how it all went down

my friend, erin, wrote a post yesterday about how she came to meet and marry her husband, scott. go read it, it's really good. it might not make you cry like it almost made me, but it might inspire you a little. i've actually read a lot of love stories on blogs lately. so i think i'm gonna write my own. and if you're reading this, maybe you could write yours too?

when i was in college, i remember riding the bus at least once a week with a blind guy. i didn't know his name, i never talked to him. he often got on the bus after me and off the bus before me. i just remember he had longish hair and a yellow seeing eye dog. i also remember thinking it must be really hard to be blind person.

after college, i decided to pursue a three-year master of divinity program at wake forest university. it was seriously the scariest decision i've made in my life, namely because i didn't know anyone there. the director of admissions took a liking to me and encouraged me to live in a community of divinity school students. she told me about a house where there was room for one more person. there were 3 girls, 4 guys living there, and she told me wonderful things about all of them. i took particular notice to the comments she made about jamie dean, a joint law and business school student, who "everybody loves." jamie, she said, was blind.

now, if you're thinking this story is about to take some crazy turn back to the guy on the bus, i hate to disappoint you. jamie was not the guy on the bus. but what little i knew of blind people was from my observations from those weekly bus rides. i had a pre-conceived notion about blindness and people who are blind. and as everyone around me began speculating and joking about which of my male roommates might be my future husband, i just assumed the blind guy was out because, well, who dates a blind guy?

i met jamie dean on martin luther king day 2007. the dude walked in the door of our ghetto house on polo road after a weekend of skiing. all pre-conceived notions officially shattered. after he put his stuff down, he came in the living room to meet me. we jumped right into a spiritual conversation, and i failed to impress him. to be honest, i was really confused about faith for several months during that time in my life. i have no clue if i would've gone to wake had i not been so confused. so whatever question jamie dean asked me about my beliefs, i can assure you i didn't give a good answer.

thankfully, the great thing about communal living is that you're almost always guaranteed to have a conversation partner at the dinner table. jamie and i talked when he wasn't holed up in his room studying. at first, our conversations revolved around comiserating over recent broken hearts we'd both just sustained. but soon, those previous relationships faded into the background. he started asking me what my hobbies and interests were. what's something you and i could do together, he asked on several occasions. the more i talked to him, the more i saw how wonderful he was. he was smart, really funny, confident in his faith...not to mention that he had shaggy blonde hair, which i found to be super-dreamy. as i lived daily life with jamie, i saw that his blindness was just one aspect of a very complex person.

and then, there was that one fateful night when we all -- meaning all the housemates -- exchanged phone numbers. i'm ashamed to admit that our relationship blossomed over text messages. and after jamie made some ambiguous comment about making out with me in our basement, we thought it might be time to discuss things. at first, we decided it'd be a horrible idea to date. so jamie said he wanted to forget everything and go back to "how things were before." after about two days of pure awkwardness, we re-evaluated and decided to go for it.

we dated 5 months and 3 weeks. then we got engaged. we lived in the co-ed house another school year and got married june 7, 2008.

no, i never imagined marrying someone who can't see. unfortunately, our society isn't set up that way. we don't typically imagine ourselves falling in love with someone different from ourselves. in fact, to this day people still think i married jamie because i have a great heart as if i made the most important decision of my life based on charity. i wish those people were lucky enough to sit down and have a conversation with jamie dean. then they'd see what i see, know what i know. my husband, jamie, is passionate, determined, adventurous, and seriously the silliest person i know. he is full of grace. he loves justice. he is abundantly aware of his sinfulness and God's mercy to him. and he literally saved my faith.

i praise God that adoption was on jamie's heart before he met me. i'm thankful that we decided before we ever even married that we would adopt one day. and i'm pumped out of my mind to see those dreams come to fruition so i can watch that man be the best dad ever.

apologies for the lack of pictures. i can't seem to find any recent pictures on the computer. but for kicks, since my husband is the silliest and smartest person i know: