Our Story
Our chance meeting and ensuing courtship is a representation of our personalities: untraditional, unorthodox, and just plain weird. Here are the stories. For the record, I think Becca's side is a little more interesting.
A Chance Meeting
Becca's Story
Like a scared little girl lost in a big, new place, I stood against a sign reading: Darkhan. It was the last stop we would make before arriving at the hotel in Darkhan, Mongolia. A tear rolled down my cheek realizing that I was finally really in the country I had only dreamed of for the past 2-3 years. Mongolia held a special place in my heart, having heard about it from my older brother Noah who had been there twice. Reading and listening to stories about the orphans there made me long to experience the culture myself. At last I was there. Adventure awaited me; I knew it! But little did I know that the plans God had for me were so much bigger than I could have begun to dream.
A very, very tired traveller, I finally arrived with some other Americans at the hotel in Darkhan - my new city for the next 4 1/2 months. I knew Jerry & Susan, the missionaries with whom I had come to work, but that was it! There were about 30 other Americans in the hotel that night. They were part of 2 or 3 missions teams from the USA. So many new faces - one, I will never forget.
I knew very little about the two American staff guys who had arrived for their third stint in Mongolia just a few weeks before me. They had both been to ALERT, a training program that Noah had attended at roughly the same time. But I'd never met them and, really, I knew nothing about them.
So that night, Jerry introduced me to Nick Harris and Adam Anders. Wow! :) I was nervous to say the least. I had promised my mom shortly before I left home that I was not the least bit interested in "Nick or Adam." (She claims then that she figured I'd end up marrying one of them... Mom's have such perception!)
Unfortunately, Nick and Adam's good looks overpowered their ability to converse with young women - or maybe it was just me. ;) Either way, they kept a good distance for me for the first several weeks... It wasn't until all the teams were gone that I started to get to know them better.
I think it started with the cookies... or maybe it was the dog. I'll just tell about the cookies for now. The apartment that I stayed in was pretty... uh... meager. :) It didn't have everything I was used to having at home. So I got to learn to do my laundry in the bathtub, wash my dishes in the sink in the bathroom, and cook in what I called an "easy bake oven." It wasn't pink, but other than that it really did look like one! :)
Getting a little homesick one day, I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies in my "easy bake." Since there were only two other girls in my apartment, and I'd made an overabundance, I decided to share my cookies. So I brought some cookies to an older gentleman who was sort of like an adopted grandpa to me. Word got out... :D And Nick and Adam expressed some sadness over not being given any of my cookies. So... I began to bake cookies for my adopted big brothers, too.
Pretty soon I began to develop a growing friendship with Nick. He came over to my apartment to install a computer for me and there were a few more times when it was not working properly and so he'd come over to fix it. I tried to always make sure I sent him home with a fresh batch of cookies. :D Eventually he returned the favor and started bringing me these phenomonal homemade chicken sandwiches. They were AWESOME!!!
As time went on, we began to find ways to spend time together. Between fishing trips to the countryside and running into each other and stopping for coffee at cafes, we began to talk more and learn more about each other. I really couldn't tell that there was anything more than a casual friendship, though, so I tried to stay content with that. I had never had a boyfriend before and I had long ago planned to wait until the right man came along. I was beginning to wonder if this was "the one."
Our friendship grew and grew into a very sweet relationship. But, come October, I was sure it was about to end. Nick, Adam, and I were all going back home (Nick to Texas, me to Oklahoma) and I was unsure if I'd ever see Nick again. :( It was a very, very sad parting in the Dallas airport. I was unsure of where we stood, but was desperately trying to trust God and wait for Nick to make the next move. When we got through the baggage claim area and were ready to part ways, Nick shook my hand. :D And that was that. I walked away, found my family, and went back home to Oklahoma...
The Wooing of Kate
Nick's Story
I wasn’t expecting to find love in Mongolia. I certainly wasn’t planning on it. It was probably the farthest thing from my mind when I met Rebecca. In Mongolia. I think I had been in the country too long by the time she showed up because the first thing I said to her was, “You look like your brother.” So much for first impressions. Because we were working together, it was easy to observe and find out who she was and what she was like. Before long I began to realize that there was a whole lot more to this woman than I thought. One of the traits that I had noticed about her, the one that I was most interested in, was her love for the Lord. He was(and is) everything to her. We were just friends and that was fine because she already had everything she needed. I on the other hand began to realize just how badly I wanted that kind of a personal relationship with God. She began to encourage me, by her witness, to seek God’s face more personally.
By the end of our time in Mongolia, we were both pretty sad to part ways. At this point, neither of us had talked about marriage or a future so we had no idea if we’d ever see each other again. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways in Dallas.
Once back home, I went back to work and school and began to figure out where I wanted to go with my life. I had a pretty good idea at this point that wherever I ended up, I wanted Rebecca to be there with me. However, I wasn’t about to start anything without any clear direction from the Lord. I’m not sure exactly when it was, sometime near the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007, Dad and I had a little talk about life and careers and whatnot. The result of the conversation was that he encouraged me to call Mr. Downing and tell him what I was thinking. That was the second nudge from God, the first being the way Rebecca caused me to look more towards Him for my needs. So after about a week or two, I finally screwed up the courage to call John. It ranks as one of the scariest things I have ever done in my life, voluntary or otherwise. It was a good conversation. I think. I still don’t remember much of it except that he and Rachel needed to pray about it without rushing headlong in some random direction. Thus began my courtship of Rebecca’s dad. ;) Over the course of the next five months, John and I exchanged e-mails and made one or two trips to Ft. Worth to visit. The first visit was probably the second scariest event of my life. On the second trip, John and Rachel gave me their consent to talk to Rebecca about courtship and possibly marriage.
June 1st, 2007 The trip was shorter than I expected. I arrived at John’s office about 4:30 in the afternoon, unannounced and unseen. Up to this point, Rebecca had no idea that I had been talking to her dad and our correspondence was pretty much nonexistent. So, the plan was for me to arrive at the office and chill until dinnertime, at which point, I would show up on the front porch, to do my best to sweep the fair maiden off her feet. That evening the Downings were celebrating several birthdays, Rebecca’s being one of them so in addition to surprising her with my presence, I had ordered some flowers that should have arrived that day. That was the only hiccup in the plan. The flowers never showed up but it really didn’t matter when all was said and done and Rebecca finally recovered from the initial shock of seeing me standing on the front lawn. It was worth every minute. The rest as they say, is history. We became engage July 13th, 2007, and the wedding is set for May 10th, 2008. I am convinced that we were created for each other for a specific purpose and I’m looking forward to what the purpose is.
