The HOT boy at church!

When I was 17 and a Senior in high school, I was sporadically going to church with my best friend, Mandy. It was a small Baptist church in a small town known as Newport, Arkansas. My church attendance was primarily on Wednesday nights and more for the purpose of hanging out with friends than it was anything spiritual. I was a Christian at the time, but I had drifted away from my walk with God.

For the most part while we were growing up, Mandy and I had the same taste in guys. This wasn't the case when it came to Mandy's Senior Year crush. She was crushing big time on our youth pastor, Sinclair. I totally disagreed. I loved Sinclair to death and to this day consider him to be a close friend, but I just wasn't attracted to him.

One Thursday morning after having missed church the night before, Mandy came running up to me at school with "THE BIG NEWS!". Apparently I had really missed out the night before. She informed me that Sinclair had a brother who was H-O-T HOT!! I just had to come to church Sunday to check him out. Now... like I said, for the most part we had the same taste, but I remember thinking as she was telling me this that I had no idea how anything related to Sinclair could be attractive let alone the kind of HOT she was talking about. Again...Love Sinclair to death. :) And yes he knows this story.

So for whatever reason, I showed up at church Sunday morning to check out Sinclair's "hot" brother. I walked into that church building that Sunday morning to see this tall, thin guy in khakis and an orange plaid shirt. And let me just tell you he was H-O-T- HOT!!

Mandy and I spent the next month or so LOVING church! Ha! We hung on his every word and every move. One Wednesday night I even had the privilege of picking him up from Sinclair's house. I was a nervous wreck. What on earth was I supposed to talk to this guy about? We talked about college... I was getting ready to head to Fayetteville and he was attending a local community college.

Fast forward to September of my Freshman year of college. I attended the U of A in Fayetteville. I was miles away from my Momma and miserable. After a shocking breakup with my then boyfriend, I did what any girl would do... I headed to the mall for retail therapy.

As I walked through that Fayeteville mall, I saw him. Sinclair's brother. He was working at a Suncom (cell phone) booth in the mall. Now any other time I would have ignored him and kept walking... I was shy and brokenhearted at the time, but I could tell by his face that he recognized me too. So I walked over and said hey. We talked about work and I told him I was working at Sonic... he totally remembered that I worked at Sonic in Newport. All is well! We exchanged phone numbers and I was off.

I don't remember how much time passed before he called. It might have been that evening, I don't know. I just know when my dorm room phone started ringing, I knew it was him and I got really nervous. I didn't answer. He called two or three more times and I didn't answer. I learned later that he told his roommate he was calling one more time and if I didn't answer he was just going to forget it all. I answered that last time and made up some lame excuse about doing my laundry. We planned a date for Sunday, September 30.

Our first date was nice. We ate at Applebees, sharing nachos and then just hung out. He didn't kiss me on our first date. I remember being totally calm at the end of our first date and not worrying at all about how it went.

It was our second date when I learned I had been mislead. He kept talking about his mom and Sinclair's mom as if they were two different people. I then assumed that they were stepbrothers. That totally explained how Sinclair had a hot brother. Through conversation I learned they weren't related at all just good friends. I'm still not sure of the truth behind the entire church thinking they were brothers. I'll blame it on Sinclair.

Either way... we started dating. We met each others families. We broke up. We cried. We got back together. We broke up. We got back together... You can see the pattern here.

Then one day out of nowhere, Andrew, told me he was going to marry me. Totally scared me to death. But he did. Six years ago today I committed my life to that HOT boy at church. Our journey has not been without bumps, but oh my I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

I know it sounds cliche but each year with this man honestly just gets better. He is my best friend. My logical, intelligent, tall, tenderhearted, husband.

I look forward to spending the rest of my life with this hot boy at church!