Part one: The beginning of a friendship

At the end of the summer of 2006 I was preparing to start summer band at Tyler Junior College. Honestly I was not excited about it at all for a few reasons, first of all I had planned on attending Southwestern Assmblies of God University but unfortunately God had other plans and well let's just say I was disappointed in His plan for the time being and was pouting about it (and I'm not proud to admit that). Second I had just graduated and come from a military marching band and well TJC was not and I was not too thrilled about it. Then the last reason was I at the time still did not know what I wanted to major in and so I was a little stressed about trying to figure out what I wanted to do. The only positive thing I was looking at was that a few of my friends I graduated high school with was going to be in the band too and it put me at ease to know I would know a few people. The first day of summer band I was sitting on the floor next to a few of my friends when this tall skinny guy walks up and says "Howdy I'm JR" to us. Now when he tells how we met he likes to remind me that when he saw my friends and I he said to himself "oh they're cute I'll go introduce myself" and that when he did we apparently glared at him. Now I can't confirm or deny that I glared at him but I can tell you in the back of my mind I'm thinking "oh great a crazy frat boy." Well I turned out to be partially right, he was pretty crazy in a funny way, and he was apart of the band fraternity. However he was not the type of "frat" boy I thought he was, I was thinking the crazy drinking and partying all the time type but he wasn't. Thankfully if I did glare at him he didn't take offense because we eventually became friends. Now it wasn't just us there was actually a group of us that became close and learned that we had a few things in common, we loved band and we loved God. Now I can't say it only took a month or so for JR and I realized we were made for each other because that's not how it happened at all! For two years we all just would hang out at the band hall and then during the summer we would go see movies or go out to eat. Also during that time I dated a few other guys and honestly never thought I would end up dating any of the guys in our little group! At the end of the spring semester of 2008 I had just ended a relationship and many of my friends from our group had just graduated and I was a little sad to know many of them were moving off in the fall to universities. Since I started with out a major and not deciding till my first semester I wanted to be in the Sign Language Interpreting program I still had another year but I stayed in band and had been chosen as assistant drum major (which JR had trained me). That summer I spent as much time as possible with my friends before they all moved off so I started working more in the band hall until I had to go to my other job at the Scroll Christian Bookstore down the road from TJC. At the time JR, Brittney, and Rachel worked in the band hall and we all were very close. But I had no idea what God had in store at the end of that summer. You see I was at a point that I had given up on dating for the fact that I had "dated" different guys looking for "the one" and saying God was in control of it but really and truly I was still trying to create my own fairy tale ending I guess you could say. Well I finally gave up and decided to just focus on my relationship with God and what he had for my life. It was then that by the end of the summer I realized I had feelings for JR but was unsure for a few reasons, first for most of the time I knew him he was not right with God but I knew he had started going to church with one of our friends but I still didn't know where he stood. Another reason was he was about to move and start attending Stephen F Austin State University. Also I really wasn't all that interested in starting a relationship and I didn't want to ruin our friendship. Well right before everyone moved off Brittney, JR, and I happened to be hanging out and Brittney just blurted out "I think you two should date." In shock we just looked at each other and all began talking about it. Well later JR and I decided we would go on "a date but not a date" (I know it sounds really crazy but it made since at the time). I still was unsure about a lot of things but I found out that he had rededicated his life and was getting baptized and he wanted me to be there and then wanted to take me out to lunch afterward. He then let me know that I had been one to influence and encourage him to get right with God. This just floored me! He also wanted to treat it like a date so he told me he would pick me up! (Now mind you I had always been raised the old fashioned way and even though I had dated many other guys I still had never had a date where the guy came and picked me up for a date) so on that Sunday he came and picked me up and took me to church, I was able to witness him get baptized, and he then took me out to eat . From there we began to talk more about the idea of starting a relationship but took about a month before we made it official. After all of this I watched as God moved through JR and while he continued to say God used me to get closer to Him, God was also using JR to draw me closer to Him. I was amazed at was God was doing with in him and little did I know that God had some big surprises ahead for both of us. I hope you join me as I share you the testimony of our proposal. And yes, it's a testimony because if God had not intervened it might not have happened (or at least how JR had planned for it to) Many Blessings, Jessica