Love Story: Part I

Two years ago today I married the love of my life, Christopher Cary Sloan Sibben. That day was unlike any other day. It was the day that I had dreamed and prayed about for years. It was a day that all my expectations and hopes were filled. It was a beautiful day, one that I will never forget.

I have always wanted to be married. I remember in high school and college just hoping that I would find the right guy, get married and live happily ever after. I thought for sure that it would be right when I graduated college. Well, that didn’t happen, God had other plans. A broken heart and a broken dream, I graduated and was onto the next adventure in life. I joined staff with Student Venture and moved up to Atlanta, GA. I spent the next 4 years living life, doing ministry and going on dates. I definitely had some interesting dates. I always made a promise to myself that if a guy asked me out, I would say yes to at least one date- I mean it was free dinner, but really they were fun and made for some great stories.

I still deeply desired to be married but I wanted to be married to the right guy. I had seen the type of marriage that my older sister and parents had. I wanted a marriage like that, one centered on Christ, sacrificially loving the other person. I didn’t want to be married to just anyone, I wanted to be married to the one God had for me. I waited and waited, I prayed lots and at times questioned if God would ever bring that guy into my life. I thought many times that there was some special formula to get God to bring my husband, like if I was content and satisfied in Him, if I wasn’t looking, etc. But there is no formula, I could only ask and pray that God would move and fulfill this desire-he does, when the timing is right!

In May of 2010, I met Chris for lunch at a local sandwich shop. Chris actually doesn’t remember this meeting, but I do. We were having lunch with my boss, Darren, and talking about having Chris help me with ministry @ Alpharetta High School. Chris talked to Darren about sports while I sat there and ate my sandwich. I thought he was cute and he was single, I was definitely intrigued. Darren was thinking that I would be a good fit for Chris as well, but them talking sports did nothing to help me. We had lunch and went our separate ways. The summer came and went and I didn’t see of talk to Chris @ all.

In August, the school year stared again and Chris started helping out @ Student Venture. He would come to the weekly meetings and we started to get to know each other better. I then started going to the church that he worked at, I was looking for a new church, it was just a bonus that he was there ☺ As the semester went on, we would talk but nothing really happened.  At this point, I was definitely crushing on him. I thought he was HOT, he was athletic, loved Jesus and was in ministry. In November of 2010, I heard through the grapevine that he took a girl out on a date in Charlotte. I was crushed. I thought for sure that he liked me, I mean; he would talk to me after church for what seemed forever, little did I know that was his job. I took my crushed spirit and did what I thought was the best thing, joined e-harmony! I proceeded to go on some really crazy, funny dates. I remember during one of the dates actually telling the guy I had something else to go to that night because it was so bad. Anyways, the e-harmony thing really wasn’t working out that well, but I stuck with it.

In January, Chris called me to ask me out to coffee. I remember I was @ Passion and didn’t hear the phone ring. I listened to his messaged and freaked out. I was so excited; he wanted to get coffee with ME!!! I mean he did say that he wanted to talk about ministry and getting more involved, but I knew he wanted more. I did wait a day to call him back, I didn’t want him to think I was interested, ya know. But really, who am I kidding, I was unbelievable excited that he called me and wanted to hang out. So, we went to coffee. I remember exactly where we were sitting, what I wore and what we talked about. We sat for 3 hours and talked and talked. We did talk about ministry but we talked a lot about life and got to know each other. It was magical ☺ I was falling, very quickly and very hard…..