My Love Story

as told by Jordan

This story is one I never thought I’d be telling. I’m pretty sure everyone that knows Christian was hoping I would agree to date him and at least “give it a shot” for his sake… and as for me… well we were always just friends. Looking back on this whole journey still has me in disbelief sometimes and also feeling like it’s a dream most days. But thank you, Jesus that He knows what we don’t.

Okay, buckle up and get ready for a wild roller coaster of a love story. It’s long, but I’m just giving the people what they want. Here we go!

Christian first met me on our annual church ski trip in Copper, Colorado back in January of 2010. Just for reference, he was 17 and I was 16. He was too shy to introduce himself, so at this point I did not know he existed. So I guess you could say we still hadn’t “met” yet. In his words, I was the prettiest girl he had ever seen and he wanted to get to know me. A month or so later we were at a super bowl party where we officially met for the first time. That party is where this photo was taken.

We had a group of friends we shared at church that we spent most of our time with over the years. My best friend, Tori knew that Christian liked me and she quite literally begged me to go on a date with him. Probably so we could double, but also because she thought it would be perfect. I said no so many times until I finally said yes. 

In the summer of 2010 Christian and I went on ONE date in high school downtown. The plan was to go to a quirky little coffee shop called the Mud House, but instead we ended up at the Mud Lounge on accident. We didn’t realize this was a 21 and older coffee house bar, so we were kindly asked to leave. After a lot of walking we finally found the Mud House and had a great time. He swears we also went to a movie too but I have no recollection of that. Haha! This is so painful to even type, but I can’t leave it out-- after our date, I called him and told him I had a great time, but I didn’t want to go on any more dates. AHHHH THAT WAS SO MEAN OF ME and it crushed me to tell him that, but it was the truth. I didn’t see us going anywhere at the time… so I chose not to lead him on and ended it right before it started.

2010-2017 

A lot of time passed. And during all of this time we still kept the same exact shared friends. We went to all of the same holiday parties, birthdays, proms, church trips, camps, summer backyard hangs with friends, lake trips, Friendsgivings, going away parties, weddings… you name it. He even helped me and Tori move into college at Mizzou. He would house sit for my parents, drink beers with my dad, build stuff with my sister, and became friends with my brother. For the entirety of our friendship some of our closest friends would have conversations with me about Christian. They knew his feelings for me and they knew my lack of feelings for him and thought if I gave him another chance, maybe they would change. My friendship with Christian wasn’t really a close friendship though. I couldn’t be close to him without leading him on, so I built up a TON of walls and I kept my distance to make sure I didn’t hurt him. I loved who he was enough, respected him as a person to not lead him on as much as I could help it. It was frustrating that he had these feelings for me and I just… well… didn’t.

2017

After I graduated college I moved to Uganda for a year and a half. A few months before I left the country, Christian asked me if we could get coffee together as friends. We chose a day without realizing it was Valentine’s Day. He called me back about 2 minutes later after realizing what day it was and asked if we could make it a date instead. I said no in the kindest way possible. I knew it crushed him and that crushed me. Starting to date someone as I left the country was not something I was interested in at all as painful as that “no” was. Our friends, Daniel and his wife Cherith both talked to me a month before I left. They shared how strongly they felt about us being together even if it meant when I moved home after my time in Africa. I still had zero feelings toward Christian. This was so crazy to hear them say because for all I knew, I was moving overseas and that was the only future I saw. At the time I thought I’d live an overseas life forever and I didn’t see Christian fitting into that.

November 2018

My time in Uganda came to a close. It was a beautiful time and I’d still choose to do it all again if I could. I was home from Africa for about a month at this point. After praying over my future husband and talking with God for a long time about whoever that man would be, I had a dream the night before Thanksgiving that I married Christian. It was prophetic. I’m certain. I woke up stunned and surprisingly it felt real… it wasn’t a strange thought. It felt like it was as normal as Sunday morning. But it just didn’t make sense in real life. Yet.

Remember this for later.

April 2019

By the spring I had started working for American Airlines and I started photography on the side for real, not as a hobby. In this season, God asked me to write down a list of everything I wanted my future husband to be… I made that list in full detail. I believe God asked me to make a list because He wanted me to see that list in my heart would match who He would give. I won’t share it because it’s pretty personal, but in case you are wondering, Christian fits them all. God is good, ya’ll. I cry every time I go back and read it. He knows the desires of our hearts and He always gives WAY more than what we ask. 

When my brother, Chandler started working for American Airlines, he added Christian to his travel plan, so they started traveling all over the world together. The two of them went on trips and they started hanging as friends a lot more often. They were always at my parents house, the lake… and I started noticing. I admired that Christian made himself the older brother Chan never had. 

June 2019 

I started thinking about him all the time. Tori called me to solidify our lake plans one afternoon and she told me that a girl was asking about Christian and I was incredibly defensive. I didn’t want her to give Christian another girls number. HAH. I tried to brush it off and Tori called my bluff. 

July 2019

On our girls lake day last summer, I opened up for the first time to Tori and Morgan. I confessed that I was 99% sure I was developing feelings for him. I analyzed every bit of it, tried to talk myself out of it (because after allllll these years, how could this be real?!?!) Voicing these feelings out loud made me nervous. Morgan clearly told me all of my excuses to not give it a shot were NOT valid. And Tori said that she's always been Christian’s number one fan and she was for us from the beginning. So, I clearly had no reason to not give it a shot. 

A couple of  weeks later my family went to Alaska for an RV adventure and my brother invited Christian to come too. (I will never be able to thank you enough for that, Bub.) My family didn’t know how I felt yet… I kept it all to myself. I surrendered every emotion and thought to God and I just let it all happen however it was supposed to. If I left the trip feeling like it was all real, I would tell him. Sparks were flying left and right and my feelings just grew and grew that week. As we drove through the mountains and over the bluest rivers, I remember looking over at him from the passenger seat and feeling the Holy Spirit say to me. “Jordan, you can adventure with him like this forever.” I knew in that moment that I wanted to. I believed in that very moment I would marry him one day. And I knew that God was moving me and that I’d never be the same. I didn’t sleep the whole flight home from Alaska. THAT'S A LONG TIME if you don’t know. I couldn’t stop thinking about him for 2 weeks after that trip.

July 31 2019 

About 2 weeks after Alaska, I asked Christian on a date. After years of me saying no, I knew if he was going to look my way again, I had to say something this time. I asked him if we could go to the lake and ride his jet ski. When I told him I wanted it to be just us, I think he might have had a clue. We talked just us for the first time, probably ever. Okay the second time since our first date in 2010.

It was the type of dreamy date you would see on the Bachelor. And YES I watch that show. There was no one else on the water except us. As the sun was setting on the lake before we drove back to the car, I told him that I had feelings for him and that no, it was not a joke. He was speechless for a bit as you could probably imagine. And then he told me he had feelings for me too. Still… after all these years… that part gets me every time. We kissed. It was magic. He held my hand on the car ride home. At no point did we ever discussed dating, it just happened. We both knew we were without question. My only regret from this day is that we didn’t take a photo.

November 2019

The night before we left for Thanksgiving vacation, he told me he loved me. When we got to South Carolina, the night before Thanksgiving Day, we sat in his hammock at the lake and he told me he wanted to marry me. The EXACT location 5 years earlier where I sat contending with the Lord for my husband after a horrible heartbreak. HI, GOD I SEE YOU. He redeems all things, always. He is so kind and in EVERY SINGLE DETAIL. You can imagine how special Thanksgiving Day was. The lake, pie, and Thanksgiving are 3 of his favorite things of all time. I loved that we were the only ones that week who knew we had decided we were getting married. It was like we were keeping a really big secret that only me, him and God knew about.  It was so special that way.

OKAY, remember that dream I told you to remember for later? YEAH, HERE IT IS! The dream I had on Thanksgiving exactly a year earlier, was literally fulfilled when Christian told me on Thanksgiving that he wanted to marry me. All at once I felt the presence of God, His breath on us and it wasn’t until THIS moment that it all fell into place for me. I love that God chose Thanksgiving to reveal to me that Christian was for me, and to reveal to Christian that he was ready for marriage. I also love that God still speaks to us in dreams. His ways are like no other. God preserved Christian for me all of those years… I have tears as I type… It was always him. I felt God’s love and blessing and favor all over us. It was the most overwhelming love I’ve ever experienced. 

January 2020

He asked my mom and dad for their blessing to marry me the night before our ski trip with his family. Of course they said yes with zero hesitation. He proposed on the mountain in full ski gear in Keystone, Colorado. AND I SAID YES! 

After 5 months of being engaged and somehow I am so blown away! Still. It’s just all SO perfect!! 10 years from the moment he first noticed me on a ski trip when we were teenagers and somehow that would be where he would ask me to marry him. 

February 2020

We had our first valentine's day date, engaged. It was also well redeemed from that valentines day when I turned him down. ALSO my first bouquet from someone other than my dad. Every day I love him more. 

2010-2020 that’s our story. 10 Years. A whole decade. 

I could not have written a better, more detailed story myself. God is so unbelievably good, kind, thoughtly and perfect. Trusting Him is always worth it.

I cannot wait to marry the most incredible man God chose for me in His perfect time.

In September, we are eloping in the Colorado Rocky Mountains with our immediate family.

And I cannot wait to be his wife.