From Student Councils to Submarines...

Our story is as much about the love our Heavenly Father has for us as it is about our love for each other. I believe our marriage is proof that God is faithful and brought us together for His purposes. While we have a very happy life together, I don’t believe that marriage is about happiness at all. Marriage is about holiness. It's one of the ways God shapes us into the image of His Son.

Our story starts at camp, Student Council Camp June 1995. (I know you are already thinking, “Wow. They are so cool.”) I had just arrived at Angelo State University, checked in and was carrying my luggage upstairs to my room. Who is standing at the elevators? Tim Williamson. He was super skinny and had on a Christian t-shirt. We introduced ourselves on the way up and got to be friends that week. Fast forward 1 year to StuCo Camp 1996. Once again, we were friends all week and I devised a plan to keep in touch. We all had a plastic star on yarn that we wore around our neck that week with our name on it. Every time you gave someone a hug you traded stars. By the end of the week, you’d traded dozens of times and the last name you ended up with on the last day of camp you were supposed to keep in touch with. I ended up with Tim’s name about halfway through the last day of camp and decided I would conveniently “lose” my star so I didn’t have to trade it anymore. (Such trickery, right?)
For 3 and half years we hardly kept in touch, maybe an email once a year or a phone call over Christmas break. Tim was at Rice University and I attended John Brown in Arkansas. We had very different college experiences. In fact, I believe whole-heartedly that God protected us from each other at that point in our lives. One weekend in the summer of 2001 I was in Houston and called Tim. We spent the evening together. He took me to see the Rice campus, to dinner and to cute park. He even introduced me to Lynn. And then forgot to tell me that Lynn was his girlfriend!

Thankfully, Lynn broke up with Tim that October. It was the same week I mailed him a letter. He called to thank me for it and just kept calling. Pretty soon we were talking every night. Then it was New Year's in Charleston. Valentine's Day in Dallas. And Spring Break in New York. (He moved a lot!) He got orders to his first submarine in Norfolk, VA. He asked me to consider moving there on a day I happened to be mad at my principal. Turns out Norfolk is very close to Virginia Beach, where I had a college acquaintance looking for a roommate.

I packed up my little red Civic and drove to Virginia to live with a "friend of a friend." God had provided a teaching job that was a perfect fit for my background in remediation and learning differences. A week before my parents were arriving with my furniture my roommate backed out and I was left to find an apartment all by myself. But once again, God provided one just a short distance from where Tim would be living. (Oh, I didn't mention that he asked me to move before he was ever living in Virginia?)

Tim asked me to marry him over Christmas break unofficially. ("Let's do this." Real romantic, right?) He asked my father for his blessing and proposed officially in January with a beautiful ring. We spent the next months planning a wedding with him at sea. (He recommends this arrangement for all grooms-to-be.) September 6, 2003 we were married in Plano, Texas in a fairy tale wedding surrounded by friends and family.

He left one month later for his first 6 month deployment. Our first year of marriage he missed every holiday except for July 4th. It definitely wasn't an easy way to begin a life together, but God has blessed us with an amazing few years on shore duty together. We were fortunate to have both our sons while Tim was home and able to be an active part of their lives. And we have now survived our first time at sea since having children. Reflecting on this patrol has made me realize just how much God has grown us in our marriage over the last 5 years. I ached every day he was gone for the intimacy we now have with one another. The way he knows what I'm thinking by the pause in my voice and the grin on my face and the way I know the exact commentary he will have on any movie, tv show or sermon before he ever opens his mouth.

I love two things about our love story. I love that it's a picture of God's faithfulness in our lives to complete the work that He started. And I love that it's not over. When I see how far we've come since 1995 I can't wait to see where we are going.

Pin It