Our Story
We’d love to share our story with you. We’ve decided to tell our story from our different perspectives… enjoy!
Rachel’s Perspective
I wasn’t the “girl in high school who had boyfriends”. I was the “friend of the girl with all the boyfriends”… a wing woman if you will. Even after high school I didn’t spend too much of my time worrying about dating. So this is the story of the girl who married her first boyfriend.
Way back in 2009 I went to South Africa for 3 weeks. I had some down time one evening, so naturally, I wasted my time on Facebook. I started checking out Jason’s page for no particular reason – maybe because he had a dog, or maybe because his food always looked delicious. No matter which way we look at it, I was being super creepy.
Back story: Jason and I have known of each other for a long time, almost 13 years. It wasn’t until 2009 however, that I started creepily stalking him on facebook. Truth be told, I had a crush on someone else at the time but… Jason wasn’t completely off my radar.
A few months later Jason started playing on the Fuel worship team consistently, and through random osmosis, we started hanging out. Up until this point, I was weary if he talked, as I’m sure some of you still are… (spoiler alert: he totally talks).
In May 2009, Jason and I started spending more time together. We flirted on Twitter publicly and some of my friends started suspecting something was up.
On a Monday morning (his day off) Jason came in to Parchments to “pick up his business cards”. He showed me his business card and then just “happened to leave it on the counter” after he left.
I traveled with one of my BFFs Brittany to Southern California later that day to attend the Dancing with the Stars finale. I remembered I had Jason’s business card, so I text him telling him to watch the finale to see if he saw me on TV. (Wayyy later, Jason admitted he never actually watched it… sooo romantic). Brittany and I drove home that night… Jason and I texted each other until I arrived home at 3am.
He asked me out 2 days later and I got awkward and made a weird joke (I thought he’d never talk to me again). We had our first date at Peets. I bullied him into pushing the date from Saturday morning to Friday evening. We spent 3 hours telling our life stories to one another. Jenn (Jason’s sister) stumbled upon us on our date. She was not aware her brother was on a date… surprise! She left us alone but totally eavesdropped from the other side of the room. There was something about that date though, I knew from that day on that I’d stumbled into something special.
Our friends (Derek) really wanted us to date. So, with the help of Sara, they set up a BBQ where Jason and I were supposed to meet and fall in love. Much to everyone’s surprise (and Derek’s disappointment), Jason and I had already been on 3 dates before the BBQ, so Derek can’t take credit for our relationship.
On May 31, 2009 we had our “DTR” on the way to Taco Bell, and the rest is history.
Jason’s Perspective:
Well I don’t think my version of the story will be as long as Rachel’s but here we go:
Me and Rach have known of each other for some time, but it was not until one summer that we really started talking to one another and got to know each other better. I would see her when I helped out with the college group and when we would be on the same worship team together for the main services, as well as at Parchments. Through those times I got to know Rachel better and started really enjoying the times when we would talk. So naturally, I took the next steps and tried to be around her more.
During this time some mutual friends saw what was going on and TRIED playing matchmaker. They set up a Memorial Day BBQ that they planned to invite the both of us to so we could hangout outside of church and maybe hit it off. Well to their surprise, I had already been on a couple of dates with her and we arrived at the party together. However, I still owe the start of my relationship with Rachel to one man. And that one man’s name is Derek Walker. Thank you Derek.
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