QotD: Make New Friends, but Keep the Old

Which new friendship formed in 2008 is the most special to you? How did that person come into your life?

My husband and I met Jacob Vanhorn through a bizarre and unexpected turn of events. When we first got engaged, we were totally focused on all the normal stuff you think of when you think of a wedding, like finding a place, a dress, bridesmaid dresses, a cake, etc. We were so focused on these things, in fact, that we completely forgot that we would need someone to actually MARRY us. In a bit of a last-minute frenzy, I called my grandfather, who is a retired minister, and asked if he could help us do some research on the internet. I didn't care who we ended up with, actually, just that someone with a license would stand up there and declare us "man and wife". At that point, we had about 5 weeks left before our wedding date of March 21st, 2008. My grandfather found us someone at Hill Country Bible Church here in Austin, whos name I can't remember, because we never ended up meeting with him. Turns out, his schedule was too busy to counsel a nearly-wed couple. Yeah, the whole counseling thing. I didn't know we'd have to do that in order for the dude to marry us. When we found out, I was admittedly a little pissed.

We ended up meeting with the music minister at Hill Country for our counseling. This guy, Paul, was just incredible. I was reeeeally (seriously, can't emphasize that enough) uncomfortable the first time we met, and he wanted to know about our past, and our faith, and all this stuff that I totally and completely did NOT want to talk about. I hadn't been to church in 10 (or more) years, and God was not a part of me and Stephen's relationship at that point. We had both been raised in church (kind of) but had taken off on our own paths the minute we hit 18.

Ok, let me say here... I don't talk about my faith or religion a lot on my blog, because I am a "keep the peace" kind of gal, and I've SEEN some of the things you guys have said about christians. I don't comment and tell you you're wrong, because sadly, most of the time you're not. It breaks my heart that the corrupt megachurches and greedy, detached, self-righteous "christians" have ruined it for so many of us. I am a christian, and I love God and people, and I try to do all I can by loving people, and my friends, and trying to respond to where I feel like God is calling me. It doesn't always make sense, but I'm ok with that. My best friends are two gay guys and an athiest, and I don't condemn them, I just love them and try to be an awesome friend. Anyway. I just needed to say that.

So on about our 2nd or 3rd visit, Paul really got into the whole God thing with us. And we prayed together, and while it was extremely awkward, it was really inspirational and encouraging at the same time. Stephen and I prayed together that night, and we still do. I don't care how anyone else feels about this, but I cannot even put into words how much richer, deeper, and more satisfying our relationship has become since then. We were already in love, but our life together was in such a sad state, it's amazing we even got to that point, the way things were going. I won't really go into it here, cuz I don't feel like it's the time or place, but we were into some heavy stuff. Both of us. And it was killing us, and we didn't really care. These are things that I still struggle with, and probably always will, but I don't mind it so much anymore, and it isn't nearly as hard to deal with as it used to be.

Needless to say, we were excited and buzzing with anticipation by the time the wedding was 2 weeks away. We had grown extremely close with Paul, and our life seemed to just be working out wonderfully. Then we realized that our wedding date, March 21st, was on Good Friday. And Paul had to lead the Good Friday service at his church at 6:30. Our wedding started at 6. Dilema.

So Paul calls some friends, does a little magic matchmaking, and introduces us to his friend, Jacob.

We instantly liked him. He seemed cool, and dorky (like us), and his sense of humor seemed to really work with Stephen's, which unfortunately, I can NOT say for many. We met at Paul's office for our first meeting, and got to know each other a little better, and by the next week we were meeting him at Star Seeds for my birthday breakfast. Jacob was generous and eager to love us from the very beginning, and we were both ecstatic when he invited us to come to his little church, Soma Austin Community Church. When we first went, they were still meeting in his house (it's a tiny, brand-spanking-new church) and everyone would come over on Sunday nights, eat dinner together, and just have a good time. I enjoyed cooking for everyone and we started going pretty much every week.

Jacob became something of a mentor to Stephen, and has been there for us, really, anytime we've needed anything. He washed our windows when we moved out of our old apartment, helping us get our full deposit back. He helped us move when all our other friends were busy. His wife, Christie, is just RAD, and we get along really well. She's a trip, man. These two people have shown us more love, more caring, more genuine friendship, in just the last 9 months, than I ever could have or would have expected.

It's incredible, this little journey we've been on... I still can't wait to see where it takes us. I do know that wherever we end up, Jacob will probably be driving the U-Haul.