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Jen and I met on Thursday, August 7, 2014 on the first night of a conference at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. Our mutual friend, Ivette, introduced us towards the end of the evening. During our first conversation, I noticed that Jen was easy to talk to and had depth of character; I also couldn't help but notice her beautiful blue eyes. I hoped I would see her again sometime during the weekend.
Friday, I had another conversation with Jen during a break and invited her to come and join our table for the afternoon sessions. I decided I wanted to be intentional about getting to know her. On Saturday, I invited several friends to come with me to an overlook of Colorado Springs in Palmer Park after the screening of "The Song." As God would have it, Jen was the only one that could go. I knew she might not want to go by ourselves since we had just met, but I went ahead and asked anyway, "I'll still take you if you'd like to go." She said yes (it would not be her last yes :). We had a great conversation and enjoyed the panoramic view of the city.
Later Saturday night, I was hoping to find a seat by Jen at dinner. I was thankful there was one open. That night as the conference wound down, I asked Jen if she had a ride to the airport the next day and offered to take her. She smiled and agreed and so I also offered to take her to church and lunch before her flight. Thankfully, she was up for spending the morning together. Sunday was such an enjoyable day! Jen is so easy to spend time with. After lunch, I dropped her off at the Colorado Springs airport, hoping to keep in touch. The thought struck me that I would need to be intentional about pursuing Jen if I wanted to be more than just some guy she met one time at a conference.
After a few days of exchanging text messages, we talked on the phone for the first time. We learned we both enjoy talking on the phone (at least with each other). We had many great conversations and would often talk for four or five hours at a time. That first week we burned through over 20 hours of cell phone minutes. Apparently, we had a lot to catch up on! After another week, I told Jen I wanted to pursue her romantically and we planned for her to come to Colorado for Labor Day weekend. That weekend, we spent time with Ivette, who had first introduced us (may God bless her all the days of her life!) and went on our first official date.
Jen flew home Monday morning and we both felt sure we wanted to move forward. As she flew home, I called her father and asked for his permission to date her. He asked me about my faith journey and what I liked most about Jen. At some point in the conversation, I told him my intentions were to get to know her better and see if we would be a good fit for marriage. I'm really glad I talked to him at that point, because it allowed me to communicate both my respect for him and my respect for her.
Three weeks later, I flew down to San Diego to meet Jen's family. It was a wonderful visit and good to see Jen through the eyes of the people who know her best and love her most. Another three weeks passed and I took her to Ohio to meet my family. This was also a great trip. We are blessed that we both get along really well with each other's families. God had already given us great peace that he was bringing us together and both of our families supported our decision to move toward marriage.
After just over a year together, and many trips Colorado Springs and San Diego including a summer together in Colorado Springs, it was time for the next step. With her Dad's permission and blessing, I began to plan how I was going to propose.
On October 10th, 2015, we got up early to hike at Jen's favorite beach—Torrey Pines. She had a hunch was that I might propose later that night, so she didn't seem suspicious when I asked for a backpack to carry a book I wanted to read to her. We drove to the beach and watched the sunrise, while we talked and made our way up the trail. We stopped at the top to take in the view of the ocean and cliffs. She sat down and I sat next to her, but instead of a book, I pulled a wrapped present out of the backpack. She was so surprised and unwrapped a book of affirmations—with attributes I love about her, favorite memories we've shared, and messages from her closest friends and family. Tears streamed down her face as we read every single page together. After we finished and closed the book, I prayed for her. Then I turned and looked into her eyes and said, "I love you, Jennifer Laura Brown." Her eyes grew wide, because we'd been waiting to say, "I love you," until we got engaged. I got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. She said, "Yes!" and gave me the biggest hug. We hiked down and danced on the beach to one of our favorites, "Best of Me" by Michael Bublé.
I had the rest of the day planned. We explored sunny San Diego and did some things I knew Jen would love. We got iced coffees called the "Best Drink Ever" (because it sounds like something Jen would say!), and read the story of Martin Luther and his wife, Katherine Von Bora, at the beautiful new library downtown. Later that night, we went to an Italian restaurant in La Jolla, followed by a romantic walk at The Cove. The grand finale of the evening was chocolate fondue on a table covered in rose petals and candles. It was a perfect day.
After we announced our happy news, many people came up to us with tears in their eyes saying, "We've been praying for you for a long time."
In fact, that is the scarlet thread running throughout our story. We've both waited and prayed for a long time that we would find each other. Jen has prayed for the marriages of countless friends and leads women to pray for their husbands and future husbands on her blog. We both have been blessed by the prayers of more people than we can count.
We are in our mid-thirties and know well what it is to wait and wait and wait… We've watched many friends and younger siblings get married and remember well what it feels like to silently wonder if God could have somehow forgotten about us. But he hadn't. He had a good plan in place the whole time and we merely needed to wait patiently and trust him with our story.
We both pray that our story might be encouraging to those still waiting. We remember well the yearnings and tears of that long season. And as we thank God for bringing us together, we pause, and say a prayer for each of you, our family and friends. May God bless each of you even as he has richly blessed us.
