A Love Story: Mom & Dad

I’ve always been a sucker for love stories. I love hearing how couples met and fell in love. I guess you could say I’m a hopeless romantic living vicariously through other people’s stories! Anyways, my parents’ story always makes me smile, so I just thought I’d share it for the rest of you romantic souls out there!

It was the summer of 1978. My mom was 19 and had just finished her freshman year at Samford University and dad was about to turn 21, having completed his junior year at Gardner-Webb. Considering that my parents both grew up all over the world, I have to believe it was God’s providence that brought them both to the same small camp training in the mountains of Virginia.

Christian High Adventure (CHA) is an outdoor adventure program that teenagers participate in each summer. My mom was going to be working at Crestridge, a camp for girls, and my dad at Camp Caraway, but the two-week leader training for both camps was held together.

It’s kind of crazy that my mom ended up there in the first place. My grandmother had seen an ad for CHA in a Christian magazine and cut it out and sent it to my mom, knowing that her adventurous and daring daughter would be a perfect fit for that program.

Mom signed up for it right away and headed across the country to embark on a new adventure, having no idea that she was about to meet her future husband.

When mom tells the story of the first time she sawmy dad she always gets a big smile on her face. “I was just standing outside getting ready for the training and then I see this tan guy with dark hair run and jump over the fence and I thought, ‘Man! He’s a hunk!’”

Over the next two weeks, my mom and dad lived in the wilderness. They cooked, bathed and slept outside and had to learn to survive the cold and the bears. One day they were hiking on the same team and when they got to their camp, they realized that there was not a water source nearby. So they had no other option but to hike the next days’ trip that evening. They finally made it to camp late that night. Though they were exhausted, mom and dad stayed up talking all night. They discovered they came from very similar families and had a lot in common.

By the time the two week adventure was over, my parents knew that they wanted to stay in touch. They began dating that summer and when they went back to their colleges, they kept in touch by writing letters.

Through the years, their friendship grew, and on December 30, 1982, they were married! I asked my parents today what the hardest and easiest years of their marriage were. They both agreed the first year was the hardest because of the adjustments and changes, but said that it gets easier and easier every year.

My parents have set such a great example for me and my brothers of what a godly marriage looks like. Of course no marriage is perfect, but my mom and dad have always strived to put God first in their marriage and that has given our family a happy and healthy foundation. I’ve been blessed to have such wonderful parents who love each other so much and allow God to lead them as a couple.

Happy 28^th anniversary, mom and dad!