Our Story
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Aseneth's Version
Like the ocean Daniel proposed to me in, our story continues to flow and change. I've written and rewritten my version of our story so many times. I can never tel it perfectly, because our story is life. It's living, breathing, and can't be fully captured by anything. Daniel and I met at church. I immediately thought he was a beautiful human, but things were different for both of us then. I never imagined that our lives would intertwine the way they would, nor did I realize how positively my life would be affected by being intertwined with his. Since the moment we met Daniel has been God's gift to me. He entered my life as a patient friend, and over the past couple years of getting to know each other this treasured friend has become my deeply beloved. In under three years we have seen each other through many life changes. We've experienced deep healing, and wild adventures together. It's amazing and joyful to think that this is only the beginning! If you don't know Daniel yet, I hope you have the opportunity to know him sooner than later. This tall, dark and handsome man stands out to me for his contemplative nature, thoughtfulness, humor, generosity, and deep love for Jesus. He loves his family to an admirable degree and gives selflessly of himself to bless them whenever he possibly can. It's been an honor to bring my own family into that dynamic and to experience his love through his care for them too. I count my blessing every day that he has chosen me to spend the rest of his life with. Our relationship started out a little differently, because we were both going through deep healing and life change when we started becoming closer friends. Between the moment of admitting to feelings for each other and the era of deciding to date. we spent 6 months praying and getting to know each other between the moment of admitting to feelings for each other and the deciding to actually date. These 6 months were formative for both of us, and we both grew more and more confident that we wanted to date. It all came down to timing. At a beautiful mountain restaurant in Hew Hampshire, Daniel asked me to officially be his girlfriend on Friday, September 13th. There was a full moon that night, and it was beautiful. This full moon theme became a thread throughout our relationship. In my family 13 is a lucky number, so while many people shy away from Friday the 13th, this only added to the significance of this day in the history of our relationship. I can in no way some up the past two or so years of our relationship. But I can tell you it has included laughter, tears, music, gelato (lots of gelato), late night goodbyes, early mornings at the beach, mountain adventures, cozy sabbaths on the couch, more music, dancing in the living room, and lengthy conversations about our visions and dreams for our lives. And chocolate. Always chocolate. God has created Daniel and I with an incredible balance of similarities and differences. We continue learning how to compliment each other optimally. It challenges us at times, and is exhilarating often. The journey continues to make us all the stronger. I know I I can trust him, and I know we will give our all to grow, love, live, and learn together. In February, Daniel took me back to the beach where I had realized deep dow that I believed we just might be together forever. On that windy, rainy February day, Daniel walked into the ocean and asked me to be his wife. I got to face the ocean as I faced him, and I felt the expanse of soul, his love, and his character as I looked at the picture in front of me. I absolutely said yes. Then I stood there for about 15 minutes with him in the water, taking in the moment, holding each other with joy and anticipation. I feel love this man with all my heart, and yet somehow I know it is the way of life that I will love him more at the end of our lives together than on the day I say I do. I suppose my heart just keeps growing bigger? Ah, the mysteries of life. ...As precious as our journey thus far has been, it is just the prologue.... |
Daniel's Version
It's hard to imagine things playing out any differently; as we prepare for our future as husband and wife, we're young and in love. So, on that fortuitous day in August, we met at church, and the rest is history... "This is a new version of myself that I'm still getting to know," I wrote last September. I found as many excuses as I could to spend time with Azi. Planning sunrise beach trips and hikes in the mountains, writing poems, offering rides home, talking about my shortcomings, and staying up till 3am walking around Cambridge--all the joys of a budding and young love. Romans 8:25 says, "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." I took this to heart, for Azi & I echoed each other's places in life. Past relationships still needed healing and faith was developing in unexpected ways; our friendship needed to be nurtured, and I think we both knew this instinctively. So we spent many months together, learning patiently about each other and our place in the world. We went on many adventures, arm wrestled and laughed a lot! Looking back I can see how great it has been to be developing patience together. We have placed so much hope, thought and prayer in the future we're building together--and continue to put much energy into the way we will operate in the world as one. Our first hike was in NH at Mt. Monadnock. Azi spoon-fed oatmeal to me while I was driving, and then at a rest stop and to my chagrin, she put a ponytail in my hair that poked out the front of my backwards hat (which after a couple of pictures and laughs, and quietly and rather quickly, I undid). As we made our way up the mountain, and she told me about a play that she put on with her cousins growing up, I realized that I loved her. I was completely captivated by the way she engaged with people, I could see how much she valued and prioritized her relationships from the very beginning. My love for her, of course, was something I knew to keep to myself at that time. So I wrote it off as a crush, and we laughed and talked about the reasons why it was better to stay friends, even though she knew that I had deeper feelings for her... . ...And then, on the way home, we found an abandoned lean-to off the side of a country road on a lake, and it was there that we stopped to put our feet in the water and catch the sunset and the starry night. And since then, our life together has been full of all the best mix: spontaneity, adventure, plans, travel, rest, and spur-of-the-moment decisions. Aseneth is a rare and beautiful woman, daughter, sister, partner and friend, as those who know her will easily attest to. She cares deeply for people and is the secret to the happiness and success of many. With her perseverance, dedication, passion, sense of humor, smile, and love in unbeatable measure, I consider myself to be the luckiest guy around to have her by my side. She has helped me to grow in so many ways! Really from the beginning, I hoped that Aseneth would be my wife. I've continued to learn more about her, only to affirm that God has created an unbreakable bond between us. Sure, we've had to work through our differences, but He is transforming us both through the process. I spoke first with Azi's mom and dad in Utah, and I asked them for their blessing to marry Azi. It was a unique feeling and an immense blessing to be asking the parents of the woman that I love if I could become a part of their family. It's been an extraordinary honor to bring Aseneth into my family and to be welcomed into hers. And of course, my family is overjoyed about the prospects. And so shortly thereafter, I bought a ring and waited until one full-mooned, rainy, windy, cold day in February. We found ourselves day camping on a beach, and after we warmed up with our Irish sweaters in our tent that had landed in the ocean just hours before, I thought, wow, this is true and romantic in an unequivocally unexpected kind-of way. And as the rain subsided and when the moon began to rise and day gave way to night, I pushed my nerves aside and asked Azi to be my bride. ~ |
