Mennonite Dating // Our Love Story

so today is our anniversary and it's like the first anniversary that we're not doing anything away from home it's kind of sad but yeah with some my health issues we just decided we'll stay home and do a trip a little bit later but we came out here to the reservoir to go kayaking it's a fun family day and a lot of you have been asking for our love story how we met I thought this would be a good day to tell you all and Noland agreed to come with me on camera and talk about it so that's what this video is about telling you all how we met and everything while we're out kayaking or in the woods or wherever we're at so yeah I hope you guys enjoy are we gonna go kayaking [Music] [Music] a fine [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] why don't we [Laughter] anything else you'd like good job everyone so a lot of you been I guess will hear him lovely oh stop so we're out here on the kayaks now I thought we'd continue the story see how long we can with little man here anyway so we were talking about dating and my heart almost stopped it was them think I would have been enough you never get it Xander's throwing in the Sierra Mist bottle and yeah it was it was a little stressful that's not working very well he's determined to be through my paddle in the water I can't get it anymore maybe I should finish this elsewhere what are you doing do you want to get rid of [Music] you hope and daddy okay all right so did you go in it go do it again oh you almost hit mom all right Bob off you put your car seat you know what go home you get something to eat okay bye you want to go long we came back from the late we were gonna finish up our story which both agreed you didn't feel like it was flowing very good at the lake so maybe we'll just do the whole story here so in 2010 yeah nine years ago his dad called me and asked if I would choose school on their private school it was always a dream of mine and live out west anyway so I really enjoyed teaching school I had done it previously and said yes packed up my car I was a very independent single person and very much enjoyed driving across from Pennsylvania to Oregon by myself took some detours to see some fun sights that was a fun trip I was at a point in my life where I just was totally not into dating I was not into guys so but yet there was this thing that every girl has it always excited like maybe I'll meet the guy that I'm gonna fall in love with out here on my trip there's always that kind of excitement of the unknown I didn't know anyone there so it was pretty nerve-wracking pretty scary but anyway so that's just kind of the point where I was I was very much enjoying my single life I was 21 not really interested in dating at the moment so that kind of sets up the whatever anyway I got out there and we met the first time are you functioning right I believe so yeah wasn't like fireworks or anything happened not really no no I was like I've been 23 yeah this new schoolteacher showed up and I thought she was pretty nice girl when I saw her the first time yeah I can't really remember a certain moment where I was like that's it yeah I was staying with his brother you would come up a lot you and your brother your other brother Jase mm-hmm they would come up and hang out at the place I was staying at so that was fun got to know them better talking to my brother yeah I was down in a basement so I kind of had an apartment to myself and I remember I would boom the guys would come over I never wanted to be an intrusion on the family I was stainless I tried to just kind of stay in my space and hang out with him a little bit and then often when I heard the guys were coming over I wanted to go hang out upstairs more and I started feeling stupid every time that you guys came over would come juggling upstairs I remember one time I was in the basement and I heard the phone ring and I could hear his brother Vern talking on the phone I knew immediately it was him asking if they come over side just promptly went upstairs before got there so it looks so obvious and started reading a book reading a book so I got to know each other that way a little bit I feel like our dating I've been kind of a unique experience I was really the type of girl that got all starry-eyed quickly around guys and there was a moment stand out to me and I'll never ever forget it he was having the topic at prayer meeting one Wednesday evening this is probably a couple months after had gotten there and one thing that I always admired and men if they had very knowledgeable about the Bible were smart like academically just kind of social really yes it is he was very good at speaking out front was very at ease with himself I'd really liked him up to this point just like I thought he was a great guy and stuff and then this thing happened that just hit me completely weird out of the blue I was sitting there and suddenly my whole body went almost weak like I just couldn't could hardly move my knees turn to jelly and I just heard this voice saying that's the guy you're gonna marry and I heart was pounding and it just seemed so real and I was so convinced that you know why this is actually my future husband but I was fighting it I didn't wanted to happen so for quite a few weeks later months later I was trying to convince myself and now this wasn't the case I think I did finally convince myself towards the end of the year anyway I really liked him and remember telling one of my friends and I hope he gets a nice girl and I thought it was a great guy I did get a nice girl it wasn't I decided I wasn't gonna ask her till she was done teaching school because it's lost trust teaching school and everything and so anyway I called her dad up I was gonna ask him first ask his permission now it's kind of a fiasco because I just had her home phone I didn't have dad cell phone number or anything so I called the home phone and her mom answered and I wondered if I could speak to her dad and she saw my organ number and assumed I was a Salesman and said well if you're trying to sell anything we aren't interested he gets real tired of these sales calls and really gave me a line and I short her I was not trying to sell anything so she gave me his number and I call and I went really well he immediately calls Janine and says there's a sky Nolan who's interested in you by the way I was still out there school I was just coming to class she knew about it she knew that I was gonna ask her yeah my dad called me I was at school and he said hey there's some guy named Nolan that wants to ask you I saw I give you a warning I'm like oh great dad I didn't want to know this and then I was all antsy and uptight and scared and freaking out and not knowing what I was going to do because I'm initially I want to run from my problems and I am my first missing was like run so anyway I was gonna talk to her in person while she was when she was done teaching school was just gonna come in there in the evening yeah she left left before I could get in there and talk to her so my next thought was her friend had came out from Pennsylvania to drive back east with her back to PA and I thought well I'll just let her get home have a good time could trip with her friend and then I'll call her when she's back at home and yeah from there all this time she knew about it so it was kind of mean on my part to her well you didn't know that I know so he still had the school picnic to go through and I had my best friend out there with me and I told her now you stay right by my side and do not leave ever don't ever get a chance that he could come talk to you know sounds stupid but I was just paranoid so we were driving home the friend and I she's always been pulling pranks on me all my life she decided that they're gonna play a prayer and her husband we're gonna play a prank on me and so she got onto my phone when I didn't have it and changed her husband's num name to Nolan we were driving down the road and I got this text that says can I call you now from it was from Nolan and I just freaked out No yeah and she just starts really I'm serious I like had to grab the steering wheel and steer she was freaking out so bad anyway I should actually started crying Shirley and I felt Badman just like I mean doesn't have enough I said I'm just gonna tell him to call me tonight at the hotel she's like no no I think you should tell him call you now all the times she did with her husband so we pulled her off the side of the highway and I went running up on his Bank in Kansas and I text Sonny I was like a car right now and so he called her and then he penis the Eagle said hi how are you and she answered back they said this is because I was like don't lead her on anyway I was mad at her for a while you're such a jerk but it was a pretty funny joke gave us some good laughs for years to come but yeah anyway got home and he called me a few days later I think and the good thing was I was forced to think about it like I'm very impulsive and so at that time I thought I'm not going to be dating and I was just gonna tell him no I had to think about dating and it's prayed about it and just the more I thought about it the more I felt like that's what I should do and so I didn't tell him yes right away when he called when I made him wait a bit no no it was so straight which we we were gonna just kind of call each other for a little bit for a few weeks before we actually officially told people we were we were dating my dad ended up letting the secret out so he just dissed hearted well gently Dave that's right away we started dating in May like right after school was it July June July somewhere in there you came in came in yeah we went on deep-sea fishing with a bunch of her friends and it was really great yeah that was in a few weeks later for our teachers Institute I'd agreed to teach school the following year up in Alberta so yeah I was trying to get a little bit of training and anyway so we were together then so then when I went back out to organize another year in same place and then he went to Alberta so we were about 12 hours apart which I kind of think it was a good thing we weren't together when I was teaching his teaching is kind of stressful it is an emotion makes him more special you know we I come down weekends once in a while and he would show up at school with my favorite drink surprise me and here he comes with lot says and he kept that up since we're married I got a job he'd bring it into work that was always fun anyway our dating was really good and I also had a lot of hard times in it I look back at dating and I have mostly good feelings about it like we had we did a lot of fun good stuff he was really good at planning date we never sat around and were bored like he'd always take me fun places to see or go hiking somewhere snowboarding so that was always fun and I'm not the type of person like when I'm starting to feel a little bit pressure like in a relationship or something I don't want to just be sitting you're not being able to do anything when things get really focused when you can actually do something with dates it makes it easier and whatever I get to know each other speaking from my viewpoint anyway that's why I said earlier it was kind of hard for me to get into the whole dating thing relationships just freak me out and we as Mennonites we believe that marriage is for life and so divorce isn't even an option something that I treasure very much that has been our heritage like most of us kids have grown up with parents that stay together it gives a good stability in her life anyway so marriage is definitely a huge decision and it would just make me feel kind of uptight like what if I'm making the wrong decision you read all these books that you know you get married and you wake up and they're completely other person and suddenly there's all these fights and you can't get along and and I would just freak out I just thought all the little details all the things that could go wrong and is he the right guy isn't he the right guy like I liked him but did I really really love him and round and around and around and and I really enjoyed my time with him like I really liked him but was all these little things and so that definitely like I we would talk about it didn't we mm-hmm yeah we did some yeah so like he knew when it was going on as some dates weren't the best so it wasn't like it was all sunshine and roses no are the legs big is it like um so when I was going through all this and fine I'm like you know I'm really gonna pray about this it was we've been dating for some time I just I wasn't sure what if I should be asking for signs or not from God I started fasting in some way and prayed and I asked God if Nolan was the right one for me let's backtrack a little bit so no one was really good at sending me flowers he'd always send me really nice bouquets but he never sent me roses which was great like I didn't mind I'm not it's not like there was something I was pining after but it was special that he saved roses for later so I was praying and asking God you know please show me please show me this is a guy that I was supposed to be with I decided to kind of lay out the fleece like Gideon did in the Bible and I prayed that if it was God's will for us to be together that he would send me roses instead of his normal bouquet of flowers that he would send I think I had prayed that it would be within a week or maybe two weeks but I think was a week and then I added at the end I'm like and if if he can just give me a double confirmation let it be two dozen roses because a dozen roses is sort of the typical you know you give a dozen roses in some week for an added extra punch can it be two dozen roses so the day started going by I was praying about this and anyway so the lady I was staying with my sister-in-law now she gave me a call she said hey you have a box on the front porch and I just knew almost immediately what it was it went flying home and checked it out but sure enough on the outside I think it said flowers calm or something flowers came in a box and I opened it up for sure enough this big spread of roses and it wasn't a dozen it was two dozen so like what what made you send me where's is that time honestly I don't really know flower guy I'm not sure that was just that really is just crazy later on I think it happened later I was once again struggling and I should probably should have been content with the roses sign I'm like Lord you know please show me if this is truly or will let these three things happen there was three things I had requested a little bit more broad things that when he came around for a date would happen and I forget what they all were I need to go back and look again a refresher in my mind but I remember one of them was that he would pray on one of our dates and I'm thinking the other one was that we would go do something pretty different than fun and adventurous together and I forget what the third one was but he came down that weekend and he took me snowboarding was her first time snowboarding which was a sport I loved and I just remember we were going up the lift on the ski lift and he's like should we pray right now we were going up on their left and I just remember it was just another confirmation but it was incredible I just felt like God really cared and I was looking out for my anxieties and fears and saying you know what this is the person you're supposed to marry so I just feel like God has been working in our lives and sometimes I can forget that and when you go and look back it's just I mean I really really struggle or like I wrestled with stuff and would lie awake at night and just be scared because it was it's a huge commitment and if you're kind of an independent person that is a loner like I'm a loner type of person and I kind of get my energy from being by myself and so even that fact is like can I actually be compatible with someone for life and so anyway so it was definitely a huge thing that God showed me in those signs that it was meant to be and he did all kinds of fun days like I said one time so he was an Alberta member you bought me tickets to Seattle that's for your birthday right no one my birthday wasn't it and by then I was convinced that this is a guy I wanted to marry but me tickets to Seattle which was just like a hour flight from where I was he drove and met me there and we spent two days in Seattle we went and stayed with a friend for the night just because in Christian circles it's kind of yeah for us to get a motel even it was separate rooms is a little bit yeah questionable also would have raised some eyebrows yeah and it's just a good idea yeah just to be on the safe side so we went to a friend's house for the night but we had so much fun exploring Seattle going up the Space Needle and I remember I'm like I am sure he's gonna propose to me we were up at the Space Needle or both I just had this really romantic dinner I just remember up there looking out over the city it was a clear beautiful night and I'm like sure he's gonna propose I showed off my son of their I mean really memorable but he didn't and I was mad at him for a while didn't tell him but I was bad at it I was the end of your school year wasn't it yeah the final day after the school picnic hmm couple anchors of my dad's farm kind of overlooks yeah we caught the ridge but it's it gives you a really good view but anyway at night it's really cool to go up there because you could look down across the valley anyway so I took her up there that night and proposed to her there I love old trucks and he took me in an old pickup up to the top and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him [Music] a follower there whatever you do I'll be there for you and I will be forever true [Music] give it all give you my life I give you my soul and I know that you keep it safe forever for all Fugit don't explain to them there were people asked why you're living here we're not in Oregon hmm it's kind of a long story I guess I just thought it'd be fun to move somewhere different for a little bit live somewhere different and her dad offered us a place to live Matt and her brother offered me a job and so at the time your former boss had quit right so you didn't really have a job to go back to well I had quit to go teach school yeah and he was yeah he was kind of trying to slow his business down and yeah I just I thought it'd be fun to move back here to the east for a little bit just see what life's like back here and our plan was to be here like a year tune and move back again right yeah I I didn't see myself living here in the east for four terribly long I just thought it'd be a good experience and seemed to be what God was wanting us to do and opening doors I guess you could say and seven years later here we are create a good life I like that I like this area yeah and then just real quick about our engagement so he came back for the summer started working for my brother right away and then we could work at the house together and plan the wedding and so on we got married in September so to make a long story short I still kind of battled with this whole fear of getting married like I knew what I wanted to do but it was just still there it was there completely up till my our wedding day I just remember praying and saying God please do not let me ever second-guess this like let my wedding day be one of my happiest days and don't let me be second guessing things on the wedding day or after and it's just it's just amazing how God just comes through and I remember I never looked back ever like on our wedding day was like the happiest day of my life I was just so happy to be married to him and we we decided ahead of time that we want hands off courtship for the most part up until we are engaged we we didn't we call it hands off but we didn't hold hands or give hugs or anything like that and so and we wanted to save our first kiss until we got married we just felt it was easier to stay pure that way and focus on getting to know each other better and I am so glad we did it this way I just feel like there is another dimension of getting to know each other because you're not so focused on all the emotions and the feelings and whatever if you are yeah everyone has their boundaries once we got engaged we held hands and so our wedding day was so special because yeah suddenly you know I had this husband beside me that her first kiss and was one thing that was so special to me anyway I didn't think he'd be this tight but he just wouldn't let me go their whole wedding am I making you uncomfortable yeah so long story short we got married and I have never ever second-guess marrying him [Music] but yeah for a honeymoon we drove to Florida our uncle would let us stay in his house for a few days for a wedding gift then we flew to Ecuador and spent 10 days there exploring all around from the beach to almost the rainforest so that was a lot of fun it was we both enjoyed traveling so we've been trying to every year do something special for a trip if at all we can't afford it and time allows so our first anniversary we really splurged and went to Ireland we weren't quite as trip savvy as we are now and we speak thank you for a good amount of money but that was fun and then second anniversary year we went to doing yeah and for our third anniversary help me out here that when we shot that wedding in New York mm-hmm back when I was in a wedding photography I did a wedding in New York and then he just came up and joined me we got a really neat bed and breakfast but that year we decided to push our trip off till later and where do we go that's was it that spring yeah we went to Barbados and that was a lot of fun we had really enjoyed our time there so then our fourth anniversary we were expecting he took me down to Allie know Williamsburg Pennsylvania Virginia Virginia like an old colonial town which was fun I wasn't feeling the best at the time so it wasn't quite as fun as some trips and then Xander was born and for our fifth anniversary he went to Alexandria Virginia as a family just a fun little getaway it wasn't anything major [Music] [Music] hey Xander [Music] but then he got older and last year or sixth anniversary we went to Paris and that was just a party so if you haven't seen that I have a whole playlist to it I'll have links up here wherever the cards are you want to check out our whole trip it was fun there's a really good time and now this is our seventh anniversary is we decided to really splurge and I don't know if you've heard of Shippensburg Pennsylvania we do vacation there it's just our hometown here I'm still been struggling with my health and we decided also some other things are happening right now we decided to just stay home first time we're home for an anniversary we went kayaking today which is a lot of fun but we have another trip coming up in February Lord willing if everything works out not telling you guys where we're super excited to go so that's gonna be kind of like our big anniversary trip and I think he has a surprise for me later next month we're gonna go somewhere for a late anniversary getaway but I'm not sure where he's taking me that's her story how we met don't glad you married me every day of my life anyway thanks for watching thanks for being here if you haven't subscribed feel free to subscribe I'm a Mennonite mom that just likes documenting life and giving tips anything mom related so subscribe if you'd like hit the little Bell button and you'll be notified whenever I release something new anyway see ya oh this chair is uncomfortable you like my setup thanks for hanging in my light for me

Channel: the Mennonite Mom

Views: 108,690

Rating: 4.9556398 out of 5

Keywords: mennonite dating, a mennonite love story, our love story, when God writes your love story, god wrote our love story, anniversay, nj family, mennonite family, mennonite couple, christian couple, christian courtship, christian dating, dating for christians, mennonite mom, mennonite, christian dating boundaries, megan fox unlocked, a love story, love story, love, two people fall in love

Id: WNjknh-vvs4

Length: 29min 51sec (1791 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 20 2019