Living the Dream: May 2015

6 Years ago I married my best friend. They have been busy but fun years! In that time, we've had 4 children, bought a house and moved, Jarrod got a job at Schulter after finishing up with his Masters at Clarkson, and we've been busy juggling the demands of parenthood!

The start of it all began months before we actually started a relationship. Jarrod had spoken with my dad about me and pursuing a relationship. I later found out that Dad asked Jarrod if he wanted to marry me. The idea of courtship was new to Jarrod and it threw him for a loop! "Uh, no, that's why I want to get to know her......"

I grew up knowing that if Dad told a guy he could court me, it was with the intent to marry me-but also knew if the courtship wasn't working out that marriage wasn't the end result. Dating with a purpose was what I heard as a description about courtship. Pursuing a relationship with the intention to marry.

So Jarrod found out what courtship was. Multiple meetings happened with Dad where Jarrod was asked the same question and when he couldn't give an affirmative, Dad's response was to pray about it. After about 9 months, Jarrod felt God telling him that I was the girl he was going to marry. He received the go ahead from my dad with the stipulation that he wait to ask me until my semester was done at college.

Jarrod lived with my parents at that point as he had an internship at Clarkson over the summer with no where to stay. So my parents opened up their home to him. I think he was there for a year before we started courting. Our relationship started the day I finished with finals at college. It also happened to be the day my sister in law gave birth to twins! It was a great day! It was sunny outside and I was inside prepping chicken to grill for dinner. My mom had just brought Jarrod home from college (he didn't have a car yet ;) ) and knew this was the day he was asking me to court him. She asked what he had planned and he had no plan. HAHA! She looked at him and then told him I had been waiting for this day. I hadn't been informed of Jarrod's interest and I was probably the only one not picking up on the fact that Jarrod was interested. But I had been talking with my parents long before now of my interest in Jarrod.

So he walked into the house and went straight in to do his hair. (anyone remember Jarrod 7 years ago? He would roll out of bed, eat a bowl of cereal quickly and leave for school. He didn't care about his hair but at this point my brothers were slowly reforming his wardrobe lol). He decided asking me to court him was big enough to style his hair. Ha! I was in the middle of cutting up raw chicken as Mom flew in on her way to the hospital to be there right after the twins were born and Jarrod walked in to do his hair. I heard him in there spraying his hair and wondered why in the world he was doing his hair in the middle of the afternoon. I had Jocelyn (3 yo) sitting at the island watching me. Jarrod came into the kitchen, plopped down on a stool and blurted out, "Can we go for a walk?" I looked up from washing the cutting board and asked if anyone was going with us. "Uh, no I guess not." (as one of the rules my parents asked us children to adhere to was not to be alone with the opposite sex.)[Jarrod had gotten the okay to be alone on a walk.] I brought Jocelyn to Abby and excitedly told her what was going on.

And off we went. As we walked out the door I could hear Aaron asking why I was leaving with Jarrod and Justin asking why we were going alone as Abby shushed them. Aaron and Justin also had their faces pressed up against the glass watching us leave. lol! (strange thinking of them as 8 and 11 years old!)

My parents have a long driveway and Jarrod started talking about the weather as we walked down it. I pretty much was just laughing at him as he's commenting on the sun and how nice it was outside. We literally made it to the road and he said, "Kate, would you like to court me?" He was so nervous and it was really cute :) I said yes and he blew out a breath and told me he wasn't sure I would say yes. Apparently he was the only one not aware of my interest in him as dad didn't tell him that I had been talking to them for months about Jarrod, and my whole family picked up on the interest. As Abby told me- Kate, he held your coat for you. He didn't for your sisters. Everyone knew he was interested in you...except for you. hahaha!

On our way back on the walk, Jarrod started telling me his timeline and "we can get married on this date" and I was taken aback. "We just started courting and are you proposing or...." haha! I laughed and reminded him that we just started our relationship. He kinda half laughed and said that he had gotten the okay after months of praying about me. Now that he was certain, he wanted to have a plan. (which is funny because Jarrod is NOT a planner!) We walked back into the house where Abby was graciously finishing up the chicken alfredo I had started to make for dinner. We announced that we were courting and there were congratulations as excited family members gave hugs! From there we went to visit the new parents at the hospital and meet the twins!

7 months later...Jarrod proposed! 5 months from then, we were married!