Chelsea and I officially met around 14 years ago at of all place McDonald’s. We both worked there, Chelsea being in high school and me being in college. I probably would have tried to date her then had it not been for the whole illegal thing! But I always remembered her as cute, fun and full of life (like some of you already know her).
Nothing really came out of those early years though, just the fact that we met. Fast forward some time and MySpace enters our world and we somehow reconnect, but only for a moment as in 2007 we ran a small race in Flint together. Had my brain been with me at the time I would have scooped up on her then, but God was still molding me into the man I needed to be in order to marry such an amazing woman.
When I turned 30 I felt God telling me it was time for some changes. In my personal life as well as professional life. I set out for a decade of personal growth and change so that I could become everything He was calling me to be. A third of the way through that journey God re-enters Chelsea into my life, but only for a moment. I had a habit of going to Tim Hortons everyday to write, read and check on my progress. One of those days she happened to be in town (she was living in Macomb) and we reconnected. We caught up for a second and I guess you can say a seed was planted. We found we were both involved in leadership development and exchanged some information (we both love to read).
Well enter 2013 and I go on a reading challenge (96 books in a year), so naturally I kept her updated on what I was reading. Not to mention I always tried to see how she was doing (she always ignored me 😉 ). This leads us to late August and she was coming into town and wanted to get a book from me that I was reading, Mentoring Matters, as she was getting ready to train new managers at Delta. We met for coffee, sadly to say we never discussed that book (she still hasn’t read it), but the important thing is she fell in love with me 😉
I remember having one of the most amazing conversations in the world. We didn’t talk careers, college education or TV shows. We talked dreams, desires and things that bring happiness into our lives. I fell in love that day, as she was different than the mold. She since reminded me that she talked about dreams to become a wife and a mom but had put that behind her as she thought maybe those dreams were no longer for her. I encouraged her to never give up on a dream without realize one day she would become my wife and also carry my child.
She kissed me on the cheek that night (she can’t remember it…..but take one look at her and you’ll understand why I do!) I wrote in my journal that night that I would pursue her and see where it led, and it led to the craziest story we could never tell in this blog. How this all worked out is nothing short of His amazing touch and guidance in our lives (even if we didn’t do everything correctly).
Things moved fast as I realized how truly amazing she was. That beautiful girl from back in the days of McDonald’s was now a beautiful woman. She continues to bring so much joy into my life everyday. She believes in me and expresses that belief everyday (ladies lift your man). She puts trust in me to lead our home (men please lead). And the thing that amazes me most is that she knows me, and I mean knows. She knows the inner desires of my heart, my passions, my dreams, my goals. To this point in my life there was only one other person who took the time to know me so deeply, my sister. We figured out fast that marriage was in our future, so on October 26th (crazy story as well) I asked her to be my wife and thankfully she agreed!
So we started planning a wedding to be on May 31st, she originally wanted October but I’m not a big believer in long engagements and we settled on May. Well fast forward to almost December and we find out we are also going to be parents…..oops! So here we are February 15th getting hitched! We are truly feeling blessed right now and extremely excited for both life events happening in 2014. Wasn’t exactly how we planned but we couldn’t be any more excited to be moving forward with our lives together. Putting a wedding together in a blink of an eye can bring many challenges, but it’s all coming together beautifully (special thanks to my creative mother in law who is doing so much behind the scenes, it’s truly a blessing to watch a mother/daughter get prepared for such a special day).
I’m going to end this crazy story by letting you know that I am more blessed than I could ever deserve. I’m looking forward to everything marriage brings as well as parenting. I’ll never be as prepared as I wanna be but His Guidance I know will lead me all the days of my life. We are both thankful for the work God continues to do in our life and we pray that our love and marriage will all point back to Him and bring glory to Christ.
Our story is really just beginning, and I love writing and look forward to continuing this story. I hope that you as well will continue to write your story, may your ink never dry.
brandon59perry 