I sent Tim a smile, and he spent three days looking at my profile trying to work up the nerve to email me back. One day, we were both online, and he IMed me. We talked for six hours that first night, and six hours every night thereafter. Three weeks later, he excitedly told me he was getting baptized the next morning. I had this crazy feeling to be there for him. After both of us prayed about it, he paid for my train ticket, and that night I hopped on after only having two hours to pack and get ready. The next morning, I was deeply moved by the service, and I kept having this weird feeling to talk to the church elders about re-baptism for myself as I’d been through a really rough time of my life where I ignored God. It turns out that we were the first two people ever baptized at the church, and they had just enough clothes and towels for me to get baptized as well. From there, we had many more “Godwinks,” especially as we video chatted each night to pray and worship together.
Three months into dating, he asked me what a promise ring was after the term popped into his head. He honestly had no idea what it meant, but he immediately bought me the most PERFECT one (he knew it was the one after he had an overwhelming feeling and began to cry). I was finishing my last semester of college, so it was difficult to visit one another with all of the studying and grading I had to do (I was a student teacher).
We both knew very early on that we were “The One” for each other. In fact, we looked at wedding gowns and tuxedos three weeks into our relationship. The week before I began finals, he came to visit. He was waiting at the station and I was running late to pick him up. He ran into one of our friends from my school. He told him that he wanted to propose, but was absolutely terrified because he didn’t have a speech prepared like he did when he gave me the promise ring. They both prayed and God told Tim through our friend to, “quit running in circle and just do it.” I arrived to meet Tim, and after a lovely breakfast at a cafe across the street, our friend had us make a video about our testimony back at the train platform, and share how God was at the center of our relationship. I’d had a feeling the night before that a proposal was going to happen (I had a WEIRD feeling to do my hair and nails the night before, instead of working on a final project). So, as we were filming, I knew it was going to end with us getting engaged. I spoke and then Timothy spoke, then I looked at him and he had tears streaming down his face. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again, he was on one knee. Obviously, I said YES!
After I graduated, I’d planned to move to Florida to work for Disney, a dream I’d had since I was a little girl. Tim couldn’t bear to be without me, so he dropped EVERYTHING in Chicago, and moved to Florida. While I had lovely Disney housing, he was motel hopping for three weeks, looking for a job (and getting bedbugs) as well as biking ten miles every day to put applications out and visit me.
He finally found a job and a great apartment. Two and a half months into our move, we finalized the decision to elope on March 13th at the Polynesian Resort, with fireworks behind us from Magic Kingdom. I was running an hour late, so by the time I got there, the fireworks had just started. Unbeknownst to us, a friend back home was praying for God to “show off” with our wedding. He did alright…our first kiss was right at the last BOOM finale of the fireworks show.
Two months later, a miracle happened. I’ve been told since I was a teenager that I would not be able to have children. We’re talking less than a five percent chance; and even IF I got pregnant, I would most likely miscarry and wouldn’t be able to carry the baby full term. The week before we moved back to Chicago, I was cranky and I actually cussed at my dad in a disagreement. This lead to taking a pregnancy test, and the miracle I’m carrying now. After multiple instances of the doctor saying our baby wouldn’t make it through the night (abnormal gestational sac, abnormally-low placenta, abnormally low hormones, and an incompetent cervix causing me to be on bed rest AGAIN) I’m 33 weeks pregnant with a beautiful baby girl named Isabelle Marie. God’s hand has been all over our relationship (there are many more “Godwink” moments that would take too long to type) and we’ve both become stronger Christians because of all our trials, and by being together. Soul mates really do exist, and God used your website to help us find each other.