Summer 2009

I'm inviting all of you to gag at any moment, but the Summer of 2009 will forever live in my memory as the summer when I fell in love with Jordan Smith. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so I will let them do most of the talking. Jordan and I were busy making plans, having adventures, going out on dates or choosing to stay in. It was perfect, and way too good to be true.

We would take several trips to KY lake

We took a trip to the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina......

and to Kansas, my homestate. We would visit my grandparents farm, Wichita, the Eisenhower Library....

and we made a stop at the Bob Dole institute for Politics.....

My favorite trip that summer was to New York City. (I could go on and on about how much I love New York, but maybe later.) I had never been and this was Jordan's third trip. We had an incredible time touring the city and I remember thinking this was "it". "It" as in something life changing. I had found the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and it was scary. I figured it was too soon to really start sharing these feelings with him, but apparently this was Jordan's plan from he start. During our trip to New York we thought about other places we could go to and experience together. Places we wanted to live one day, things we wanted to do, jobs/careers we wanted to pursue, things we wanted to buy, etc, etc, etc!! We were very much in love and we felt unstoppable.

God must have been looking down on us laughing so hard, because he had other plans for Jordan and I. When the summer ended, He handed us challenge, a surprise. This little plan B would be a perfect wake up call to remind us that God is in charge of our lives, no matter what plans we make for ourselves.