After another failed relationship, I just felt like throwing my hands up and screaming, “I’M DONE!” I had really tried my best to make my last relationship work. I prayed, went to counseling, and felt like my best just wasn’t good enough. I had a true heart-to-heart with God one day. I cried and told him how I felt I was being punished even though I was doing the best I could.
It’s amazing how some people may talk to God but don’t expect him to answer back; but that day in April of 2012, God spoke clearly to me. I felt the need to read my favorite bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11, but I couldn’t find my NIV version. I searched all over the house but couldn’t find it, so I went to my bookcase and retrieved The Message version. WHOA!! God told me something about myself, plain and simple! The first thing I saw was, “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” I have read this scripture so many times in KJV and NIV versions, but to read this verse in The Message version hit me so hard! Just that one verse opened my eyes, clear as day. Even though I had a great relationship with God, I had been making my own plans for my life, and just expecting Him to follow along with what I wanted. Big Mistake! I realized why my past relationships had failed; it was the plan that I wanted for myself without asking God and if I was operating in His will or my own.
That summer, a friend and I joked about online dating. I had tried other sites before and had not liked the way things turned out, but I still wanted to try ChristianMingle. This was the BEST decision I have ever made in my life. After weeks of chatting with some men, I felt like leaving because I wasn’t getting the results I hoped for. On July 12, 2012, I got the message that would change my life forever. To begin with, I am a HUGE sports fan! I love it all — track, boxing, basketball, baseball, football, etc. So this message that I received caught my attention from the very beginning. During this time there was so much trade talk about my favorite basketball player, Dwight Howard leaving Orlando. I was really hoping that he would go to Dallas. Vincent messaged me, trash talking, about how Dwight wouldn’t dare go to
Dallas but was LA bound! I thought, “How dare you come to my page with this mess!” It was truly love at first FIGHT! We emailed for a few days and decided to exchange phone numbers.
We had a lot in common; we were both single parents and our last relationship ended pretty bad, leaving both of us with broken homes. The thing I loved about Vincent, even having never met him, was that he truly made time for me. We have spoken EVERY DAY since July of 2012. We lived six hours and two states apart, but decided to meet in person a month later in August. After that, he came to visit every other week on the days that he did not have his children. He got along very well with my children and that made my day. Vincent became my best friend. I think the distance really helped us grow stronger because all we had was communication. We would have bible study on the phone and send text messages of prayer to each other.
After about six months of dating, Vincent and I made a pact that if we made it to one year of dating, we would pick a city to relocate to, and date up close and in-person. In June of 2013, both of us relocated to Dallas, Texas to start a life together. We attended a Couples Seriously Interested in Marriage class at our church in September and on November 2, 2013, HE PROPOSED! We took a road trip to see his folks, and he got down on one knee in front of his family in the living room, quoted Genesis 2:24, and asked me to be his wife. It meant so much to me because his transition to Texas had not been an easy one. He didn’t know a soul in Texas and left his entire family, including his daughter, to come start a life with me and my children. So for him to quote a scripture about “leaving and cleaving” meant the world to me. In that moment, I thought back to that day when I read Jeremiah 29:11, and God told me he had my life all planned out and that he would give me the future I hoped for. All I had to do was stop getting in my own way!
Vincent and I were married on January 3, 2014. Our story is still being written, but one thing is clearly evident…this was truly God’s plan all along!