Storyteller, Part 1

I knew that I wanted to share our story on our blog because although a lot of you know us personally, a lot of you don't. And even those who know us may not really know the details of what God has done in our lives. So I'm starting at the beginning. Our story is real, raw, and unrehearsed. I hope you read with an open heart.
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There are probably a lot of you who think that Jeffry and I have it all together, that our lives look too good to be true from the outside. But it’s not. We are just as real as you are.  God has brought us through things that I never in my life thought I’d be able to walk through. 

Jeffry and I met in the fall of 2001; I was a freshman Music Education major at the University of Southern Mississippi, and he was a sophomore majoring in Business.  We both attended the Baptist Student Union on campus, which is where we met. I sang on with the praise team each Tuesday night. Jeffry came in late from work one night in the first few weeks of school and saw me singing on stage. He asked a friend of his whom I was and if he would introduce us. We met that night, but I really didn’t pay him too much attention. I thought he was a lot older than me and was just being nice! We sat together that Thursday at lunch at the BSU and he asked me for my number.  We went on our first date the following Monday night. From that point on we were almost inseparable. We officially started dating in October. Seeing as how school started in August, that was pretty quick! But I think sometimes when you know it’s the right person, you just know.

Both of us were Christians, but like many college kids, we weren’t living daily as we should have been. We were both “good people”, we didn’t get in trouble, but we weren’t seeking God’s face in our day to day lives either. Christmas holidays we spent some time apart, but we each got the chance to celebrate with the other’s family. It was great. I loved his family, and he loved mine. I really knew Jeffry was someone special when he was the first guy that my dad never complained about. My dad was very tough to impress, but it seemed Jeffry had won him over the first time they met! That’s what worried my mom! Haha.

Things were great in our lives. On the outside we looked like good kids. School was good; we even took a class together that spring. I would help him study, and he’d go to my required music recitals with me.  We were probably living more like a married couple at that point than two Christians in a dating relationship. I honestly never thought I would see myself in that situation, but once you start down that slope it’s easy to keep sliding on down. In May, right before school got out for the summer, we discovered I was pregnant.

Talk about changing your world. We were both in shock. I can still remember being at the clinic on campus when the nurse came in and told us the test was positive. We both just started crying. Not really the way you want to find out about having a baby. Not really the way God meant for it to be....






To Be Continued in Part 2 Tomorrow...