Our Love Story

Nic and I first met in a speech class in college. We sat near each other and always talked and were friendly, but that was it. It wasn’t until a year later that we re-met and sparks flew. Now I’m going to be real honest, this is not the type of love story with many twists and turns and grand gestures. Just a story of 2 people who were mutually attracted and their relationship was propelled by an Iowa blizzard.

Both of us were working at a local mall, him for a cell phone company, and I at VS. The first time I noticed him I was on my break and was grabbing some food. He called me over and we chatted a bit about how we recognized one another and exchanged numbers. As we women do, I discussed our little exchange with a friend of mine at work as we folded clothes. Fast forward to the next day, I had to close up at work that night and multiple associates were calling in and saying they couldn’t get to work due to the road and weather conditions. Many stores were either already saying they were going to close early or had already due to the impending weather still to come. I had one coworker that was okay with coming in still and we decided to just go in together to be safe, and her boyfriend drove us. It was an extremely slow night, because who is out to buy underwear in a blizzard? It was just her and I working and I noticed nic was working as well but his company gave him the okay to close up and head home. Our store was one of the only stores left open in the mall so he stopped by to chat for a bit before he headed out. Finally we were given the okay to close up and I had texted him to say I was finally heading home. While texting he had mentioned that he was staying with someone nearby so he could still make it to work since he lived out of town, but was sort of uncomfortable. Me, being the incredibly generous person that I am, offered for him to stay at my place if he would feel more comfortable. I did check with the roommates first and they were cool with it, we did have 3 couches after all. So he came over and honestly, the rest is history. Disclaimer, I am not a one night stand kind of person or hook up after just meeting. We watched a movie, end of story. He helped push my car out of the snow the next morning so I could get to work and we kept talking from that moment on. We went on our first official date probably about a month later. There were a couple quick meet ups after work, I may have accidentally spilled a drink on him and stolen some of his food at one point, so it’s a miracle we stayed together!

We had a long distance relationship for a couple different times in our relationship, even took a break at one point, but fought for each other and found our way back. He had been living in the Des Moines metro area for awhile and I was looking for jobs there once I graduated. I accepted a job and graduated in May of 2015. I lived with my brother in Ames for a while until I could find a place of my own and just made the commute each day. I moved into my very own apartment for the first time ever in July of 2015. On October 5, 2016 on a random Monday evening Nic took me to this trail with a cute little bridge overlooking a river and asked me to spend forever with him. I was completely taken by surprise, and of course said yes. On September 17, 2016 we said ‘I do’ and our forever began. After the most amazing honeymoon ever in Tahiti we settled into our married lives. We knew we wanted to start a family pretty early on and began talking about the when and just praying for the timing. March 24, 2017 is our first angel’s birthday. We’ll dive more into that in the next post.

So for now I want to leave you with a little encouragement for whatever you are facing in life right now. In life we are meant to struggle, within the struggle is where the most growth and wisdom comes from. There will always be people who are worse off, but don’t let that diminish your hard, hard is hard no matter what it is. In John 16:33 God says, “in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; for I have overcome the world.” I don’t know about you but that brings me an immense amount of comfort to know that God has overcome all and he has a plan for my life, AND yours, no matter the bumps along the way. Find comfort in him, lay your burdens at his feet, but most importantly find hope, love and joy in him.

XOXO, mischief managing momma.