Our Love Story = HIStory!

I never thought this day would come.



Back in February, I had a conversation with my friend Abby about this moment. She looked at me while we were driving and said, "Aaron, what if you never get married?" I looked outside of the window and starred blankly at the passing cars. A tear fell down my cheek as I pondered that thought. It had never really occurred to me that I may never get married.

This was devastating.  When I was in grade school I remember dreaming of the day that I would be able to say that I was a husband. I prayed that God would bring me the "perfect" wife and that I could spend forever with my best friend. But, after talking with Abby and coming to the realization that, that might not be God's plan for me, I was CRUSHED!

It was at that moment that I was able to release that dream to God, not necessarily letting go of the dream to be a husband, but letting God take control and being content with whatever was to come.

Little did I know that two months later I would meet the most AMAZING bride-to-be God could ever give me.

I had just started attending a new church in Normal, Illinois called Grace Church. My best friends and I showed up at the church one Sunday and the following Sunday we were singing on the praise team! We felt very firmly that God had brought us to this Church for a reason. That Sunday, after leading worship for the first time at Grace, I met a girl named Julie Myers. She was shy and didn't say much, but God was beaming from one end of her smile to the other. I was on stage talking with some people and Julie and my soon to be friend Dave Rawlins walked up to the stage to meet us. I got to share with them that I was about to leave for Montana for a missions trip to Pinehaven Christian Children's Ranch. I shared with them my fear of flying and laughed about how irrational my nightmares about the planes crashing were! I had no clue that it was that day that I would meet my future bride!

I left for my trip to Pinehaven and while I was gone I received a message from Julie asking me to go to Ecuador with a group from the Church that upcoming August. I wanted to go because we would be going to help with an orphanage there but I feared I wouldn't be able to raise the money and I really did not have the time to go. I messaged her later on and said that I sadly could not go. But as soon as I sent that message I felt God slap me across the face saying "NO! GO!" So I messaged her back QUICKLY saying "Nevermind, God changed my mind!"

It was while planning and getting ready for this trip to Ecuador that I fell in love with her! The funny thing is, everyone knew it but me! My friends Abby and Tim everyday after church would say things like, "That Julie Myers girl is such a cutie, she would make a great girlfriend!" or "Wow! The Myers family would make great in-laws! I would just laugh it off and continue on in what I thought was masking my feelings for Julie. We even had Dave and Marianne Gross mention something about us after Julie and I babysat their children to raise money for Ecuador.

So, while we were fund-raising for the trip to Riobamba, I remember driving to Julie's house early one morning for a garage sale. It had been raining the night before and huge rain clouds had filled the sky an hour before the sun had fully risen.  When I arrived at Julie's house she came down to meet me at the door. I remembered her saying that she had been up before sunrise praying that the clouds would go away, and they did. She had faith that would move the clouds. I was impressed.

We continued to work together in getting ready for Ecuador. May through July we talked back and forth through texts and would just talk about how excited we were for the trip to Ecuador. One day (Father's Day) She brought her mom and dad to the same theater I was at with some friends. It was Toy Story 3 to be exact and she sat next to me instead of her father :) ooops! I still had no clue that she had the same feelings for me as I had been developing for her! I never saw any of the clues.

From day to day our relationship grew, but I never thought anything would come from it. I thought we would be great friends and I could see us just having fun together. My friends encouraged me to pray about Julie and to pray that God would give me answers to my desire to be with Julie. I tried my best to hide those desires.

August had arrived and it was time to leave for Ecuador. That day was a long time coming. We arrived in Ecuador and began to work so hard together to make the trip run smoothly. Everyday we spent together we had to guard our hearts so that we kept our focus on God and the children of Ecuador and not each other. One night after a long and emotional day, Julie wrote me a letter thanking me for being a spiritual leader for her and others on the trip. That letter touched my heart deeply and at the same time stirred up all the hidden desires of my heart to be with her. We both continued to try our hardest to suppress those feelings we had for each other.

When we arrived back from Ecuador, I remember I was sitting on my best friends couch thinking about how AMAZING the trip was. My friend Abby pulled up a blog online and asked if she could read it to me. Little did I know it was a blog of Julie's from February of last year. In this blog, Julie stated EVERYTHING that I was feeling at that same exact time. She had given God her dream of being married and submitted to following His will for her life. I remember listening to the blog thinking, "WOW! I want to marry a girl just like her!" Then Abby said, that blog belongs to Julie Myers. I said, "Oh, thats nice!" And tried my hardest not to show exactly how I was feeling. Wow! God was revealing to me that she was the answer to ALL my prayers!

Later on that day I talked to Abby and Tim about where I stood with my feelings for Julie and they both encouraged me to read a book titled "Boy Meets Girl!" by Joshua Harris! It was a book about Courting (dating with the intention of marriage) . They had read it before they began their courtship and they suggested that it would be good for me to read in the process of me seeking God's will for Julie and I! (At this point, I still didn't know if Julie even liked me back!)

I headed straight to Barnes and Noble right after I talked with them about the book and bought it along with a journal that  I wanted to keep during this prayer process. I read it over the course of the next two days! It was AMAZING! :) Wow! God revealed to me that Julie was the girl I was going to marry. He showed me that as long as I stayed faithful to Him in this "Story" Julie would one day be my bride.

On August 26th (after a previous day of sharing with Julie my story about how much I liked her and how I wanted to date her with the intention of marriage), I asked Julie's Dad if I could court her. He said yes and so we made it official!

We would spend the next 3 and 1/2 months together working through dates that focused on what God intended for our future. The biggest question we had to ask was "Would we glorify God more together or apart?" Every date, every moment we spent together, and every hurdle we jumped answered that question for us! Our relationship together was going to glorify God more than if we were apart!

I bought the ring a few days ago with the help of my best friends Mom! I talked to Julie's parents yesterday and got their permission to have their daughter's hand in marriage. It was at that moment that I could not wait to ask Julie to be my wife!

So tonight after a long day of a blizzard, sending off two friends to the mission field and dinner with Julie and her parents, we arrived back at my best friends apartment. As soon as we arrived my best friend Tim told me he had placed the camera on record and they were headed to their room to give us some privacy.

I asked Julie if I could giver her one of her Christmas presents early and she said no, but I didn't listen haha! I went to Gracelyn's bedroom and grabbed the ring from her top dresser drawer and proceeded to hand Julie a gift bag. The ring was placed in my right pocket. (PAUSE.....first I would like to say that when Julie and I first started dating we promised not to say "I love you!" until we were engaged! CONTINUE!) So......inside the gift bag were three picture frames. The first one was a picture of me signing I (Julie and her mom both know sign language VERY well) the next one was me signing love and the last one was me signing the letter U! Once she got to the love, she knew what was happening. It was at that moment that I said I had been waiting a LONG time to say those three special words to her and I pulled out the ring and asked her to be my wife! She said YES and I placed the ring on her left hand. We hugged and I whispered in her ear that I loved her soooo much and could not wait till we we could spend forever together!

After we hugged and she starred at the ring for a little bit, I jumped up to tell my best friends Abby, Tim, and their new daughter Gracelyn the good news. I knocked on their door and said you can come out now and they all three came running to the living room! :) Including Abby who didnt quite realize she was still "feeding" her baby girl as she ran in to congratulate us! :) It was the FUNNIEST THING EVER! :) Julie and I laughed and laughed and laughed forgetting what just happened we looked back down at the ring and realized we had lots of people we wanted to inform.

Needless to say, Tonight Was Amazing! It was just an average day in the life of Julie and Aaron, minus the fact that I asked her to spend the rest of her life with me. I could not be happier.

Now, some of you may read this and see that we were only dating for three and a half months. You may be thinking, "WOW! That was way too fast!" But this is what I would say in response. We may have been only dating for three and a half months but God has been preparing us for this day for as long as we could remember. In the world's eyes three and a half months is too quick to know that you love someone. But our relationship is not based off of what the world thinks. Our relationship, from the day it began is based on what God sees as best. No step that we have made was outside of seeking God. We both have prayed and prayed and prayed and have sought after Him in all of this. We were not made to please this world, but to please our Father in heaven. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, He is smiling down on us tonight.

We dont have an exact date set yet on when we will be husband and wife, but we will know soon enough! All I know is that God is good, and God is faithful. Our Love Story is His Story. I hope and pray that someone out there is reading this and that they are able to meet God through our love for eachother. Love is doing what is best for the other person. What better way can I do what is best for Julie other then seeking God in making our relationship glorify Him and in that process sharing His LOVE to those who know it and those who dont!

:) I cant wait to marry my best friend! :)

Until the Whole World Hears,

Aaron J. Zapata