Star Light, Star Bright, BIGGEST STAR I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!

So I left you guys off where at the meteor shower. . . When I think back to important moments and nights in my life this ranks right up there as one that I will never forget.    Seriously, read about this night and you will see why!  Ah, I am getting ahead of myself, let us begin where I left off.

As I said we pull off this disinigrated old highway into this random field that just happens to be perfect for star gazing because there are no streetlights anywhere close.  We are there with the mutual friend Josh and my roommate Channin' who are all standing around talking.

I remember I kept saying we all needed to sit down, it would be much more comfortable, especially to me because I have tendonitis in my heels, I honestly can't stand for long periods of time, especially in one place.  Obviously Mark was thinking the same thing because finally he just lays down on the ground in front of the truck and begins to watch.  Now me, knowing I was highly interested in him (remember he had hung around with us before hand as a group), knew I wanted to lay down to, not just to look at the stars but to get a chance to talk to this boy, that I just had such a peace about getting to know.  It had to have been God giving me the courage because Kristen Jones just wouldn't have decided to lay down too.  So we are both layin on the ground, and there are a few awkward moments of waiting on everyone else to follow suit, but no one does.

At this point Mark thinks to himself "if this girl stays down here then I am going to take the chance to get to know her."  And wouldn't you know it, I stayed.  We laid there just talking and sharing our hearts about God, family, ministry, it was one of the coolest times in my life, something I wish I could go back and do all over again.  It was so nice to just get a chance to figure out what the other was all about, so much mystery and excitement.

 I remember at one point, once the stars started really falling (best meteor shower I have ever seen,  honestly, shooting stars everywhere.  This so sounds like out of a movie, but I swear it all happened), a huge, and I mean HUGE star fell out of the sky lightening fast.  Like so big it left a lingering tail!  It was the biggest shooting star I have ever seen or will ever see I am pretty sure.  Mark and I both see it and immediately sit straight up both shouting "Oh my gosh, that was huge, did you see it?!"  fully expecting the others to be as excited as we are.  However, nobody else saw it.  It was the strangest thing.  Even now as I write this post I asked him "Hey do you remember that huge star, you saw it to right, we both really did see it?"

This was such an amazing catalyst to our relationship, I could think of no better way to kick off my love story.  Isn't God just amazing like that, honestly, I couldn't have written anything more romantic.  I should have been expecting that of Him though, I mean the one who paints gorgeous sunsets everyday and made the whole world, why wouldn't He write an amazing love story for me.  In fact this is the theme to one of my favorite books about dating called When God Writes Your Love Story.  It talks about how we as humans want to keep the pen in our own hands and try to author what we want in a love story instead of trusting God to do it and to become the author of our love story.  Thankfully God had removed all obstacles in my life the year before, gave me a wonderful summer where I learned what it meant to truly love, follow, and trust Him with all my heart, and then and only then did he allow me to meet the prince charming he made for me.  Isn't He is amazing?

Next you will hear about when we finally made the decision to start dating and how that all worked out.

All Because Two People Fell In Love (at the "Bu")

With Valentine's Day approaching (and a little one napping), I thought I would steal my friend Jen's idea and blog about how Mark and I fell in love.  At least the beginning of the story. . .

For those who don't know I grew up in the same town my entire life, went k-12 at the same school with two parents who also worked at that school.  I was a good girl, never really rocked the boat, in church every time the doors were open and learned to love God through the direction of my parents.

Mark grew up in Tyler as the youngest of four boys and a twin.  He was and still is head strong, wanting to do things his own way and when he wants to do them.  His parent's decided to homeschool him and the rest of his siblings when he and Blake were in the 2nd grade.  So from 3rd grade through graduation they studied at home.  Like me, Mark grew up in a Christian home, was always in church, and grew to love God through his parent's leading.  All in all we were both pretty blessed.

In May of 2005 I had graduated high school and was beginning to get ready for college.  However, this year would prove to be hard, one that God would use to bring me closer to Him and His will.  He ended up removing several distractions, one of which was a boyfriend that I had dated all through high school. I went to the University of Texas at Tyler for my freshman year, but I didn't live on campus.  Because of this I felt like I wasn't getting the true college experience (although I didn't want to live on campus there, where there were really no rules, especially where boys and girls could live right beside each other).  So after the first semester I felt like God was telling me to transfer to East Texas Baptist University.  Little did I know this would be one of the best decisions I would ever make.  I also tried out for the cheer squad and made it. I couldn't wait to finish out the spring semester in Tyler and get down to ETBU.

I came to ETBU a bright eyed cheerleader, bubbling with passion for the Lord after a summer of mission trips and camps where God really revealed Himself to me in mighty ways.  I SSSOO enjoyed my choice to come to a college where my teacher opened his class in prayer and everyone was really so nice and helpful.  I began learning and searching what God's word really said, it really was a growing experience.  I was also cheering which kept me busy as well.

To make a very long story semi-short I will cut to the chase.  There was a guy on our cheer squad who was very good friends with Mark, so when we hung out with him, Mark would tag along.  We all hung out and saw we really liked each other's company.  One night there was a projected meteor shower and so me, my roommate, Mark, and our mutual friend Josh, all decided to go and watch it.  We decided to all go somewhere where there were no overhead lights so we could see the stars clearly.  After driving around some we find a highway that leads to a random field, actually dissolves completely into the field (weirdest thing ever).  Next is where it really gets good. . . in the next post!