had visited Romania during the spring semester that same year, but because we happened to be in different cities at the time, our paths never crossed.

I remember developing a very keen interest in Elizabeth during those three months and, all though she has yet to admit it, I have the suspicion that she felt the same for me. It was during those few months that we had the opportunity to see each other as we really are. Day in and day out, the good and the bad. And I can tell you from my perspective, I liked what I saw.
[Elizabeth: "Keen interest? Of course! How could I not? But I kept putting that aside, keeping in mind that John was 22, I was only 18, and even though I enjoyed his company, liked and respected him alot, there was no indication he felt the same toward me. I knew our paths would probably never cross again, and that I needed to keep my heart free. That was extreemly difficult, as John and I were together every day. I talked to God about it daily, sometimes many times a day."]

It was very difficult for me to leave Romania at the end of that semester for two reasons. The first being that God had told me it would be my last, and secondly, and the more relevant reason, was that I was leaving her. I did not realize how much I had fallen in love with Elizabeth during that semester until I was waiting in line to go through the security check point at the airport, trying to fight back the tears. I had found the woman of my dreams, but God was making it clear that the time had not yet come.

Elizabeth stayed in Romania for another semester before returning home in the spring of 2005. We stayed in touch through occasional e-mails and letters over the next year or so. It was during the middle of 2006 that our relationship was taken off life support and started to show signs of life again. E-mails became more frequent and took on a more purposeful nature.

In late October, 2006, my dad started encouraging me to “get moving,” because I was “only getting older.” He then said something that shocked me, “What about the girl that was on your team in Romania?” That was the only hint I needed; I knew God was moving and the time had come. So, with much prayer and consideration, I called Mr. Jacobsen about two weeks before Christmas. I asked him, out of the blue, for permission to start courting Elizabeth. He took a few days to pray about it, and to my surprise, called back three days later with an emphatic yes!

Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth and I started talking on the phone and communicating by e-mail on a daily basis. We quickly learned how important communication is in a marriage relationship, and before very long we were spending three and sometimes four hours on the phone every night. I flew out to California in mid-February of this year to visit and meet her family, and then again in mid-May. By the end of May, it had become apparent to me that this was truly the woman for me! On June 30th, 2007, I asked Mr. Jacobsen for permission to ask Elizabeth to marry me. As you all know now, he said yes!

Then came the waiting. Since Elizabeth and part of her family were planning on coming out to Indiana in August, I decided to wait the two months and propose to her then. As you have already read in the previous post, breakfast in the park was a smashing success! This joyous excitement was short lived as Elizabeth and her family had to return to Fresno a few days later.

Today, although three time zones continue to separate us, Elizabeth and I are preparing for what lies ahead, thankful for the time we have had together, and grateful for loving parents who have supported and encouraged us throughout this amazing journey. To God be the glory!

Our Story-Chris and Nicole

Let me start the story with this letter that Chris wrote for me:

“To my little star,
When I was little I made a wish on a falling star that I would be healed of my disease. God promised me that before I turn 18 I will meet a real star. Because I was little I couldn’t hear that holy voice saying this to me, but the years passed by and as it was foretold I met my star. I was amazed by her bright light that reached my heart. No word can describe that loving feeling that
wed our souls. Together, my little star, we light the entire Universe with our love”.

Well, don’t know how much you got out of this, so I’ll start with the beginning.

I was year 3 at high school and nothing exciting was going on with my life, beside studying, studying and don’t forget studying. Although I was looking for love it seemed that it wasn’t looking for me. I like to think that during these years I had some angels that came up to help me meet Chris. And the first one was a friend from school, who, one day thought I needed some company on the chat ( I just had my internet fixed) so he gave me his best friend’s ID, who seemed to be lonely as well. Although he told me that Chris had some health problems, I thought it couldn’t hurt to talk to someone, and also improve my typing skills .
Well…things didn’t go as planned. From the first chat conversation we had I could see that he was special. Even now I can remember what we talked about that day, the 26th of April. But the thing that caught my attention was that he used the word “beautiful” a lot. Well, don’t know how many boys you know to say that on a regular basis. I like to say that it was love at first chat. So we kept on chatting for some time.

After a month I was really eager to meet him, or even see a picture with him. He was always saying that he can’t go out for some reason or another.
And then Chris decided to tell me his problem. It was muscular dystrophy. This is a genetic condition and you don’t know you have it until the age of 7 or 8. He was a perfectly healthy boy until that age. But then all his muscles stopped receiving dystrophyn, the protein that makes them work and Chris was left with no power in them. He and his parents did everything they could to stop the illness taking over his body, went to many doctors and covered the country in search for a cure. But that does not exist, not yet. So Chris had to turn to a wheel chair, and in a couple of years he stopped walking altogether.
 It struck me that he just started telling me all the details, and all the things he can and can’t do, but assured me that he’s just normal, with the “small remark” that he has no power in all his muscles. I just sat there as he wrote it all down, and even though I knew about his problem, his confession just couldn’t stop me from tears. I was so happy that he finally trusted me. Some weeks afterwards I told him for the first time that I love him. At that point he actually thought I was making fun of him, and wanted to stop our chatting. But he did not. And we carried on.
The first time we saw each other, was two months after we began talking, at my 18th birthday. It was really awkward cause there were other guests and we could talk just a little. But at least we knew how we looked like, and I managed to sink in his beautiful blue eyes. After that event we started seeing each other regularly and all went very smooth.
Today we are really happy, as we are entering our fourth year of being together. Our love for each other seems to grow more and more every day.

I am now in UK, for my studies, whilst he is in Romania. We have a long challenge ahead of us, but we trust God will be our strength all this time that we will have to wait for each other. And all the decisions we have made so far in our relationship were made relying on Him and on His promise in Psalms 32:8 “You said to me, “I will point out the road that you should follow.  I will be your teacher and watch over you”. So we are waiting for guidance.

Read their blog

Our Courtship Story-Aaron and Lindsay

It all started with an inno­cent walk around Louisville, Ken­tucky on a cold Jan­u­ary after­noon in 2003. Aaron and Lind­say were both attend­ing a New Atti­tude con­fer­ence with other youth and par­ents from their church. Aaron first began to notice Lind­say while she was taking pic­tures around town. Not really sure what had just hap­pened, he began to pray about it and plan out his strat­egy. Lind­say had no idea of Aaron’s inter­est for quite some time, but the inter­est started to grow as they indi­vid­u­ally began prepar­ing to par­tic­i­pate in a short term mis­sion to the Domini­can Repub­lic that August.

Lind­say: Before the trip we were serv­ing as a state­side sup­port team for our mis­sion­ary friends in the DR and I began to admire Aaron’s dili­gent and respon­si­ble nature. In the DR I enjoyed observ­ing him inter­act with the chil­dren, and how he loved to wor­ship and serve others. My admi­ra­tion started to grow, although I was com­pletely clue­less of his inter­est in me, for a short time, that is.

Aaron did not begin to express his inter­est, desir­ing to wait for the oppor­tune moment. New Atti­tude 2004 came along and Lind­say began notic­ing along with sev­eral others who had already noticed Aaron’s subtle atten­tion. The topic of the con­fer­ence just hap­pened to be on marriage!

Lind­say: After the con­fer­ence Aaron and I began con­vers­ing more on the phone and at gath­er­ings of friends. Aaron was a huge sup­port to me during this time.

After much prayer and coun­sel from others, Aaron decided to take the plunge and approach Lindsay’s father, Mr. Taylor, and ask about begin­ning a rela­tion­ship with Lind­say. This took place on a sunny Sat­ur­day morn­ing in June.

Lind­say: I was prepar­ing to take a two month mis­sion trip to Cam­bo­dia that summer, and really wanted this time to be focused on my rela­tion­ship with the Lord. I had just grad­u­ated from high school and wanted to seek out God’s will for my life. It was a dif­fi­cult deci­sion to make but my dad I decided that we should hold off on our rela­tion­ship for that period of time.

Aaron: I almost went insane! But while she was gone, I wrote her let­ters that I gave to her later. She really liked that. ;D

After Lindsay’s return in Sep­tem­ber, Aaron and his family joined the Taylor’s during their vaca­tion to the beach. It was a frigid evening when the father’s gave the hint for Aaron to take Lind­say out on a walk on the beach. “Was this the time?” Aaron won­dered. He began to slowly but surely express his sin­cere inter­est in pur­su­ing a rela­tion­ship with her. What a beau­ti­ful day! Sep­tem­ber 19, 2004 began our 15 1/2 month courtship.

Aaron began to invade the Taylor’s home once a week for dinner and an evening with the family while get­ting to know Lind­say more. This whole process was very new to them so it took time to get com­fort­able around each other.

Lind­say: God laid it on both our hearts to pur­pose to keep our rela­tion­ship cen­tered on the Lord. We wanted to be used by God to encour­age and chal­lenge each other in our walks with the Lord. I am so thank­ful for the ways Aaron lead me in study­ing the Bible together along with other books, mem­o­riz­ing Scrip­ture, and serv­ing on the wor­ship team together. Our rela­tion­ship was not free from bumps along the way, but the Lord was always there to give me peace that this was of the Lord. Over the next sev­eral months our rela­tion­ship grew steadily. Aaron was always very thought­ful and cel­e­brated every one of our mon­thaver­saries (the 19th date of every month from the begin­ning of our courtship !

May 2005 takes Lind­say back to Cam­bo­dia with a short term team. July 2005 takes the Taylor family on a road trip to Utah. A whole month apart! But thank­fully Aaron was able to fly out and join them for a few days, and they were able to explore the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park together.

Sep­tem­ber 19th marks one year! In cel­e­bra­tion of the event, you might think we’re crazy, but we went out on our very first date to a fine Ital­ian restaurant.

Soon after the first date, Aaron knew that Lind­say was the one. He began plan­ning away for how he would “pop the question” (after get­ting the OK from Lindsay’s dad). It all was put into action on a cold Decem­ber evening.

Aaron: The plan was to go on a double date with Linday’s brother, Steve, and his wife, Larissa. They knew what was going on. Steve ended up coming home from work really late (con­ve­niently) and Larissa still needed to get their son ready (also very con­ve­nient). So Lind­say and I took off for the restau­rant (just as planned).

It was a Friday night so I thought this restau­rant right on the Columbian water­front would be crowded, so when we got there I went in to see how long the wait was. There was no wait at all(!) which would have been great if we were really going to eat there but not so good for what I had planned. I went back to the car where Lind­say was and told her that we had some time to kill and I just hap­pened to have brought an umbrella, so we went for a little stroll down the Columbian water­front. We didn’t go far before I asked her if she wanted to take a seat on one of the benches there. I read her a note that I had pre­pared and at the very end I told her “I love you” for the first time. It was amaz­ing! Then I got down on my knee and pulled out the ring…

We went out to dinner to a nice restau­rant and went back to her house where both of our fam­i­lies were waiting.

Lind­say: I thought for sure he would never be able to sur­prise me! By the way, I did say ‘Yes!’

And so we were hap­pily mar­ried on May 21, 2006. And our story con­tin­ues on, fol­low­ing in the path that God us called us to.

Read Aaron and Lindsay’s Blog.