One Hope

Hello new Starbucks. We will be great friends #newstarbucks #coffee #nowopen

Wedding website coming soon. This man is writing our love story ;) #michaelanderin #lovestory #truelove #talesofanoriginalgirl #engagedlife @mikescobar91

Haircuts… #engagedlife #picstitch #haircuts #michaelanderin @mikescobar91

my dear friends Stephen & Jen with their cutie pie red-headed child on a Winter Retreat to Boone, NC

Ready to eat :) #engagedlife #talesofanoriginalgirl @mikescobar91

Oh you know. Just making food late after a long days work. #engagedlife #michaelanderin #talesofanoriginalgirl @mikescobar91

In all of life there are moments that stand out as more memorable than others, milestones that stand higher than the others representing a time where things changed. These can be things that occur in the natural that obviously create a shift for change in life or encounters or defining moments that occur in the spirit. Ahhhh- defining moments. 

Starting school, going to middle school, then to high school, that awesome family vacation, the first time you rode your bike without training wheels, the first time you rode an airplane, or found out what a DVD was, or your first CD. All of these moments and more add up to who you are.

I remember the first day I met my fiancé. I went to visit a new church, not planning on actually going there, but was greeted with a hug and huge smile from this kid, i though was seriously crazy…. like extravagant not like literally crazy crazy. I honestly never thought I would end up falling in love with him, some years later. 

We just begin our short friendship, chatting and talking about life and God and school… then on a weekend retreat with the youth group, Michael held my hand. I was just taken aback, but I really liked it. I remember coming home and being like, this boy needs to just tell me that he likes me and wants to date me or whatever his intentions are. Here begins our relationship.. we were 16 & 17. Kids. young people in love with the idea of love and marriage. We did everything together, hung out with each others families, and didn’t kiss for 2 years. We put our relationship before the Lord all the time, not really sure what we were doing. But as I look back now, I’m thankful that we allowed for the process. 

After 1.5 years being together, I graduated high school and moved away to Atlanta, GA to go to ministry school. I obviously didn’t want to move away, and Michael tried to figure out a way to move down there while being in school still… but I knew that it was going to be okay. I loved him, but I loved the Lord more, and I knew that He had to be my biggest priority in my life. we were both young. After living in Atlanta for almost a year, I broke it off with Michael, not because I didn’t want that but just because I wanted focus where I was at, this was in 2010. 

In the midst of those 2 years or so alot has changed and happened, and we’ve grown and learned to love. I watched Michael become a man and love God, capture a vision for his life and go after it. I moved back to Wilmington in 2011 after I finished my ministry school program, not really for any reason other than, I didn’t have anything huge going on in Atlanta, I hadn’t met some guy and been swept off my feet (which many people thought would happen) so I just returned home. 

I thought I might have missed it or just given up on things by doing that, but I also knew there were some lifestyle things that the Lord really wanted me to get, and I really did too. I came home to have time to invest in a lifestyle. In the meanwhile, there was Michael and here was I, we didn’t jump back into a relationship just because we were both available or anything. Oh trust me it was hard just being in community with him. I processed alot with friends, about it, “well I dont want to just because we know each other…”  ”well I don’t want to just date just to date, if we got together again it would be headed toward marriage”  and things like that. The two of us talked a little bit too, what we were wanting… it seemed like just chaos and just silly. but those were all defining moments. I see it now, defining moments of discovering what we wanted and what really was the desire of our hearts, and that’s okay. 

The beginning of this year 2013, after hanging out with some friends Michael proclaimed his undying love for me and that he’d made up his mind, he wanted me. I was ecstatic, and excited, I couldn’t believe it almost, he made up his mind. :) A wake up call was just around the corner for Michael, to know what he really was saying, and offering to me. At the end of a really crazy week of unsettledness and wondering if I could even have that or want that, Michael had a plan, or maybe soon after that, he had a plan, that this was really what he wanted, and he would do whatever it took to get it. 

Honestly I fell really in love and settled in love with Michael in January 2013 when he declared his love for me, not based on being and growing in a “dating” relationship as like the next step in the relationship but that he said all that to me just growing in a community together and seeing each other “becoming”. That’s one thing I’ve always dreamed of, that my man would see me and know me and just know he wanted to marry me. I never thought that could happen with Michael because we had dated.. but you just never know.  

February 10, 2013 we began courting, with the intention of marriage, because we loved each other and we wanted to commit to each other. (with the idea that sadly it would probably be a year before we could get married- TOO LONG ;) )

February 14, 2013 Michael took me out on a lovely date for Valentines day..

We talked about getting married, about having to save money, so that Michael could support a family… that this might all happen in a year. 

He got a new job- full time, doing what he loves, it was all coming into view. In my mind I’m thinking and planning of like okay, well how can he do this.. da da da. and meanwhile Michael Escobar, knows how he’s going to do it all, he’s taking care of it. 

March 16, 2013 date to Southport, NC… Lunch at the Provision Company, coffee at Moore Street Market, walking in the breeze, riding the ferry, almost him getting left as I drove onto the ferry….  at sunset on the return trip Michael kneels down on one knee in front of me on the top deck of the ferry, and asks me to marry him. I was literally at a loss for words. I had NO idea that he was even thinking about this happening before summer. He surprised me really good. 

He had asked my parents, talked to our close friends and mentors… I was just so surprised. 

So here we are April 11, 2013. I’m engaged to my best friend, love of my life. Onward we go on the journey of life together.

engaged life is fun.. I’m allowing myself permission to have fun and be free. I’m learning alot about myself, and seeing myself differently. 

I mean here’s a man who adores me, and he’s giving all of himself to provide for a future for us. My heart is bursting with love.

And that in all of this, God would be glorified. That our lives together would just be the purest reflection of His love leaking out and the Father of lights that He is. 

More flowers from my honey while I was sick. #love #engagedlife #michaelanderin @mikescobar91