This verse was on our wedding innovations, and it's funny it encompasses more meaning today then it did 8 years ago. In our Sunday school class for young married families, we are discussing what "oneness" looks like. Today Nathan and I got to share about a time in our marriage when all things felt hopeless. The story goes a little like this. Nathan and I wed on April 2, 2005, we move to Kentucky May 2006.
While still in California, Nate and I were set to move into my grandmothers rental house, but when my grandmother passed away before our wedding, that plan got altered. Franticly looking for a place to live before we got married we settled on beautiful little apartment that cost more then our current mortgage. Life was great as newly weds, we were adjusting to to each other and laughed at the awkward moments nobody tells you about married life. (peeing with the door open, farting, being naked!)
After four months of being married Nate lost his job. He was very fortunate to have friend that got him into construction. We were making ends meet but really scraping by. I began to have sever panic attacks and was scared of what our future held. Nathan and I ended up moving in with my mom and dad. Which we are super grateful, but nothing kills the romance of being a newly wed like sleeping next door to your mom and dad. Deep down Nathan and I knew God had something more for us. We were sitting at church when we both felt God calling us away from California.
We bought our house in Kentucky on our 1 year anniversary, and made the long 3 day trek and moved in on Derby weekend May 2006! My mom and dad drove out with us, and helped paint and move and remove furniture. We had a blast and then the week was over, and for the first time I watched my mom and dad get on plane and leave me behind. I cried for days.
Things got better, Nathan got a job at Lowes and I stayed home that summer, but started coaching at West high school in July. The Jen's Crazy Time (as we jokingly call it) didn't set in until around Thanksgiving. I remember this horrible sadness creeping in and gripping me with fear, nothing was fun, I stared off into space and I totally Hated and Blamed Nathan for all of it! I was so homesick. I had NO family, no friends and really no husband. (I had pushed him away) I gave Nate an ultimatum, I said "we either put the house up for sale or I am leaving you. I hate you and don't want to live here, I want to go home!" Needless to say our relationship sucked, we were both broken and hurt. I felt like God had abandoned me and us.
I went home for two weeks to see my family and be with my two best girlfriends. I remember kissing Nate good bye and thinking that was the last time I would kiss him. I did not want to come back home, it was my plan to stay in California. While I was home my mother and I were out shopping for Christmas presents, when my daddy called to say he was home from work and calling 911 because he thought he was having a heart attack! Mom and I rushed home, to find the paramedics already there and my daddy being wheeled out on a stretcher. He had had a heart attack and went right into surgery.
My flight was set to leave the next morning! I called Nathan from the hospital and told him "Daddy had a heart attack, he's in surgery now I will NOT becoming home tomorrow!"and hung up.
I would stay in California another week to help my mother at home and stay with my daddy while he rested. I will never forget that week, my dad and I put puzzles together, watched our favorite Christmas movies, mom and I cooked and decorated for Christmas. It was of course my parents that pushed me to come home and reminded me that I made a promise to Nathan and couldn't abandon him. So needless to say back to KY I went.
As I sat in my seat in Atlanta, I was thinking about coming back to KY and began to feel the sadness creeping in, when all the sudden I caught a whiff of parmesan cheese and about threw up!
Praise the Lord I did not throw up! Finally home I told Nate about the cheese thing and we both laughed it off, thinking it was just to being tired and me still adjusting to the medicine I was taking.
It wasn't until the next day, when I tried to put on my favorite jeans and they would not fit, that I began to wonder what the heck is up! I mean I was hardly eating, what in the world was going on?? With out telling Nathan I took a pregnancy test.... POSITIVE! Well that explains a lot right ?? That might be an understatement! When the blood work come backs, just a fews days before Christmas, the Dr. says, "Jen you are either having twins or you are farther along in your pregnancy then you think." YEP try 14 weeks pregnant! All that CRAZINESS was a mix of real emotions but totally blown up due to my hormones raging out of control!
Bringing it all together, like I said the verse "and the two shall become one flesh" was on our wedding innovations but I did not fully understand it until after the craziness of that year. Nathan is my everything. While I have a very close relationship with my mom and dad and miss them terribly, Nathan is my family (and my two sweet babies). We depend on each other, encourage each other and our love for each other is deeper then we could have imagined. Our relationship is awesome and God has totally transformed us! I am so thankful for Nate and can't imagine doing life with out him!
I love you Nate, thanks for the adventure.
