Testimony of God Bringing Us Together!

hello friends i'm having another guest this time my last video i had a guest is my best friend katie and my last video i shared for the first time on my youtube channel um that i had a boyfriend and now i'm married so it's been a while um i need to make more frequent videos but um anyways i thought it would be great for the two people out there who want to know our story [Laughter] um no it's for posterity reasons you know or you know it's just a recording of god's journey and his working in both of our lives bringing us together and really um you know you see those signs in places like places like hobby lobby which we so love hobby lobby we don't like coffee lobby except for framing but they'll have those signs that say something like um out of hobby lobby is a good christian company oh yes yes yes it's overwhelming [Laughter] yes yes um but you know they'll have those signs that say something like um of all the stories you know i love our story best you know and and though i wouldn't put a cheesy sign like that in my house um really when i think about our story it's really cheesy it's really cheesy fresh story cheesy but really our story is my favorite you know like i couldn't have imagined it working out better like it's worked out perfectly like an amazing way so we thought we would just share um really is a testimony of god bringing us together how he has worked so many things out um has even used the coronavirus pandemic to help with the whole situation i orchestrated a world pandemic to get her into my life it worked so um so i'll just uh let's see i'm trying to think where to start um i guess i mean a lot of you guys know my story um i was not looking uh to date um i'd been in a not good situation before i had moved into my house last year uh was it last year last or a year ago and um i was just like feeling like i was getting my feet on the ground i was you know as my first place i was totally my own and um anyways so what had happened was not this past summer but the summer before i had had a group of friends over for dinner because i had and you guys i told you the story about how i got that farmhouse and what an amazing testimony it was and i was having some friends over from our church singles life group over to share the story about how god did it and like to show everyone the house and so i had had some friends over one of them was a girl that had been dating a guy for a couple weeks and i knew about it but no one else did and she was like hey can i bring my boyfriend and that way he could meet everyone i'm not sure it was fine so she had brought him it was all fine and then um then maybe like uh it was like the next week um oh i didn't start from the very beginning where we initially met we initially met at a dog birthday party but it was just in passing it was just like i wasn't even planning on going but i already had to be in town for dance class and i was like oh i can just swoop in real quick say hi show my support as a friend and leave and i met you there but it was just like just like hi my name is shauna great he had a really firm handshake so anyways um so that's where i first met him and then um so a couple weeks go by yeah and that that's when i had everyone over for dinner and so like the next week so i had him over on saturday night like monday or tuesday i get a text from my girlfriend and she's like hey um my boyfriend really wants to set you up with this friend and sent a picture of him to me and she goes do you know who he is i'm like oh yeah i know who he is like briefly like i just i met him at the dog birthday party i went to a couple weeks ago but i'm like you know i'm not interested in dating like if he wants to show up at places we're all doing stuff together it's fine but i'm just not interested in dating so do you want to share your side and well real quick and so i thought what had happened was he her boyfriend had went to his friend tj and was like hey i met a christian who can cook and then tj was like okay that's how i thought it went which typically that's all it takes good looking christian woman who can cook so i um i wasn't in a place where i was really looking to meet anybody i had my stuff i was going through and and uh i was just in a place where i was super focusing on god i still am and um i was at church and uh i noticed about four rows in front of me this good-looking woman who was worshiping god that i hadn't seen before and she her hair was long and she was just worshiping and i couldn't keep my eyes off of her and was extremely intrigued and she had turned around and i kind of recognized her face from the dog birthday party thanks derek very special dog he was in a tux he was in a tuxedo and so um i had mentioned to our mutual friend about this person that i had seen and i showed him a picture from facebook so i recognized her face and he's like i just had dinner at her house do you want me to hook you up and i say yes hook you up is not the right term but yeah do you want me to introduce you to her and i said yes um so then we uh we went to a church on wednesday for a praise and worship service and that's where we met for the first time and um that's where she felt madly in love with me oh my god i do it yeah so that's just basically where we were introduced and then um i began the chase and it was quite a quite a chase quite a quite a journey from there yeah so i think um the next time we had because we had a couple meet-ups like at the beginning that was kind of funny because um what i knew nothing about you and so the only thing i had to go off on was i knew a couple of your friends like who your friend circle was and you know i know now like he's got a lot of different friends and and he's very loyal and he's got really long term friends which is something that i really value and appreciate but um the friends that i knew were his um you know uh they weren't maybe the guys that i would i would go out with you know and i wasn't even looking to go out with anyone but well i think i think probably the the most politically correct way to say this is uh we both had things happen in our life and so we are both very cautious of who we're going to spend time with and uh to get to know and so she was uh i think she was just very guarded of the people that she let in her circle yeah yeah we should say yeah and so i know i know um one of the first times uh we were got to spend some time talking was we had gone um it was like after a dance class and a lot of times a lot of us would go have tacos because it was on a tuesday night so taco tuesday we're having tacos every time and so um there's a big group of us and then like everyone starts dropping off like flies and um and all that's left is me uh now going out with my friend's boyfriend and tj and i'm not the type to cancel on stuff but i'm like oh this is gonna be so awkward like i don't even know these guys harley and i'm meeting him for tacos you know and so uh so i had some i had a friend in the neighborhood who where we were gonna be eating tacos and i was like hey if you happen to be like driving by walking by or something feel free to like oh hey so so wild to see you here you know and um and my thought at the time was um you know because i wasn't interested in dating and anything and so i was like you know i'm just gonna tell him my testimony about how god gave me this house that i was living in and i'll just like be a witness for jesus to him and and i told him about my youtube this youtube channel which ended up being a blessing because you heard about it and so i basically got to know her through her youtube messages and so i had a big advantage and i knew the type of person she was and what her heart was and and um and i you know like i said i wasn't really looking but um i just like and i never used these words before her i liked her energy her aura i feel like i need to throw some crystals out when i say that but that's not how i was until now so i just was i was intrigued so i continued to pursue getting to know her and uh she was she was okay with it but we had to be in group settings [Laughter] so we met in group settings for about three months which was good yeah which was good it was it was and um so uh i don't know so i guess it came later in the year and uh you were kind of wanting to have a discussion about just where things were headed is that what you want to talk about next i'm a shirt question how far you want to take this just the highlights well i guess um so this is three months into i guess we started seeing each other not seeing each other met each other in august and getting to know each other august september and october and so by this time she had agreed to go to lunch with me just the two of us and then just a couple right but i was trying to get i was trying to figure out whether i was getting a friend vibe or whether she liked me vibe and so we went to a couple lunches or whatever and she was telling me how much her friends liked me and her mom and dad like me and all of her kids like me because he went to the same church so like out all my people got to meet him and even my kids which had been very against the thought of me like going out with anyone and such uh two of my kids were like actually several of my kids were like why aren't you dating this guy like why don't you go out with him he's super nice he's a great guy and i'm just like stay in your own lane like i'm not dating okay but it was it was kind of funny that my kids were actually telling me i should so i got back to work after a lunch date with her and um and i sent her a little because she does marco which is really weird at first it's our marco messages if you know what that it's means you video yourself talking uh that's weird but i'm kind of used to it now and so i sent her a message and i said hey i'm i'm really happy that everyone likes me but what about you which kind of threw her for a loop yeah and uh so she sent me a super long marco message that didn't tell me anything except kind of understanding where she was in life and relationships which if you understand uh her past you would also understand why she was very leery to be any kind of a relationship so i got that and then um so we decided to have a discussion about it like get together for discussion and i was so going into it this was my mindset was um was because he was wondering if he was just kind of if i saw him forever in the friend zone or if there was like a chance like of a possibility so i was like oh like thanks i'm enjoying this like just hanging out and stuff and and i had gotten to know him a lot more by then like his character and people who've known him for a long time and and such and and i was like so i knew he was a good guy by now but i was like i'm just not ready and so i went into the conversation thinking okay i'll tell him like may there might be a possibility for some something in the future i'm thinking like in a year like maybe in a year we could we can look at dating [Laughter] and then you want me to [Laughter] or do you want to share something she came over the house because i was like let's just talk like a couple grown-ups and figure out whether we're just friends or there's a possibility more and so we visited and and talked and i kind of ended the conversation that you know there's a possibility and um we're friends and she was leaving we gave each other a hug and she hugged me a little longer than what you would expect actually i was breaking up i was like winning for a hug and i was letting go and she hugged more it was like it's such a good conversation you know that's all i was thinking it was a clue she wanted me to kiss her and i did and then it's history a year later we're married it's a great kisser it like changed everything it's like okay i guess we're gonna start dating and so actually i was still really cautious um for quite a while like i um except for my close friends who knew and had been around me and him and stuff like i would i would refer to him as muscles like that was his name i wouldn't even tell people your name which is a lot of pressure i really just want to get fat needles and quit working out but since she kept calming muscles i had to stay in the gym so so i called him i would just refer to him i'm like oh yeah me and you know muscles and i are going out tonight like i wouldn't even wouldn't even like to say we're dating i'm like we're just getting to know each other because it was just you know just a big commitment feeling to say oh i'm dating someone and so so at that time in my life um uh you know this perfect farmhouse that i thought it was going to be until uh you know i jokingly said i it's like the farmhouse so i'm going to stay until i was 85. um the people who have the situation i explained that on a different youtube video um needed the house back for their daughter who was going through a very bad situation and um and i'm just like oh my gosh like like my life has felt like in such upheaval and i just gotten felt like i was getting settled in a place i was gonna stay for a while so um i thought i was gonna have to be out in february at first and then they were like no you can stay a little longer well then all the stuff about corona starts being talked about and a possible like i don't know what do you call it like a where they closed everything down and so um so well so then since she lived out in this farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and uh we didn't know without toys yeah we didn't know what the quarantine was going to look like so my mom lives across the street from me and i was like well my daughter and i could move into my mom's house and shauna and her kids can move into my house and that way they would be close and if the quarantine stuff was really weird and she was separated from us out into the country well that wouldn't be good and i was worried about her safety so i presented it to her she thought it was a good idea so her and the kids moved into my house my daughter and i moved across the street yeah just for like the month just for the quarantine time so we just like packed up some clothes our books food my plants and um we moved over oh my here lots of plants you love them now i've gotten rid of some too i had to weed out a few and so um we just moved over for the month um and then that you know with the plan that i was going to move back to my house pack up and then i was going to have to permanently find a new place like with a month after that well then they extended it for 10 days and so tj had the thought of like well you know this 10 days now we're getting closer into the time when you actually do have to be out and you're gonna be able to go back to work and all that stuff and so he was like why don't we just pack you up and move in that 10 days like just move everything into his garage and my storage unit and that way uh when the thing was lifted i can get back to work i was in like a rush to find a new place in two weeks and move and all that and so that's what we decided to do and um and i'm pretty sure i made a video about this but like i still had the mindset of like because that was that was like mid-may right and so i still had the mindset of like okay this is just a temporary situation and because like i wasn't ready to get married right away even though like i loved him and everything like that like i just wasn't there like past stuff you know past baggage or whatever like and so it was um so like i had prayed about it i said this on one of my videos i didn't share the whole thing because you know i hadn't even said i had a boyfriend on my youtube and that was another story but really when i went to prayer god spoke all this stuff all the stuff that he'd been speaking like the whole week and a half before and then he was like um do you need a place to live right this second and i was like no and he's like well if you don't then just believe and trust that when you do need a place it will be there for you and i'm like and that was with a bunch of other stuff i'm like okay well um that's fine i'll tell tj this and so i told him i'm like i prayed in this way but like god has said and he's like okay sounds great with me and um and so our thought was like we had um several things going like busyness stuff like we went on that vacation me with my kids him and claire my best friend katie and her kids all went to south dakota so there was a lot of busyness so i was thinking well maybe after that like mid july because i needed a place to move and get settled before school started like we'll approach that then so but that's not i guess i could i didn't want him to move and by this time we had already been talking about our future yeah and um my mom was super gracious to continue to let claire and i stay there and um and you know we had we had already talked about getting married and spent the rest of our life together and so i was like don't move yeah well um so it was like mid-june um it was like so weird how little things click and and such and we were um we had a garage sale there was a neighborhood garage sale and there was just like something in me that just was not i was just not ready to commit to like oh yes i want to get married like it was just something in me it just like scared me and um like i would see signs for like wedding decorations and like i'd see him and just like i just feel like oh you know and um not because i didn't want to be with him but because just this idea of marriage from what i had before and so something had happened and i probably don't have time to go into that but um or do i have time to go into that real quick i'm not sure what you're going into okay the garage sale thing so we're having this garage sale and and um and you know it's like we were done i was selling a bunch of my stuff and um and like we were done and i sold a bunch but i still had a lot that didn't sell and we were like packing it up and um we were in his mom's garage because that's where we had the garage sale and and i'm just feeling super embarrassed all of a sudden and i don't get embarrassed very easily but i'm just like also feeling bad like i spent money on these clothes that we're still in great condition and i'm just it was just i felt very wasteful and i understand like well that's a whole other story too but but like i was just embarrassed that i felt like i misused money uh just was being frivolous and stuff and i'm like and now i'm just like getting rid of it and and so i'm just feeling kind of embarrassed by it and but we're just in silence and all of a sudden like he speaks out because he's very perceptive like like i'll be feeling something he just picks up on it and a lot of times he knows why and um but all of a sudden he's just like he's like folding our stuff or my stuff and he's like you know i sure am glad that i have a girlfriend who knows who always looks so nice everywhere she goes you know and always dresses so nice and i don't know something about that was just like like broke whatever it was in me that felt hesitation or whatever i know it's weird and it's really small but but it did and i just like gave him a hug i started crying and and um i'm like you know i think i'm ready to get married [Laughter] you know i think it's sometimes like the vulnerabilities that you feel like is someone going to see everything of who i am like all like the good things and the bad things like the strengths but also the faults and is someone going to be able to handle that like are they going to be accepting of everything of who i am and what i've gone through and i don't know is i guess it was like that moment made me feel like you saw all of me and you loved me and so i think that was that was the thing and so then it's like if we're going to get married there's no reason for me to move out so it made perfect sense why god had spoke to me and was like hey just trust and believe that when you need a house it's going to be there because yeah so i joke that it's all part of my master plan and that i orchestrate a worldwide pandemic to get a woman that i'd love to move into my house and then never move out yeah and what was really awesome about the whole thing was um my kids were you know we were able to move in here with tj being across the street and claire being across the street and but they were over here all the time like i'd make dinner and they'd be over here for dinner and because of the pandemic and everything being closed we would take bike rides all over the place and parking lots because no one was doing anything so we just spent a lot of family time together my kids were able to be around him and claire a lot in a way in a very um it wasn't like put on all of put on them all at once like pressure wise or something it was just easy and then it's like once we decide we were gonna get married we were waiting on some other things and um but we were like well if we're going to get married like i might as well move all my stuff and like take it out of the boxes so so i was able to like get the kitchen order like decorate all this stuff and so when we actually got married it was so nice like i'm already moved in the house is decorated we're in this flow of life so the only thing that was different is i moved out of my mommy's house back into my own house but um the neat thing is that we were able to slowly integrate our families our kids and and we are so blessed that uh the kids all get along great and it's been a wonderful uh situation everything has moved in it's nice um and so really it's been great to watch how god has blessed this situation and the decisions we've made and how we've gone to him for guidance and direction and and i think probably to encourage people when you're going through some tough times is so often the answer it's not right away it's it's down the road and i think as long as you keep faith continue to trust in god and push forward believing that god's gonna turn around a bad situation for your good and his glory it's often better than you had ever asked or imagined and um and so you know don't lose hope the seeds that you plant for today it takes a while sometimes for the harvest to manifest for the seeds that you planted and sometimes when we've got problems in our lives we've allowed some things to slip that we've allowed some junk to come into our lives and it takes a little while for that to get cleaned up and so just don't lose faith or trust and god he's gonna come through he's walking with you through the fire and sometimes it takes being on the other side of your bad situation for you to look back and think wow god has done an amazing thing in my life yeah and and relative he got it got it done relatively quicker than i would have thought but when you're going through it it sucks i mean it does and uh and you can get really discouraged but um don't get discouraged yeah so yeah so we really feel like um uh like this has been such a god story you know like from the beginning like god walking this path of glory that he's laid out and just him working everything out so easily and um when there are questions there it's like god has worked it out and and life is so good with our kids and and just incorporating everything together it's it's just been great we're just really thankful and i was really excited to bring you on an introduction to everyone so that's all do you have anything else to say i don't okay thanks for listening to our story okay love you guys bye

Channel: Life by Shawna

Views: 12,627

Rating: 4.9531617 out of 5

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Id: f8nsEHOYtyc

Length: 29min 28sec (1768 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2021