Getting Past First Impressions

Lee and I met at the end of July, 2002. I had just moved to North Carolina to attend seminary and teach. Prior to arriving in North Carolina that hot day, I had driven from Bakersfield, California to Denver, Colorado to help my parents move. Then my dad and I drove to Dallas, Texas to pick up my stuff and move it to North Carolina. To say that I was happy to be out of the car would be an understatement. To say that I was probably not looking my best would also be an understatement! But my new boss (Dr. Sifers) had asked the high school history teacher/ basketball coach to stop by and help us unload the U-Haul. I couldn't even remember his name because Dr. Sifers kept calling him "Coach."

Lee and I saw each other often at school and spent time getting to know each other. We bonded over our mutual love of candy corn. I volunteered to work the concession stand our school ran at the North Carolina State football games because he asked me to. I was always careful not to seem interested, because I didn't want him to feel pressure to ask me out. In fact, one afternoon he hung out in my classroom while I was redoing my bulletin board. I mentioned that I didn't want to date while in seminary so I could focus on my classes.

But, when you're around high school and middle school students all day every day, eventually they notice there might be something more than friendship happening. My teacher's aid Jenny was the serious girl friend of Lee's roommate Matt. Eventually, she convinced Lee to ask me out. Our first date was a NC State football game, dinner back at my apartment, and watching "A Walk to Remember." That was mid-November. By our second date I knew I was in love. In January he came out to meet my family, who lived in Colorado.

The week of Valentine's Day Lee walked around with a lump in his pocket and seemed nervous all the time. One afternoon, during the last period of the day, he knocked on my classroom door and asked if I could talk to him outside. I got someone else to watch my kids (you just don't leave 22 8th graders alone!) and we stepped outside. As we turned the corner, he had his basketball team lined up with signs that said, "Will U Marry Me?" He got down on his knee, asked me to marry him, and of course I said yes!

We set the wedding date for Oct. and got busy planning the wedding and our lives together. Once I found the dress (I borrowed it from my cousin), we decided to move the wedding to July. We got married at the seminary chapel. The air conditioner was broken, so it was really hot by 6:30, but it seemed perfect to me. Of course, I wasn't wearing a tux!

Lee started seminary too that fall, so we were teaching full time, in seminary full time, and getting adjusted to married life together! I remember a lot of bad dinners but a really clean house! (Amazing how clean it stays when you're rarely home!)

That was five years, four job changes, and six moves ago! The dinners are getting better, the house keeps getting messier, and our family has gotten bigger! I can't wait to see what else God has planned for our lives together!

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