76 Days - Our Story
'Who is he? Is he a nice person? and 'should I go out with some random guy' were questions I was asking myself and my oldest brother Luke, when I got a Facebook message from a cute boy asking if he could chat and maybe get to know me. I knew of him, so it wasn't like he was a total stranger! (I mean, I live in a town where if you don’t know someone, you play Dutch bingo with them until you do!) I knew that Chris had hung out with some of my older brothers and their friends back in the day, so I had to go get the scoop! Once Luke gave his stamp of approval (which has never happened before ) I went ahead and arranged a (surprise surprise) ...coffee date!
When I arrived in my VW bug, he said I lost a few points in his book, but I totally made it back later when I told him it was diesel... yah, I know you guys, it’s pretty cool! We went in and made all of that slightly awkward but totally awesome getting to know you chit chat, bonded over our mutual love for our four legged furry friends ( he has a beautiful Chesapeake bay retriever named Bella, and I have my KonaBear!) I thought to myself that this is definitely a boy I would like to go out with again!
Yep! That's Chris in his tractor. (His mom took this beautiful picture!)
I’m not into wasting time, so the very next day I offered to bring him dinner! Being the farm boy that he was, he was out in a tractor and said I was more than welcome to ride along and bring dinner too. He thought there was no way this girl who just met him would bring him dinner out in the tractor in some random field! Little did he know, I used to ride in the tractor all the time with my brother when he worked on a farm, so that didn’t scare me at all! Off I went, brought him some dinner and rode with him for about 5 hours! After that date we were pretty inseparable, talked every day, went on a lot of drives and started dating about 2 weeks later. When I brought him home and introduced Chris to my family, they all pretty much said the same thing, that this was ‘the one’. Liz tells me that her family was saying the same thing! On a little side note, here is the big secret! We actually probably have Chris to thank for the Streets of Gold Blog/Team. Chris is Elizabeth’s older brother, so that’s actually how we met and started working together! Pretty cool huh!?
Aren't they just the cutest family!
Here comes the serious part though, and I’m going to be real with you guys.
About a year ago, I was really doing some soul searching. I wasn’t unhappy being single, but I had a deep desire in me to be in a meaningful relationship. It took me a little while, but I realized that there was someone who wanted to have that type of relationship with me, and it was my Heavenly Father. The realization came that I needed to let go of all my worries and understand that God had the best plan for me already in motion whether I saw it yet or not. I had the best conversation with my Oma about it (that’s Dutch for Grandma). We talked about having faith in God’s plan and she told me to pray for my future husband. Two weeks after that, I met Christopher John Appel. The thing that probably attracted me the most to him was his openness about his faith and a desire live a life following in Christ footsteps. ( Also, I thought he was super cute!) I have been so incredible blessed this man in my life, as well as his amazing family. Family has always been so important to me, and I am so happy to have been accepted and loved by Chris’s family like my own. God has surrounded me with some absolutely amazing people, and I thank Him for that every day!
The countdown is down to 76 days! I know, scary, and I still have a super long checklist! My stress level is down, but I am dangerously low on ice cream! So next thing on the list is to hit up the grocery store!
