Our Valentines Love Story

Jeff and I met on Eharmony. Now before you make fun of us, Eharmony isn't like any other online matching site.


For beginners, you don't post your picture for the world (or really some superficial male) to look at you and decide you aren't pretty enough....of course who would have thought that about me? I mean, come on.


You go through stages (and no this isn't an advertisement for Eharmony) where you eliminate potential suitors. My final stage was a pointed question. How do you feel about premarital sex?


I had gone through several stages with guys and if they made it to that stage they always put something other than...I am strongly opposed. I mean, they were matching us up because we were Christians...and since when is the Bible wishy washy on premarital sex????


Well one day, not long after I had joined, I was making progress with a very interesting guy. He gets to that stage and MAKES it. He answered it right!


We began closed communication, meaning we talked on Eharmony, but I was hesitant to release my picture to him right away. Pretty soon we were emailing each other and talking on the phone.


Do I have to tell every detail? Why, yes, I do. Have you ever read my birth stories? I get a little (okay, a lot) long winded.


So anyway, we decided to meet for the first time. We set up a time when our daughters could meet each other too. Now Jeff was the first person I had "dated" since I got saved, and I wanted him to be the only one. I didn't believe in serial dating and God had finally given me the go ahead to begin courting.


I'll tell you how sure I was that Jeff would be the man I married. I had Ashlea take a picture of me before he came over that first time. The first picture is a few minutes before he came over...that was a week before Valentines day, five years ago. (I was so sure because we had talked for weeks and weeks and he was just perfect in every way.)


We had a great time and our daughters all got along well, at that first meeting.


We set up a date for Valentines day. The funny thing about that is that neither of us even realized it was Valentines day...neither of us celebrated it. It was some silly man made holiday...now it's the anniversary of our first date and is so important to us.


The whole week before he came over I kept making up reasons why he wasn't the one for me and that I really didn't like him. The moment he walked in the door, I knew...I just knew.

We were chaperoned by Ashlea and her friends. We went to Nothing but Noodles, to the bookstore and to see Miracle.


Jeff remembers: When I am an old man, I will remember sitting at the bookstore, drinking coffee and asking each other questions from that book. Looking back, when we were sitting there in those chairs...just talking about stuff..that was when I began wanting more than just a friendship with you.


Every time I asked Jeff a question about the future or about what he wanted for his life or family, he would give the same answer that I had. We fit together perfectly. It was amazing. And we both knew it was of God that we were meant to be together...YES, after only one date.


Now here we are still in love, after knowing each other less than six months and getting married. There is more here.


This last picture was from our first date.


What a blessing Jeff and his family have been in my life. He is my best friend. And his parents are like my mom and dad; his sister is mine. I'm thoroughly blessed.