Jillian's Joy in meeting Jeremy

So, after I was saved..unfortunately, I did not grow. It wasn't until 3 years after I was saved that I began my actual journey as a Christian. I surrendered to the Lord in June 2000. After several things happening to me, I decided to "date Jesus" and fall in love with Him. I decided that dating was not for me. I wanted my next boyfriend to be the man that I would spend the rest of my life with.

In August 2000 I went to a Witnessing Class taught at First Baptist Church. I sat beside the new, young, single, hot preacher in town. Ha! The class was before school started so it seemed to start early. The first day I wore a cheerleading hoodie and my hair was in a ponytail and little to no makeup. When I walked in and saw him, well, let's just say the rest of the week I was decked out!! Ha! Although I found him QUITE attractive, dating never crossed my mind. I do remember exchanging emails with him b/c we wanted to stay in touch. That was the end of that.

In September 2000, I attended "See you at the Pole" at my high school. I was 16 by the way. My friend Stephanie and I were standing there and I leaned over to her and said "He is SO fine!!" He had on dark jeans and a blazing orange "SYATP" tshirt. Again, that was all.

Then, on November 11, 2000...it was head over heels....Stephanie and I sang together quite a bit. It was a Saturday night and she wanted me to go with her to a small gospel singing at a local church. I went and yep, you guessed it!! Jeremy was there too!! He sat on the left side of the church with his youth group..who, by the way, were in my high school class!! HAHAH!! (He's 5 years older than me.) I remember sitting there and all of a sudden I had an overwhelming (almost audible) voice tell me in my heart these words "He is who you will spend the rest of your life with." I laughed out loud! I was like "Lord, he doesn't even really talk to me..how are you going to do that?" Well, after the singing, he and I happen to stop and talk (at the altar) and I was standing in awe at how God works.

I went home that night and walked in the door and said these words to my family "I know who I'm going to be with for the rest of my life." They all asked who and I told them. Then off to bed I went.

I got up the next morning and checked my email. He had emailed me!!!! All it said was how did I enjoy the singing and stuff like that. Then he asked how old I was. HAha!! He had NO idea that I was 16 (6 days from 17) I think this had him shocked!! So, he emailed me back and began to ask hypothetical questions like "How would your Daddy feel if a 22 year old asked you out?" Ha!! It was funny b/c I knew the entire time that he was referring to himself!! He is so silly!! After a week or so, he called me!! Then, the first weekend in December we went on our first date.

That was the year of the HUGE ice storms. There was no electricity so no one went to school and no one worked. But we all had a blast!! We played games and had a good time. Jeremy and I were able to spend every day together for 3 weeks...I really got to know who he was and what he believed and what he stood for. In January, I fell in love with him.

Throughout the next 11 months we were inseperable!! December 31, 2001 he asked me to marry him!!

We were going on a date. He knocked on the door. I opened the door to find him standing there with a dozen red roses and he read me a poem. My Mama took pictures of us. I did not realize at the time that we were getting our "engagement night pics"....I thought it was b/c I had ROSES!! We went out and at the restaurant he read me another poem. This was really nothing out of the ordinary b/c he is soooo romantic!! I honestly had NO idea!! Also, we were going to go look for rings in January 2002, so I was banking on that. We went to see Christmas lights and there was yet, another poem. Then we went to this place on the lake. He sat me out on the beach in a lawn chair. He had romantic music playing. He went back to the truck and I watched. I had NO idea what he was doing but later figured out he was throwing hershey's kisses on the ground...from the truck to were I was sitting. Then he took my roses and pulled the petals off and threw them around me. Then he washed my feet. He told me that he wanted to serve and love me as Christ served and loved the church. Then he sang me a song that he wrote. Then, he bowed on one knee and said "Jillian, I have showered you with roses, I've even kissed the ground (hershey's kisses) you've walked on. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife?" He pulled out the ring and I just stared at it b/c I wasn't quite understanding what was going on b/c he had tricked me. He asked me again (ha) and I said "yes!!"

We were married on May 25th, 2002 (8 days after I graduated high school). I'll catch you up on our wedding day some other time!!