When I graduated high school, my best friend Melisa, and I spent a lot of time together that summer. I can still vibrantly remember sitting at the little table in her parents front room--I can't remember what we were doing, but the conversation went something like this: "Ok, now that we are out of high school and in college, we've gotta get a boyfriend. No more of this not dating thing. So God, (yes, we told God how it was going to go--real mature, I know!) the second day of class, Melisa is going to walk in and there is going to be the blonde hair, blue eyed guy and she's going to drop her pencil, he's going to pick it up, and the rest is going to be history." We laughed at ourselves and didn't think anything of it and kept doing what we were doing.
That Sunday before classes started in August, our church, Casas Adobes Baptist Church, had just started a college youth group. We got there and there was a new guy--blonde hair, blue eyes and super cute! We were at the mall later that day and both were like, "Did you see that guy??!!" Lo and behold, next week on Tuesday Melisa walked into her writing class and guess who was there--yep, Nick--the new cute guy from church. We couldn't believe it! Melisa did a writing project with him in class and we decided to get a group together to go to Funtasticks and Melisa invited Nick and told him there was a big group going. I invited a guy from one of my classes at the UofA but he couldn't go and Melisa invited her cousins, but they got the dates mixed up so the night comes in August of 2002 and Melisa and I are sitting at Funtasticks--by ourselves--waiting for Nick. We were going, "What in the world are we going to tell Nick?? This is SO awkward...we told him it was going to be a big group and here we are just us, waiting for him!" We saw Nick approaching our table and I looked up and noticed Nick had brought a friend with--my thoughts went exactly like this, "Oh! Nick brought a friend....oh...he's ok." Yep, you guessed it--that was Jord and the first time I set eyes on my hubby. He still teases me mercilessly about those thoughts!
We had a great night miniature golfing and all four of us started hanging out all the time. We met a lot at Nick's house cause he had a pool table and a pin-ball machine (didn't have to use quarters!!) and watched movies. In December of that year, we got invited to a New Year's party at Jord's house, but I couldn't go because my Mom's rule was that I had to stay the night wherever I went, and that obviously wasn't going to work. Jord and I had exchanged phone numbers to talk about the party. Over Christmas break, Nick, Jord, Melisa, and I along with several others went up to Mt. Lemmon to play in the snow. Jord and I got in this huge snow fight and I remember thinking, "I'm totally flirting with him...do I like him? What the heck, why not??" Nick got hurt flying off a tube sledding, so we had to leave early, but Jord also did a snow angel in a t-shirt...yep he definitely wasn't from AZ!
We started talking on the phone everyday after exchanging phone numbers. All 4 of us went to Quizno's on Thornydale that has since shut down and Jord's sandwich actually caught on fire. We all laughed at that. Before we left, he handed me an encoded poem that I had to use my good ole T-I 83 calculator to decode. I was riding with Melisa and we had stopped to get gas, so I started working on it and he had said, "I just wrote this the other night...it's not meant for anyone in particular, but thought you might like to read it." I got the first line decoded, "On a spring day or summer night, your beauty is a wonder to my sight." I got chills and somehow knew right then he had written it for me. (Sorry honey, your secret is out!) We started exchanging poems and talking everyday and one day Melisa, Jord, and I were sitting in her car talking after classes at Pima when we both said we liked each other. The first time we held hands was praying before dinner at Melisa's house (that was what you did...Melisa, there were a lot of firsts with you involved!).
Finally at the end of February I was helping my family unload the camper and talking to Jord at the same time. I remember sitting down on the love seat in the living room and asking, "Ok. So if we aren't dating and we aren't courting, what are we doing? Where is this going?" He promptly replied, "We're dourting." I laughed and then said, "Serious answer please...." He explained that his parents had been praying for his future spouse since they adopted him at 6 days old and he had started praying when he was 13 and he figured he'd just get to know a girl and then marry her. I remember thinking at the time, "But you date! What else is there? And that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" He went on to say that he would tell his friends what he wanted to tell them and I could tell my friend what I wanted to tell him so I said, "Ok, you're my boyfriend then." So February 22, 2003 became the "official dourting" date. The next day was my birthday and he showed up at a gas station meeting me with literally a bucket of flowers from Trader Joe's.--it took 6 vases to put them together and he had gotten me a lot of stargazer lilies which have become my favorite flowers.
Later he would tell me that before he agreed to let me call him my boyfriend he knew he was going to marry me. I asked him how in the heck he knew that because I had contemplated breaking up with him at one point because as a new believer I was trying to figure out how to make God first and had a prayer written at the end of Philippians that went something like this: "Lord, help me to make you first, whether that means quitting school or breaking up with Jordan, I want to make you first in my life...." I was wrestling with how much I loved Jord and didn't understand how I could love someone so much and wanted to make sure I was loving God more. I didn't go through with it and I remember walking through the desert in late March of 2003 and I knew I was going to marry him. Had we not both been going to school and living at home and not able to afford to get married, we would have done something like my Mom and Dad did where they met in April and were married in September, but we had to wait on God's perfect timing.
We got engaged that November...we had been to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Moor in Casa Grande and he was staying the night at my parent's house that night. On the way home, he asked if I wanted to take a walk when we got there...I remember looking out the window dreamily as we passed Picacho Peak and thinking, "He's going to ask me tonight!" We got to the house and we went inside and it was dusk and he asked me to go help him get some stuff out of his car. He asked me to grab his clothes out of the trunk while he grabbed something out of front of the car. I grabbed his clothes and then noticed a suitcase next to it and figured he needed that too...I started to pull it out of the trunk and it was unzipped and something fell out and hit the ground. It was November 8th and his family gives gifts at Thanksgiving. I knew he and his Mom had been shopping at the Thomas Kinkade store earlier and Jord can't wait to give gifts so I assumed I had ruined an early Thanksgiving present. I put the clothes in front of my eyes and said, "I didn't see it, you can give it to me later, I promise!" He sighs, picks it up, suddenly realizes I really didn't see it, amazingly it hadn't broken and says, "I was going to give it to you right now anyway." He hands me a beautiful circular box with a lighthouse scene on top of it. I briefly saw something about "You are my sunshine" on the front and then he says, "It's a music box, open it." I take the lid off and saw a folded over piece of paper--I thought it was one of those keep fresh packets. I finally realize it's a folded piece of paper and open it and it says, "Will you marry me?" and he pulls out a beautiful amythest ring. I literally froze and was speechless for the first time in my life. I turned around and said yes and disappeared into his arms. A funny side note--he had a pretty purple flowery paper that he had written on but forgot at home, so he tore the corner off his chemistry notes and scribbled on it and that's why it was folded over...both pieces of paper are still in that music box that is always displayed in our bedroom next to one of my favorite wedding pictures. The ring had been his Grandma's high school graduation present and no one in his family had a birthday in February--it just so "happened" that my birthday was in February and purple is my favorite color (if you haven't already guessed that by now!).
Just over a year later I did end up quitting school so we could get married. That, however, is another story for another time. We got married on December 3rd, 2004 and it is true what they say--every year it just keeps getting better. Jord, you are my best friend, the love of my life, and my greatest earthly treasure! God knew more than I ever could just how much I would need you these last 11 1/2 years....we've walked some pretty deep valleys in the last 5 years, but our love has only gotten stronger! To God be the glory, great things He hath done!
This last picture reminds me of one of my favorite memories of Jord--because Aunt Netta worked in recovery and pre-op at Northwest for one of my sinus surgeries, Jord was allowed to be in recovery before I woke up and my first memory coming out of surgery was him standing by my bed rubbing my cheek--God has blessed me exceedingly with the man He gave me. I know it is Christ in him, but He is truly a priceless gift from above--I could never put into words how much he loves me and how well he loves me--sacrificially like Christ loves the church...Jordan truly fulfills this call to husbands from Ephesians 5:25-33:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
Found this song Sunday when Jordan was here by Brad Paisley called Little Moments...we laughed so hard listening to it as it describes all those little moments we don't realize are so important and just how much a lifetime is truly made up of very precious little moments.
Praising Him for the wonderful gift of marriage!
Rachelle :)
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