Our Not-So-Ordinary Love Story Pt. 1

So, I've been asked a couple times to share mine and my husband, Micah's, love story. Because we are both so young, we get asked "why?" a lot. Well, that's what I'm here to tell ya. Exactly why a 19 year old and a 21 year old decided to get married before making the biggest move of their life to Australia. Got ya interested now? Haha, good! Instead of making one super long post with the entire thing, I decided to make it a mini series for you. I hope you hear our hearts and ultimately realize that without God, we wouldn't be where we're at in our marriage today. He orchestrated it all to work exactly like He wanted it to. 

We'll start in summer of 2011. I was eighteen years old, single and loving it and also working at a gymnastics gym in my hometown. While all of my friends were starting their first year of college, I decided that I wanted to work until I figured out where I wanted to go to school and most of all what I even wanted to go to school for. I knew that whatever I did, that I wanted to lead worship and write music for the local church. I researched a bunch of christian colleges in the area and even a few states over and nothing really popped out at me. It was one night that I was helping a good friend lead worship that I heard of a church in my area looking to contract worship leaders to come in weekly and sing. Fresh out of high school and getting paid to do what I love without ANY college degree?! I can dig it. I instantly agreed and relocated to the church where I'd be leading worship. Week after week I grew more and more in love with the church, the people and the staff. After a while I got offered a part-time intern position at the church and started going to the offices during the week. I was at church all day and the gym all night. It was a big year for me. 

Around October of that year I started really thinking of what I wanted to do about college. Hillsong had been on my mind for a while but it seemed so out of reach. With it being an international school, it was hard to really get any further information on peoples experiences other than the Facebook page or via email and I just wanted to talk to someone. I mentioned to my over-sight at the church, Brian Preston, my heart for wanting to attend Hillsong and THIS is where my dear husband comes in the picture... 

Brian mentioned that there was a guy from the church actually at Hillsong College and was finishing up his year in the TV Media stream in November. He suggested that I find him on Facebook and ask him some questions regarding his experiences at Hillsong when he got back in the States so that I could get the ins and outs on every question I had. 

November rolled around and the famous Micah Bearden from Hillsong College had made his first appearance at church in a year. I was making it a goal to introduce myself so that I could annoy him with all my questions but at the same time remembering that I had been previously told that he had a girlfriend of 4 years. So the fact that he was attractive and taken just marked him off my radar. But even though he was very unavailable, I was definitely inspired by their strong relationship to have lasted an entire year apart with only Skype and Facebook messaging to communicate...

The first time I talked to Micah was one day during the week when I was up at the church working on set lists for the month. He came in to talk about potential work possibilities in the TV/Video department and we got awkwardly stuck in the same room for about an hour together. So... like I do, I made it known that I added him on Facebook a couple weeks prior and had 50 questions (written down) to ask him about Hillsong College. He didn't say he was weirded out by me but I'm gonna guess he was by the look of shock on his face that some random girl was drilling him with questions about the past 12 months of his life. 

The rest of the story is filled with friendship, heartbreak, big decisions, a wedding, and a move to another country as a newly married couple. 

To hear the rest of our story, STAY TUNED til next week :)