Our Story
Nick and I met at our church Lighthouse Baptist Church in 2003. Oddly enough, neither of us can remember how our friendship really started.
Sarah Pearl
When Things Began
I am a military brat (just as Nick is). My father was in the USMC and retired here in San Diego with my family.
We've lived here in San Diego for the last 5 years and love it more every day!
I was a weirdo child growing up, always doing crazy stuff. I've grown up in a christian home my entire life, and I am eternally grateful for the life that I have been able to live. I am even now more excited to be able to share the remaining years of my life with my best friend/future husband.
Currently, I am studying at Southwestern College and plan on transferring to San Diego State University this fall to obtain my major in Public Administration. I was originally intending on majoring in Nursing (and soooo many of my friends and family have encouraged me to go that route, because of the money), but I feel that working for the Federal Government is where I should be. I love working with military service members. More so, working with their families and helping them in their transition in and out of the military. A plus side with that, is I love being in the security of the military base! What can I say! I'm the daughter of a retired marine, I loved and am proud that my father was able to serve his 26 years in the Marine Corps.
Moving on to Niiiiiiiick and how/when we first met.
I attempted to meet Nick at a Thanksgiving Dinner at the Champagne's house in 2003, but he ignored my initial attempts to make conversation. Til this day, he denys it, and claims he doesn't remember. But I have my brother as a witness! ^_^
My first impression of Nick was that we he was a snob and not worth the effort of trying to befriend. The only reason I was interested in meeting him was because he played offertories at my church, and he is a superb pianist. (My heart still melts when I hear him play.)
Shortly after our rough start of meeting one another, somehow Nick ended up obtaining the role as Daniel and my choffer, giving my brother and me rides to church functions/ministries. That continued to be our arrangements for the next two years. We have gone through our ups and downs in our friendship and for the last years, we've been mainly going up (with less downs ^_^)..it was not in my plans to be married to Nick and I think I remember Nick saying a few years back that he would've never entertained the thought of being with me (I wasn't his type :P). But it is not our plans that come into fruition, it is the Lord's. And I'm glad He's in control.
♥
Sarah Pearl
Blindsided [Nick]
A Pleasant Surprise
I moved here in the summer of 2003 and met Sarah and her family shortly after that. My main friendship was with her brother, Daniel. He was around 15 or 16 then, and I was 18 or 19. Back then, we hung out ALOT. I was always playing basketball with him, playing video games at his house, or just chillaxing. I never really took notice to his sister because, at that time, I thought the age gap was a little despairing (the gap was only 2.5 years, but I was in college, she was in highschool still...so I thought it would be a little weird).
Daniel was like a brother to me, and, but default, Sarah was like a sister. At the time when I first met them, neither of them had a driver's license, so guess who drove everywhere? :-) I would jokingly tell them that I couldn't always be their chauffeur. To this day, I still bug them about paying me back for all the gas that I spent on them haha.
Anyway...as we got older, we naturally started doing our own things. We all developed different interests and actually started drifting apart for a while. However, I never lost my "brotherly" tendencies to act protective of either of them. I have always been the type of guy that kept his head on straight and had a plan. I knew what I wanted to do, and I was doing it...going to school, serving in the church, etc. I was very focused and I think that's why I never really considered Sarah as a life-long partner...I was just too focused on other things. Whenever she would get into trouble, I would always take her aside and scold her...and of course she didn't like that. I think it came to the point where Sarah actually had a "sisterly" dislike for me...you know...the kind of dislike little sisters have when their older brothers are always in their business. I was likewise annoyed with her "little sister antics". This is how most of our friendship was for probably most of 2006 and half of 2007.
However, in the summer of 2007, things started to change. I graduated college with my engineering degree and got a job at a good company. Sarah had graduated highschool in 2005 and had been in college for a couple years...she also started a new job at the MCRD. Up until this time, I had been really focused on school and many other things. Sarah's life had been full of drama up to that point as well. At this point though, things started slowing down for both of us. We slowly started talking and hanging out again. This time around, I noticed that Sarah seemed to be changing. She wasn't the "little sister" that she was when I first met. She was a much stronger person that now had a plan for her life. I took note of this, and over a short amount of time started to take interest in her.
Now, you have to understand, this was totally strange for me. I NEVER thought that I would ever be interested in Sarah. It was funny because about 6 months before this, I was talking to a man in the church that I counsels me. We were just having small talk at his house, when he randomly asked me, "So have you ever considered Sarah for a wife?". I retorted with a "Never...she is like a sister to me. Plus, we never get along...". Six months later, I see the same guy again after Sarah and I had been courting for a week or two. He couldn't help but take the credit for it - "Didn't I call that out 6 months ago??". Guess he was right :-)
I am very thankful to God that he has blessed me with a wonderful fiance. He blindsided me with someone that I could never have seen myself with. It just goes to show that He knows what's best, and is ready to give us His best if we leave it up to Him.
