The woman of my dreams…

 

 

We met at Emory University…lived in the same freshman dorm (Longstreet!).  I’d see her race out of the building each day to track practice, and though we had a class together and both sang in the gospel choir, we barely noticed each other first semester.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  I had my eyes on her before she acknowleged me.  Then it happened.  Our first window occured when she gave me her number over Winter Break.  I called and she refused to pick up b/c she was online (remember the days of dial-up AOL?).  I knew then that she was going to make me work for it.  Challenge accepted.

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There were definitely questions about whether or not we were ready.  I mean, we were both the ripe old age of 22 years old.  We’d just graduated 2 weeks prior, yet, here we were about to walk down the aisle.  Fortunately, neither of us had questions about whether or not we were ready.  We didn’t have time to worry about the “details”.  lol.  We were in love and knew that we wanted to commit to building an empire together.

 

 

 

One thing I know for sure, we’ve been blessed with a great group of friends.  It’s true what they say about the friends you make in college.  They can become friends for life.   After Emory we each have started our own lives, marraiges, and families, we’ve all grown together.  And at every turn, they’ve been there in some way, since the very beginning.

 

 

Nine years, 2 kids, four degrees, a home, career changes, and the birth of a ministry together later…we’re still going strong.  Like any successful relationship, we’ve had our opportunities to grow through hard times.  We continue to make each other stronger.

I remember when we were first married, I was a new teacher and you were still in Nursing School and working the night shift at the hospital.  We only saw each other for a few brief hours in the middle of the day because our schedules didn’t coincide.  But during that brief 3-6 window, everything shut down.  We called that our talk time, and whatever happened during the day we saved it for each other to share the good news first.  It’s things like this that I appreciate about you most.  You’re still the first person I want to tell about my day.

Together we’ve relied on God to steady our relationship. Truly, from the beginning the only reason why we weren’t worried about whether or not things would work out was because we both trusted God’s purpose for our lives.  We always have believed that our relationship has a higher purpose than just ourselves.  I believe that’s why we were both so convinced about the potential of our union, you saw the God in me and I likewise saw the God in you.  And that’s the thing that keeps us going each day.  When we wake up, regardless of what issues we’re going through, our circumstances don’t determine our level of commitment to each other.   We’ve gotten a glimpse of our future together and each day presents the privilege of living out that dream.

Here’s to many years more with you Samantha Wakefield.