Our Love Story

In honor of Valentine's day, I want to share our story of love - how we met, fell in love and then got married! It's a story that could have only be orchestrated by God!

Seth and I are unsure of when we actually met the first time. We both started LaTech the same year (2002) and participated in the Freshman events hosted by the BCM. The first interaction we both distinctly remember was during our Fall break. We both went to visit our high school friends that were attending LSU. On that particular night, we went to the BCM at LSU to attend their worship service. We spotted each other from across the courtyard. I was thinking to myself, "there's that cute guy with pretty long hair from Tech. I want to impress my friends and say hi to him (lol)". So next thing I know, we are walking right into each other and he says hey and opens his arms up to give me a hug.

The Winter quarter started back in December and Seth and I had a Math class together. I was a good student and sat in the front while Seth and his friends sat in the back (ha). Most days after class, a couple of us would walk to the cafeteria and eat lunch together. This is where our friendship began.  We hung out together more and more as we went to some of the same BCM events, Common Ground, and had several mutual friends. It was always a fun time when he was around!

Let me just interject here to say that during this time Seth had long blonde hair that made any girl jealous! This put Seth under my "undateable" category. Not because I didn't like him or his hair but because who takes a guy home to their parents that has long hair! Certainly not me! :) Looking back, this was just God allowing our friendship to establish and grow as well as allowing us to build relationships with our other friends at Tech.

So, we all left for the summer. We had a BLAST our freshman year and eagerly awaited school to begin in the fall to create more amazing memories. We talked a few times during the summer while Seth was working as a raft guide. Once we were back at school for the fall, we didn't hang out a whole bunch. Our group of friends had changed somewhat and all the freshman girls were eyeing Seth. I was still not very interested in him. I didn't think he would even want to date me anyway especially with all the new girls around. By this time, his hair was REALLY long too. I still had some stuff going on in my head from a past relationship. I was confused. One day, Seth walked up to the BCM and his hair was cut short! Wow, he still looked cute with short hair! (ha) So in my mind, he began to change from a goofy guy with long hair to a some-what mature man.

The day Seth cut his hair!

One night in October, several of our friends were hanging out in Toliver Hall for a "study session" (not quite). Seth and I ended up looking at something on a computer and when we looked up, everyone else had left. By this time it was late. Seth proceeds to ask me to go sit on some couches in the back of Tolliver. When we sit down, I notice Seth pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket. He says, "Can I pray with you?" This made me feel uncomfortable REAL quick. I had never prayed with a guy before and had no idea what was about to go down.  He prayed for God to allow him to communicate how he was feeling.....and this is when I turned red! Seth pulled out a list of things he liked about me and what he wanted to talk to me about that night...pursuing a relationship with the intentions of the end result being MARRIAGE! Who says that to a girl?! (I think I would have married him on the spot! :) ) I left that night on cloud 9! I could not believe that a guy would want to pray about pursuing a relationship, have his friends and parents praying for us and be thinking marriage this early in our friendship/relationship. That night we left not as boyfriend and girlfriend but as friends wanting to intentionally get to know each other better in every way (minus the physical part). I felt so unworthy of such a relationship and man.

Where it all began.

We had decided to wait until December to re-evaluate our relationship to see if we were compatible and if this is what God wanted for us. During those few months, we spent most of our time with friends and a few alone dates to weddings or on a road trip to BR for the LSU game. He came to my house the day after Christmas. We went on a date, our first official date, and declared ourselves an official couple! We felt the Lord leading us to set up some guidelines for our relationship to protect our hearts, minds and bodies and to preserve them for our future spouse. We prayed over all this and even gave copies of our "rules" to friends and family to hold us accountable.  The Lord really blessed our relationship and worked in our hearts as we  got to know each other.

First date

New Year's Eve in Times Square...guess what year

Our first Valentine's Day together

We made many fun memories that year...skiing, traveling, serving together. That summer, Seth went to work at a camp called Pine Cove. As a counselor, he could not have phone contact with anyone until his 24 hour break on the weekends. I really struggled not being able to talk to him whenever I wanted or needed. This is when the Lord sealed my love for him. We always would say, "I like you" instead of "I love you" because we knew that we were not to that point yet. But, during his absence, that like grew to a LOVE! I knew I needed him in my life for so many different reasons. I knew I couldn't live without him!

One of our favorite events every fall...the Hoe Down...one GIANT square dance! Yee haw!

We continued to make many wonderful and unforgettable memories our Junior year at Tech. At the beginning of the summer, Seth and I made a visit to Lake Charles. We enjoyed a fun day, June 4, 2005, on the lake with some friends. That night, Seth wanted to take me out so we went on a date...to McCalister's. Afterwards, he wanted to take me to the country club dock (it was one of our "places" to hang out and look at the stars and dance) to see the sunset. We just missed the sunset but we hung out for a minute when he told me he needed to go into the country club to use the bathroom. When we walked in, he said, "Come here and look at the ballroom with me. Let's see what's going on in there." Well a security guard was walking right towards us so I was like, "No, we can't go in there! (we'd be breaking a rule or something or busting in on someone else's party)" So after pretty much dragging me in there, we walked in to see a table sitting out in the middle of the room. He was asking me to go see what it was all about. As we approached the table, I noticed a big book with shiny pages...a Bible. On the Bible was Mr. and Mrs. Seth Thomas!!!! Oh, I knew what this meant but in my head it didn't make any sense because I KNEW he didn't have a ring (I thought I knew how much money was in his bank account, ha!). Well I look back at him and he is on his knee with a ring out asking me to marry him! My head was spinning! I said, "Is this for real?!" He said, "Yes", and so did I.

"Is this for real?"

I was crying uncontrollably for several reasons. One being that I knew my Mom and Dad were not there and that made me sad that I could not share this with them. Seth pulled out his phone so we could call our families to tell them. I called my mom and she didn't answer! So he called his mom and then I called mine again. This time she answered and I could barely talk to her. I thought it was weird that she didn't want to talk for long and got off the phone. As I was crying into Seth's chest, I heard footsteps and turned around to find ALL of our family walking up....his parents, grandparents, and MY parents! I cried even harder. To top it all off we have the whole thing on film and video as he arranged for his siblings to hide in the room to capture it all! It was a night I will never forget!

Almost exactly a year later on June 3, 2006, we were married in Ruston. We had a great time celebrating with the family and friends that we shared so many memories with together. The Lord has blessed us beyond what we could have ever thought to ask or pray for. We are thankful that he protected us and preserved us for one another. And now, almost six years later, I still feel so blessed to have married my very best friend. I could not have dreamed of a better match for me!

Happy Valentine's Day, Seth! I love you so much!

PS. There are gaps in pictures because when we started dating not many people were using digital cameras at that point. We have scrapbooks with many more pictures to document our love story! Thankful to have those to look back and remember all the fun times we've shared together.