Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Little Story of Us

This is the story ( in summary) of my sweet husband Jimmy and me. The first photos are of me. I was born on January 25,1980 in Houston and grew up in Sharpstown.I have the best parents in the world! My mom and I are best friends still! I don't see a resemblance of myself in June at all! What do you think?

This is my Paw-Paw. We lived next door to my grandparents until I was 9 years old. They were wonderful years and my grandparents always kept their door unlocked for my brother and I to go freely from our house to theirs. They were truly an inspiration to me and through their lives from missionary service in Jamaica to being our grandparents, they emulate the very countenance of Christ and showed me what unconditional love and marriage looked like.
Who dresses their baby girl as a homeless person? My mom. Not a princess or even a cute animal...two years in a row I might add!


Here is my sweet husband Jimmy! He was born three months later on Halloween!

Here's Jimmy with his Daddy! Is he not the cutest!! I think he kiiiiind of looks like June.





Here's Jimmy with his mom. Precious little chocolate cake eating baby!

This is my favorite picture in the entire world of my sweet husband when he was in pre-k! So Sweet!



Jimmy and I grew up and met our Junior year of High School when I went to Stratford. Our mutual friend Thomas introduced us. This is us at our tri-theta formal. Jimmy was so proud of his velvet dalmation print bow-tie! He brought me two dozen white roses neatly arranged in a basket that night!


Jimmy and I were best friends and liked to hang out after school and watch Billy Madison, play with my dog Kodie, and go fishing.



I'm not sure why we were dressed up here, but check out my high waist jeans!


We liked to go fishing at Ethan's Glen. This was on Valentines Day in 1998.

1998 Senior in High School


When Jimmy and I graduated, I went to Stephen F. Austin State University and Jimmy went to A&M. After a week at school he sent me by mail (we didn't have e-mail yet) a letter that basicly said do you like me as more than a friend check yes or no. I checked yes. It was a long time to wait for snail mail and I checked my mailbox about every hour. We then started dating in the Fall of 1998. This picture was taken at SFA when Jimmy first came to visit me.


I drove to College Station alot to see him too. We missed each other sooooooo much and had to buy phone cards to talk.


I met my good friend Juliana at SFA that year and she drove to CS with me all the time. She lives in Hawaii now and has a baby girl June's age named Ayah.

Jimmy and I broke up at the end of that year. I had already applied to A&M before we broke up and I got in. I ended up going to A&M and never seeing Jimmy until my Senior year of College. Meanwhile there were many changes in my life and I surrendered my life to the Lord in 2002. I knew I needed Christ in control of my life and I had always known Him, but chosen to go my own way. Everything changed. My friends, my heart, my relationships with my family, and the Lord Jesus began to reveal Himself to me and show me my desperate need for a Savior and forgivness, and His plan for my life. I started going to church and learning about the nature of my salvation and how the Holy Spirit comes to live inside you and guide you after you receive Christ as your Savior.
Ephesians 1:13Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory
I learned about how you must believe in Him to be saved and that it is by grace (that we don't deserve as sinners) by faith (beleiving without seeing) that we are saved and receive this FREE gift of salvation to be with Him as his adopted child for eternity. There is no way by good works to earn your way to heaven. It would be as though paying someone a penny for a billion dollar gift, for our good works are like filthy rags compared to His goodness
Ephesians 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The good works follow naturally as you desire to love and glorify your Lord Jesus who loves you unconditionally and seeks after you as His precious creation whom He loves. After I became a Christian, I got involved with Youth Impact (Urban Ministry) and I met Keosha, who I still mentor and consider my daughter. Here she is when she was five. She is growing up to be such a sweet mature young lady and I love her dearly.



Keosha was at my house almost every day. Jimmy and I ran into each other a few times at the end of college. In 2003 I told him about how I had accepted Christ as my Savior from sin and how he could too. He wasn't ready. I graduated in 2003


Jill is one of my good friends from childhood who really nurtured my faith and taught me ALOT about Jesus. She loves Keosha too!


My dad is a completed Jew. He became is christian when I was 8 years old. My mom loves Jesus too and is a constant source of encouragement to me. My mom is the most unconditional friend, giving and patient mother, and loving wife to my dad! She loves everyone and is devoted to the Lord in prayer ALOT! She is a prayer warrior! Her strong faith is such an example to me.


Here's me with my friend Sara when I first graduated from college! It was such a celebration because I really struggled with alot that year.



I moved back to Houston after college and started teaching Elementary Art. Jimmy called me up in November 2006. We hung out and he told me about how he had ALSO accepted Christ as his Savior from sin! Now that we were both Chistians, we were two totally different people, children of Christ, and we had alot in common. We picked up our friendship really fast and soon were dating. We got married in May 2006. Jimmy was baptised at my church that year.



This is us in 2006.

I am so blessed to have Jimmy. He is my precious gift from the Lord and I love Him more than I could ever have imagined when we were younger. I could go on and on, but I'll wait for his birthday for that! Now we have little June and are expecting baby girl in January and I feel so fulfilled and complete with love. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world for my family and most of all my Lord Jesus, and His unconditional love for me!


























4 comments:

Melissa said...

That's amazing Nat. Loved it. I feel that way everyday of my life about my Husband. I had always been faithful too, but never truly accepted Jesus until 9/11 in college when I lost my friend during the terrorist attack. It was more than I could handle I handed it all to the Lord and since then he has carried me through everything and lifted me up in the hardest of times. I am so glad you are so blessed. I cannot wait for Baby II to come :)

BTW- I do t hink June looks like your baby pic and I think Jimmy looks JUST like Claire!

yoongihee said...

hey nat! i liked how you added that you guys wrote each other via snail mail! loved reading what you posted. -g

A Special Kind Of Teacher..... said...

wow...that was an incredibly honest story. You have a great writing style that comes out very naturally. I know I'm a little behind in my blog readings, but I love the concept of how you started from the past and introduced us to both yourself and Jimmy. I didn't really know how far back you two have gone, and it does seem you two are meant for each other. Great post....Sorry for being so behind (i'm trying to catch up)

alvara2l said...

Hey Nat. Joseph sent me the link to your page and during my block time I thought I was just going to quickly see it but I couldn't help it but read everything. It was so exciting the way you wrote your story. And I'm really happy for you and your family. June have great parents!!!

Lisbeth