Our Story - Part One

On July 28th we're going to be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. So many people have heard our story but for those who haven't, I'll be sharing (at least my version :o) the highlights of those very special days. It will probably take several posts!

Our story begins long before we ever met each other - our backgrounds were very different, our family cultures were not at all alike, but there were some commonalities - both of us had made decisions to follow Christ; Philip at age six and I at age 15. This at least set us on a path that allowed God to work in a wonderful way in both of our lives though very unaware that each other existed....well - not quite.

Philip was raised in Florida at Hobe Sound Bible College and three of my mother's siblings attended there as well as my father's sister and family. One of my aunts actually babysat Philip and growing up in Pennsylvania I remember seeing a recipe, written in her hand entitled, "Maynard's Lasagna" which had come from Nadine's (my now mother-in-law) kitchen. I faintly remember hearing stories about "The Brown's", a few comments about them being "different" (in reference to how they were raising their children) but had no clue who they were.

The first I would have seen Philip was at Bellville Brethren in Christ Church when the Hobe Sound Choir was there and we went to see my uncle, John Keefer, and my cousin John Mark Keefer. But neither of us remembers the other.

There are six and a half years difference in our ages so our lives were at different stages at different times. Philip did not date prior to our meeting, I on the other hand did. He graduated from college and moved on to Bob Jones to work on his graduate degrees while I graduated from high school and went to Bible School.

To understand "Our Story" you have to understand a little of my background. I wasn't one of those girls who was just waiting for the day that I'd meet Mr. Perfect and we'd get married, have babies, and live happily ever after. My view was more - "It's easier to cry yourself to sleep at night because you're lonely when no one else is there, than to stifle your tears because you're lonely and someone is there." Not a lot of hope that marriage was anything better than God's ordained way of populating the earth - if you got fortunate, you might even like the guy. So, I entered the dating scene with pretty disastrous results! And apart from the mercy of God - this story would be a whole lot different!