The Beginning of Our Love Story

I’m writing this post because this blog is a place for me to share my joys and sorrows. I want you to know my love story, which includes both joy and sorrow. I hope this story helps you see some sunshine.

The Love Story Begins

A love story started quite some time ago. Some of you know most of the story, some of you know parts of the story and some of you know none of it. It’s a long story, so I’m not sure what all to share. But let’s focus on the most recent parts, and I’ll try to quickly summarize the rest.

I fell in love with a guy while I was in college, and he fell in love with me. After we had dated awhile, we began to talk about the future — about marriage. I was for sure — 120 percent positive — he was my future husband, the man God had planned for me all along.

But the future we had planned didn’t work out. Before Christmas, we broke up. Travis (that’s the guy) had a lot of decisions to make — big decisions about his future. He’s in the Army, so he had to sign contracts about his future. And, I’m not sure if he’d like me telling you this, but he was scared. With absolutely every right. Travis was scared of what the future held — what marriage would be like and whether I would even be happy in the Army life. So our relationship ended. Neither of us wanted it to end, but it did.

During that year apart, we both grew a lot. We never once stopped loving each other, and it helped us both know how much we wanted to be together. It took almost a year — a year full of tears and confusion and questions and heartache.

During that year, God healed my heart. He showed me my happiness is not based on my circumstances. He worked on my heart, and I’m sure on Travis’ too. God brought me from a season of sorrow to a season of joy. And even though I was moving forward and enjoying my life, there wasn’t a single day I didn’t miss Travis. He still very much had my heart.

And here’s where the story gets good…

About a month ago, Travis contacted me. We hadn’t talkedin a long time. Remember how I said I like to exile people from my life to ease the pain? Fortunately for Travis, he could keep up with me through my blogs. But I wanted nothing to do with him, and yet everything to do with him at the same time — that caused a lot of chaos in my heart. Anyways, Travis contacted me to tell me he had made a huge mistake by letting things end. He said he was an idiot, to which I agreed. 🙂 But he also said that he loved me, missed me and wasn’t going to ever give up trying to win me back. Finally, Travis was ready to fight — for me.

I had prayed and prayed and prayed during the past year, that if it wouldn’t harm any of God’s children and if it wouldn’t harm His kingdom, that God would send a miracle and restore our relationship, that Travis would fight for me and we could have a future together.

But I didn’t go running back. As much as my heart leaped for joy at the thought of Travis wanting to get back together, I knew I had to be cautious and smart about the whole thing. We spent weeks talking things over, discussing my concerns and talking about what if’s. I had my eyes and ears on high alert, ready to find any red flags that showed it wasn’t what God wanted, wasn’t right or real or true. But no red flags ever came up. Everything was right and real and true. And during my time with God, I never heard Him say, “Run.”

After lots of talks and lots of advice from family and friends, Travis and I met in person. We worked a few more things out. Travis apologized again, but this time in person, for walking away from our relationship. I forgave him. I understand what he was going through at the time. I understand how scary it all was/is. And I understand that his perspective has changed since then.

The Love Story Begins … Again

Travis asked me to be his girlfriend … again. And I said yes. Before spending the day walking trails and eating Chinese food, we stopped and prayed. We prayed a huge thanks for bringing us together again. We prayed for our relationship, that we’d always put God first and center our relationship around Him. We prayed for our future, for the difficult times, and we asked God to bless our relationship.

I want to make sure you all know that my life isn’t suddenly awesome and great just because I have a boyfriend. My season of joy started way before Travis contacted me. But I can’t tell you the joy I feel now or how full and happy my heart is having Travis back. God gave us the 3 R’s — redemption, reborn love and restoration. God redeemed us by giving us another chance at creating a beautiful, lasting relationship. God gave us a reborn love — a new, even stronger love for one another. And my favorite, God restored our relationship. He answered my prayer, asking for restoration. He sent the miracle. He fulfilled His promises. He saw the desires of my heart. The best kind of love story always involves the 3 R’s.

I can’t even find the words to tell you all how grateful I am. It really did feel like the story of Job, and I know that’s a dramatic comparison. But Travis was so important to me, and within a moment he was gone. It felt like everything had been taken from me. Just like Job. But I honestly think that through that year, my faith never wavered. I knew all along that God was still with me and He had a plan. I knew He would bring good from the situation, from my heartbreak. And just like Job, God restored my fortune. And it feels like I have twice as much as before.

And that’s the basically just the beginning of our love story.

Update: Remember how I said I knew Travis was the man I was supposed to marry? Well, it turns out I was right. Travis and I got married just eight months after this post was written. Check out our wedding photos here!