Life Really Is Just So Unexpected

Well, It's been a while since I've posted anything on here publicly (I took a little break and used this blog as a blog for one of my online classes, but have been missing it being what it was intended for lately.) What is it intended for, one may ask? Well I guess over the years (and quite a few years I might add) I have been able to document my life through this blog. It was with me in college, it was with me when I decided to go on a mission. Various boys and relationships have been hashed out on this blog, yes...in a sense it has included many points in my "young adult life" as I've gone through many changes. As I reflected on it's purpose and how it's been in a sense, a journal for many years, I realized how much I have FAILED to record about the last year of my life, a year that has COMPLETELY encompassed the meaning of "Life Unexpected!" This is me, documenting what's become of me, and ultimately, what I've learned through this past year... So here goes nothing:)

A year ago today I was home from school at BYU-I, approaching my final fall semester...I remember being excited to be done, but scared of the future and disappointed that I was 24 1/2,  about to graduate college, and had no prospects of anyone at that point to even seriously date. I had been dating a lot in the months leading up to that, so much in fact, that my mom had begun to get frustrated with me each time I'd call her and say "eh, I just wasn't into him" or "it just wasn't right." Now side note...being a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints or Mormon, there's often a lot of pressure that comes in your 20's to date and get married, in fact at the age of 24, I was considered "older" in my college community as a single woman (I know, I know 24 is not old!) But I must admit, I had always had the desire to find the right person and settle down, and it was frustrating to me that amid my efforts to date, I was having zero success.
During the summer of being home at my parent's house,  I had made a commitment to myself that I was going to attend a congregation at my church that was merely for young single adults. I'd known about this congregation for a while, but had a very negative mentality about it, assuming that everyone there were people I'd known growing up who hadn't moved away or figured out what they were doing with their life ( I know that was a rash judgment:) It had always been important to me to date and marry someone of my faith, because of how important my faith is to me. I NEVER in a million years would have imagined though, that after living in Idaho for 6 years, leaving on a mission to San Diego, and meeting people all over the country, that the person I would date and marry would be right in my backyard:) As I attended the singles congregation, I was informed about this "awesome guy who I HAD to meet!" Each week I was told that I needed to meet this guy, and as I would see him around I could tell that he had been informed of the same idea...so now things were awkward:)
Finally, on my last week of being home before going back to school (and after a lot of circumstances "fell into place") I decided to just sit by him and introduce myself (what'd I have to lose, I was going back to school in 3 days anyways:) Well to make a long story short, that lead to 4 hours of talking that night, an exchange of numbers, and a commitment to go on a date when I got home from school in the winter (HA....that's funny!)
A week into me being back at school, me and this handsome stud (haha) began texting every day, which lead to 4 hr phone calls, which lead to, skyping for hours at a time...we corresponded every single day, all day (which anyone know knows my husband is shocked by because he's not always a talker haha). I was shocked though. Here I was, in what should have been "dating central" Rexburg, Idaho, and I was spending every waking moment talking to a guy back in Puyallup Washington?! After a month of constant talking, I decided I should go home for a weekend to see if there was anything there (I mean we knew there was something there, we loved talking and had become best friends) but we wanted to see if there was ANYTHING there :) On October 11th we went on our first date and spent the entire weekend together. It was the most comfortable first date and weekend I'd ever had. Everything else kind of skyrocketed from there! He flew me home two weekends later, then came to visit 2 weeks after that, I went home again for Thanksgiving and 2 weeks later we went to San Diego together to visit my misison, and then 2 weeks after that he came to my graduation...all the while we were talking and falling in love. On New Years Eve of 2014 we got engaged. To say it was unexpected is an understatement. To say I anticipated it all happening so fast, is even more of an understatement. I am truly a believer that God's hand is in everything, and the timing of me and Kyle meeting and getting engaged was maybe not ideal in everyone's world (many wonder how you could make a decision that big that fast) but luckily for us, we knew our values were aligned, we knew each other on a much deeper level than merely physical, and we both wanted to get married and have a family.

Our First Weekend Together

Trip to San Diego

The Holidays

We decided on a short engagement, because we both had made the commitment in our lives to wait until we were married to have any sexually intimate relationships. We knew that a long engagement would only make that more difficult, so we were engaged in December and got married on April 11th of 2015 in the Seattle, Washington temple.

Our plan for starting a family was to wait a year and then hopefully, God permitting, get pregnant. That was OUR PLAN haha, that clearly wasn't God's plan because soon ( I mean very soon) after our wedding, we found out we would be having a baby...I think both of our initial reactions were shock. Here we were still adjusting to living together, and all that comes with being married, and now we had this new little person coming into our lives. It took a few days of prayer and fasting for us to be ready and okay with this news. Not that our little one was unwanted AT ALL, it was more an overwhelming, unexpected surprise:) We are now so excited and in love with our little girl coming January of 2016!

I guess to wrap it up, if you would have asked me a year ago, where I'd be today.....Married and pregnant would not have been my first answer. But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I feel so blessed, I know that God's time table is perfect, even if that means he waits forever to give us what we want and then gives it to us all at once:) His timing is perfect, and we can find happiness in every stage and moment in life. It's a journey that I'm thrilled to be on!