So the second big thing in my life that God has changed in the last several months is my relationship with Aaron Zapata. As I look back at the past year I am amazed at how God has orchestrated both of our lives to bring us together for His glory. He brought Aaron to a small Christian college in Lincoln from New Mexico and even further Got brought Aaron, Abby and Tim to Grace Church through the angel food ministry at our church.
Soon after I first met them, I was asking Aaron to join the team going to Ecuador. After God convincing Aaron that he was supposed to go on this trip, God slowly brought Aaron's and my heart closer and closer together. We tried resisting it so that our "feelings" would not get in the way of God's purpose for the trip and we did a pretty good job until the day after we got back to the United States. :-) It was less than a week after we got back that I knew I was going to marry him. Even though we gaurded our hearts from having feelings for each other God used the trip to Ecuador to unite us together as really close friends. It was a wonderful base for our relationship.
On August 26th, we officially started courting. We set things in place to make sure we didn't move too fast and yet in some ways it still happened. Not because we were trying to make it go fast, but because we were following God's lead. From day one we wanted our relationship to be 100% God-focused. We looked to Him before we took any step. Every night we prayed together refocusing our hearts on Him and making sure He was the center of our relationship. We didn't start holding hands until we had been dating for a month because we wanted to be sure we didn't move to fast physically and we wanted our friendship to grow before any physical relationship began. Even though this was SO hard, it was also really good because it helped us learn so much more about each other on a personal level.
Also, a couple days after we started dating I told Aaron that I didn't want him to tell me that he loved me until the day that he proposed. I have to say the last month or so, in a way, I have been regretting that rule. lol! God has grown my heart to love him in a way that I never thought was possible. It was soo hard to not tell him how much I loved him! Especially when we would say goodbye or good night. It's so easy to accidentally just slip in, "I love you". But we couldn't. At the same time, this was a very good rule. It was a good way to gaurd both of our hearts. I don't think it's good to tell someone you love them unless you know you are going to marry that person. It made for a really great proposal too! :-)
So now for the good stuff. How it happened... Well first I have to start by saying that Aaron is really bad about wanting to give people gifts early, he gets so excited he just wants to give it to you right away. So we were driving to Tim and Abby's house and he was like can I PLEEEEAASE give you your Christmas present early and after many times of saying no and him giving me those puppy dog eyes, I finally said okay... lol! Little did I know what the gift really was. So we get to Tim and Abby's and after about 15 minutes of being there Abby, Tim and Gracelyn decide they are going to go to bed. It's only 8:30!!!!!!! So I'm thinking ok, well they are new parents that's understandable. So I sit down on the couch and ask Aaron, so what should we do? Thinking he's going to say well we could watch a movie or something along those lines. No, he goes "you're going to open your Christmas present". So he goes to Gracie's room to get it and then comes back out empty handed saying, "I can't find it oh wait here it is". So he brings it over and I open it. Inside are three picture frames. The first one he is signing "I", second one he is signing "love", and third "you". I look at him FREAKING OUT a little bit lol! And he says "I've been waiting for three months to tell you how much I love you, will you marry me" (He may have said something else, but I honestly was freaking out and don't remember it all, luckily it's on video lol!) Anyways.. so of course I said "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course I will marry you". Then Abby, Tim and Gracelyn came back out and I've been super excited ever since!! :-)
So now I sit here with beautiful ring on my finger, engaged to a wonderful and godly man. I can't even believe it! He is more than I could have ever asked for, and trust me I asked God for a lot :-) He is a great spiritual leader and keeps my focus right where it should be, on our awesome and great Lord! If you had asked me on Valentines day of this year if I was ever going to get married, I would have said no probably not (If you look at my blog from Feb 14th, you can see how much God has done in a short time). I would have never guessed that He had such a big plan for me. When Aaron and I talked about getting married we both said that when we look at our lives individually and compare it to our lives together, we can see that we can bring more glory to God together than on our own. And that is ultimately what we desire.
So what's next, well first of all I have to tell you that we have not had our first kiss and we will not share that until the day that we get married. Even though this is another hard thing that we have put in place it is soo worth it. God has used this in big ways to help mature and grow our relationship. So on our wedding day, those of you who can make it will get to witness our first kiss! We are getting married on July 2, 2011 at Grace Church. I truly cannot wait to marry my best friend!!!
Thank you Lord, for bringing Aaron into my life and growing our hearts closer together as you draw us closer to you! Thank you for giving me a man that points me to you in everything that we do and for teaching me so much through him. Your plans are amazing, Lord! Why do we ever doubt them?
Thank you all for the encouragement and we are so very blessed that you are all apart of our lives!
Love you all!
Julie
P.S. - Sorry if there are spelling mistakes, I'm just a little excited to be grammatically correct :-)
