l.o.v.e

It’s 1 am; I cannot sleep. There is much to do tomorrow and Hudson will be up in 4-5 hours, so really … I should sleep. But as I lay here reflecting on these last four years I’m overwhelmed. I was going through another season of not being able to sleep and wrapped up in praying for this man I didn’t know very well, but was somehow falling in love with. I was the most single girl you had ever met, and four years later, this man lays asleep next to me, and our beautiful baby lies in a crib a few feet away. What?!

As I reminisce I’m compelled to share so pieces of our story. Not as some sappy tale of heart-ache turned to bliss, but just to share the grace of God on two crazy people who are just really blessed to have somehow been given to one another.

Jake’s best friend, Casey, married my best friend, Emily. They strategically placed us in the wedding together, I had no idea they were trying to set us up. Emily came to me after the wedding telling me Jake was interested and had a lot of fun with me at the wedding. {the picture below was taken at their wedding, and clearly I wasn’t opposed to him either} Being me, I quickly responded with a “no, no, no, he’s so nice, but no.” I knew Jake was serious – hilarious on the outside – but when it came to things like this, I knew he wasn’t a guy who was looking to date just to date – it would be serious. And this terrified me.

Over the next two years we’d see each other periodically when I came home from school, we’d chat, it was platonic. But at the end of 2010 after being so tired of these college/fraternity/USC boys around me I threw in the towel. I went to God with this list of requirements for my husband, and God graciously reminded me that what He asks of me is to love Him and love my neighbor – so why did I have more requirements for this “husband” than He had for me. Oh wow. Instantly it was Jake – he’s not perfect but he’s the only guy I knew who was so strongly desiring to live out these two greatest commandments. Our faith in God had everything to do with us ending up together.

After me having this realization I started to pray about Jake. And within a month I had fallen in love with this man that I hardly knew. Apparently he would occasionally pray about me over the course of these two years, and in February of 2011, we both individually knew that we were the person for each other.

In March he came up to LA, went on a walk with my dad, asked for permission to date me because he knew I was the woman he was supposed to marry, asked me out a few hours later, and our adventure began. In July we got engaged, and in October we got married. Anyone who knows me knows that this is not me. Really. To this day some of my best friends still refer to me as the most single girl they’d ever met, and genuinely thought might never get married – this was all God.

Our road has been crazy, I have no doubt it will continue to be. But it is really sweet. We’ve experienced the highest highs and lowest lows in these last four years. We’ve had really rough days, and the sweetest days I’ve yet to know.

Jacob, each day with you is a sweet gift. Thank you for bearing with me through the good, bad, and ugly. For each moment I get with you I am so grateful. Praying for 100 more years by your side. 7