Four years ago Aaron and I were married at Parkway Hills Baptist Church in Plano. But our romance began long before we said our vows before our friends and family. I was the girl in college who thought for sure I wouldn’t be married soon thinking that I had so many other things I wanted to do first. Thankfully God had other plans. Aaron and I met at Oklahoma Baptist University in the “fabulous” town of Shawnee. We spent our Friday nights with a group of students who ran a program for children in downtown Oklahoma City called Mission Center. We played games with kids and taught them Bible stories. It was like VBS every friday night. Aaron was assigned to walk with my group as we walked around the streets to pick up our kids at their houses. So we started out as friends. We worked on the newspaper together too and we found excuses to hang out together.
One night after Mission Center we were suppose to go see a movie with a group of friends, but they all bailed so we decided to go see it together. Well during the movie there was some definite arm “overlap-age” (as we called it at OBU) and my heart was racing the whole movie and my mind was running thinking he might like me. So as I go to drop him off at his dorm I flat out asked him, “So what was this? Was this a date?” I just couldn’t help but ask. I’m not really one to beat around the bush. And he replied, “I don’t know. If I were to ask you on a date what would you say?” And I replied, “I don’t know. You’d have to ask.” And he laughed and walked away… Oh he was playing a game with me.
So the next week was exam week, so we were all busy cramming and packing our dorms for the summer. We didn’t see each other all week so I figured it wasn’t really a date. But the day I was going home, he came over, brought me a sonic drink and helped me pack up my car and told me he was going to miss me. And I was wondering what his deal was… we hadn’t spoken all week and now he’s going to miss me (whatever…). A couple hours later while I was on the road he called me. Then he called me every night that week and we talked for hours every night. I remember specifically standing in a Barnes & Noble looking for books for my summer trip and talking to my good guy friend Derek and discussing how if a guy is talking to you on the phone for hours, then that’s a clear sign that he likes you. LOL – so funny looking back now. The night before I left for a summer in Spain (where I worked as a graphic designer for a missions organization) Aaron asked me in some way to be his girlfriend. I said that was fine but I was going to Spain for the summer… so he agreed to call me and write e-mails. That’s what we did for the first 3 months of our relationship. I figured he wanted to get to know me, so I’d write him 8-page long e-mails… no joke—I wrote crazy-long e-mails. He read them and would reply with a paragraph or two. 🙂
When I returned home had came to visit me and we went on a fun date with my best friend Machen tagging along. We ate Pei Wei and went roller skating and after Machen met Aaron, she loved him (so that’s always a plus when you get in good with the BFF). A few weeks later we were back at school and by October we were talking about marriage. It was a bit of a whirlwind. But I’m convinced that college dating is like 5x more intense than post-college dating because we saw each other every day. We studied together, worked together, when out for pie at Denny’s… so we saw each other a lot.
Next thing I know, we’re standing in Westgate Mall in Amarillo after Thanksgiving with his family and he wants me to show him what type of engagement ring I wanted inside Zales. I had no idea what I wanted and I had no idea this is how people decided to get married… I thought it was all impulsive and spur of the moment… but that’s so not realistic. I argued with him just outside of the store for an hour. He convinced me to go inside and then he swears he couldn’t get me out of there. I figured I didn’t know anything about jewelry, so they had to tell me and show me everything.
A couple months later, I planned him a crazy-awesome surprise birthday party. His birthday is Feb. 5, which also happens to be Mexican Constitution Day and I like to plan themed parties, so we celebrated at a Mexican food restaurant and then went to a Hockey Game. I had about 20 of our closest friends along for the night. After the game we went to a random bridge where Aaron and I hung out and I was so happy because I thought I was the best girlfriend ever! I planned a great surprise party. I thought he had no idea and I pulled it off beautifully. (LOL) Well, it turns out everyone else knew that Aaron was going to propose that night but I didn’t know it until he knelt down in the floorboard of my Tahoe. When he asked me if I would marry him I asked him “Are you serious?!?!” I was so surprised! And eventually the words “yes” came out of my mouth. I spend the next 3 days calling everyone I knew, telling them I was engaged, etc. It was awesome! I was so excited!!!
To this day I am just so excited to be Aaron Davis’ wife. He is such an amazing man—a great leader, so fun to be around, so sweet, loving, giving, easy-going and supportive. We’ve had so much fun together and I can’t wait to see how much fun we’ll have together in the future as we serve the Lord, love each other and do our best to love others through our different lives and jobs.
I do just totally love being married! I’m so excited to share in that joy with so many of my brides. Many congratulations to my 2009 brides and 2010 ladies: I can’t wait to celebrate your day of love and commitment with you this next year! 🙂
And because a post is always better with a photo, this is from our trip to Ireland this year. This photo was at the Cliffs of Moher. 🙂
