My Story, Which Leads to Our Story

When I was at the mature, advanced age of 18 (can you sense my sarcasm?), I met my husband.  Now, I had seen him before, and had even spoken a simple “Hello” in passing, but I didn’t really know him.  At that time, he was only a somewhat familiar face from church.  He was “much” older than me.  A whopping five years to be exact, but when you’re in high school five years is like an eternity older.  And besides all that, I had had a boyfriend for the past four years of my life.  So, I wasn’t “on the market” per se.  I had happily been in a relationship that I truly thought might lead to marriage.  My boyfriend was a great guy, he just wasn’t who the Lord had for me.  We mutually decided to break up the summer before I left for college.

Of course it wasn’t final until it was “facebook” official.  Isn’t it sad that social media controls our lives sometimes? Anyways, I had hoards of people texting wanting to know what happened.  Some people that I literally NEVER talked to saying, “Let me know if you need to talk.” or “I’m here if you need someone to talk to.”  I mean, really people? They might as well have been saying, “I know we don’t talk and we’re not really friends, but I’d like to know the details of your breakup so I can gossip about it.” Umm, thanks, but no thanks guys.

But, one person was different.  He texted me the day I moved to Liberty University and simply said this, “We’re going to miss having you around at church.  Hope your move goes well.”  I was shocked.  Here is this guy that seemed totally out of my league texting me that I would be missed at church.  This guy was out of my league for so many reasons.  Reason 1: He was gorgeous!

I mean look at him! Way out of my league.

Reason 2: He was older. Reason 3: He was finished with school and had a full-time job. And on top of that, I definitely wasn’t looking to date someone right then.  But, little, ole naive me just assumed that he was being friendly.  I texted him back and told him that I was a little lonely because I didn’t know anyone there and my roommates wouldn’t be moving in for another three days.  I guess I was a little intrigued by him because I casually mentioned that he could call me if he wanted to since I would undoubtedly be by myself that evening.  And you know what? He called me.  You know what else? We talked for almost four hours.

It was a typical, casual phone call.  We talked about church, and college, and hobbies, and eventually deeper theological stuff.  It was bizarre how easily we talked to one another.  We also seemed to have so much in common.  But, I still didn’t think he “liked” me like that.  And, I still wasn’t looking to date someone right then.  But nonetheless, it seemed as if we would have a good friendship.  We talked on the phone every single day after that.  About two weeks later as I was walking out of one of my classes I was stopped and asked out on a date by a boy who I guess was in that same class, but I had never seen before.  I told him that he was very nice to ask, but that I had a boyfriend. I felt kinda bad to say that because I technically didn’t have a “boyfriend”, although I did have a friend that was a boy and he was starting to feel like a “boyfriend”.

When I talked to Nathan later in the day I told him about my day and mentioned that someone asked me out and that my excuse was that I had a boyfriend.  Of course he knew that I was referring to him and he casually said, “Well that’s fine.  I don’t mind being called your boyfriend.” And that’s it folks.  That was the non-romantic, not exciting way that Nathan became my boyfriend.

This is the very first picture we took together. This was in August 2008. You can see Nathan’s bandage from his recent surgery after his motorcycle wreck that same summer.

I was told later by my Daddy and Mama that the very first time I got off the phone with Mama after telling her about my new friend, she told my Daddy that she thought I was going to marry him.  He said, “What? There is no way you already think that.  She barely knows him!”  Mama responded that she couldn’t help it, but she felt very strongly that he was the one just by the way I talked about him.  I wasn’t told about that conversation until much later.

We exchanged our first kiss one month later while standing in my parents driveway.  We exchanged “I love you’s” a month after that while standing in the same spot in my parent’s driveway.  Nathan and I had discussed the possibility of marriage a mere two and a half months after we started talking, right around the same time that we said we loved one another.  I remember it very clearly.  We were on a hayride right around Halloween time and we were sitting there hand in hand talking about what we thought about marriage. Talk about moving fast.  Our relationship is the poster child for a fast moving relationship.

In May of the next year (2009) we had taken a day trip to Mooresville. We went to all kinds of neat little shops, he showed me his old school and his old hangout spots, we went shopping and ate dinner at this adorable little restaurant right on Lake Norman.  It was the perfect day.  We were headed back home when Nathan got pulled over for speeding.  He was given his 6th speeding ticket in only five years or so.  Ridiculous.  He has finally calmed his driving down some, thankfully.  The ticket incident put a damper on the ride home, which went right along with the mood I was trying to fight back.

You see, I had been thinking for a few weeks that he might be proposing soon, and it seemed like every time I thought it might happen, it never did.  I was bummed.  But, it’s one of those things you try to hide, so then it doesn’t make the guy feel pressured.  We got back to my parent’s house where he would be dropping me off.  We had walked up on the front porch and sat down on the porch swing for a while.  When it was finally time for him to go, all my hopes were gone that he might be proposing to me that day.  We walked to his car.  Right before he said goodbye he asked if I would pray with him.  Of course I agreed and then he prayed for us and our relationship.  Which is super sweet, but not uncommon because we prayed together often.   It was after that prayer that he asked me one simple question, “Will you pray for me everyday to be a good husband?” I just looked at him.  He got down on one knee and said, “Megan, will you be my wife?” He pulled out a ring that I couldn’t see because we were outside and it was kinda dark.  I said “YES!” with all of my heart! I was so excited I was shaking uncontrollably.  We ran inside to show off my new ring to my parents who apparently had been expecting a proposal also.  I was so excited.  It was like Christmas morning when you’re a kid.

We set the wedding date for November 28, 2009 which was only 15 months after our first phone call.  I had always wanted a Spring or Summer wedding, but when he proposed in May neither of us wanted to wait an entire year to marry.  Those six months seemed to be the longest of my life.  The day finally came.  It was so beautiful.  The weather was gorgeous.  It was sunny and probably 70 degrees or so.  There were approximately 275 of our friends and family in attendance.  We had saved ourselves for our wedding day and that is something we have always been thankful about.

I was a very young bride at only 19 years old.  Nathan was able to finish putting me through school for which I am forever grateful.  I’ve often said that we were somewhat able to grow up together.  I have received some odd looks from people when they hear that I was married at 19.  And you can always tell when people think that you must have been pregnant, or just plain stupid to marry at such a young age.  Some people think it will never last because “people change”. But, here we are about to enter our sixth year of marriage, and I’ve never once regretted my decision to marry young.  I love my husband more now than ever before and I’m so thankful that he called me that day way back in August of 2008.