Memorial Day Weekend
Ten years ago this weekend, Jeremy flew from Dallas to Detroit to meet me in person for the first time. Hard to believe it has been TEN years!! I remember being extremely nervous because we seemed to relate to one another and really liked each other. A lot. Though email and online chats helped with that.
Mark and Darlene Jebson had moved from MI to TX. Their first weekend at Dallas First Assembly of God Church, they saw Jeremy and met his family. Darlene called me to tell me "Jess, we just met your future husband!" I, of course, laughed it off figuring that since I was 26, people were just trying to set me up. They told Jeremy that they knew his future wife and that he had to email me! It took a few months and lots of prompting, but finally he wrote. His first email was one of the best moments of my life. I loved that he organized it by subject with headings like "My family," "My job" and "What I like to do."
I showed the email to my mom and dad. Then wrote back a very similar email with headings and such and information about me that he would want to know if we were to ever become friends. Or more. Then started a few months of chats, online dates (where we'd make our own dinners in our houses and then eat them while writing each other back and forth). Had we met now, we could actually have done FaceTime. Funny to think we had never seen each other in person, never heard each other's voices or had contact with anyone who knew us except Mark and Darlene.
I remember Jeremy's dad writing a few times and writing him back.
One of our friends had told us that there was no way that we couldn't talk on the phone. Being the people we are, we took the bet and made it for several months without talking on the phone. Having only seen pictures that were mailed and having internet talks and checking with Mark and Darlene to find out more information and validate if he/she was really who they said they were, the time came to meet.
Jeremy flew into Dallas. I remember that we were fairly, if not completely sure, we'd found 'The One.' We talked about what we would do when we met. Could we hold hands? Was it ok to hug? What we would be wearing so we'd know who the other person was. Should we kiss? No, that was too intimate for our first time meeting. Hugging would be ok.
I remember seeing him in the airport that first time and thinking "Yup, I could totally marry him." We were both soooo extremely nervous. Holding hands felt really strange. Being next to him felt really weird. We knew so much about each other and yet, there was so much distance because we hadn't had a 'normal' relationship to build off of.
Jeremy tried to make it through dinner with my family. And having loads of onions in the meal didn't help. His least favorite food and first dinner with people he didn't even know. No pressure!!
He asked my dad's permission to marry me at the end of the weekend. I flew to Dallas in June and after only seven days of having seen each other in person, we were engaged in front of all of Dallas First Assembly! I found an apartment in Dallas, got a job in Richardson and chose to move to TX in August after going on a missions trip to Thailand. Had never been to Dallas before and was now going to live there. HUGE change!!
After moving down, starting a totally new life and leaving all of my family and friends behind, we were married in December of 2003. It was a really difficult transition. But I'm so glad I did it and I'm glad he married me!!! Mark and Darlene stayed in Dallas for only a year. Just long enough to introduce us. Then left in October of 2003 just two months after I moved. God had a plan. What a change this weekend made in both of our lives ten years ago!
Mark and Darlene Jebson had moved from MI to TX. Their first weekend at Dallas First Assembly of God Church, they saw Jeremy and met his family. Darlene called me to tell me "Jess, we just met your future husband!" I, of course, laughed it off figuring that since I was 26, people were just trying to set me up. They told Jeremy that they knew his future wife and that he had to email me! It took a few months and lots of prompting, but finally he wrote. His first email was one of the best moments of my life. I loved that he organized it by subject with headings like "My family," "My job" and "What I like to do."
I showed the email to my mom and dad. Then wrote back a very similar email with headings and such and information about me that he would want to know if we were to ever become friends. Or more. Then started a few months of chats, online dates (where we'd make our own dinners in our houses and then eat them while writing each other back and forth). Had we met now, we could actually have done FaceTime. Funny to think we had never seen each other in person, never heard each other's voices or had contact with anyone who knew us except Mark and Darlene.
I remember Jeremy's dad writing a few times and writing him back.
One of our friends had told us that there was no way that we couldn't talk on the phone. Being the people we are, we took the bet and made it for several months without talking on the phone. Having only seen pictures that were mailed and having internet talks and checking with Mark and Darlene to find out more information and validate if he/she was really who they said they were, the time came to meet.
Jeremy flew into Dallas. I remember that we were fairly, if not completely sure, we'd found 'The One.' We talked about what we would do when we met. Could we hold hands? Was it ok to hug? What we would be wearing so we'd know who the other person was. Should we kiss? No, that was too intimate for our first time meeting. Hugging would be ok.
I remember seeing him in the airport that first time and thinking "Yup, I could totally marry him." We were both soooo extremely nervous. Holding hands felt really strange. Being next to him felt really weird. We knew so much about each other and yet, there was so much distance because we hadn't had a 'normal' relationship to build off of.
Jeremy tried to make it through dinner with my family. And having loads of onions in the meal didn't help. His least favorite food and first dinner with people he didn't even know. No pressure!!
He asked my dad's permission to marry me at the end of the weekend. I flew to Dallas in June and after only seven days of having seen each other in person, we were engaged in front of all of Dallas First Assembly! I found an apartment in Dallas, got a job in Richardson and chose to move to TX in August after going on a missions trip to Thailand. Had never been to Dallas before and was now going to live there. HUGE change!!
After moving down, starting a totally new life and leaving all of my family and friends behind, we were married in December of 2003. It was a really difficult transition. But I'm so glad I did it and I'm glad he married me!!! Mark and Darlene stayed in Dallas for only a year. Just long enough to introduce us. Then left in October of 2003 just two months after I moved. God had a plan. What a change this weekend made in both of our lives ten years ago!
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