Clint & Theresa

About the wedding: We are getting married at Faith Presbyterian Church, a church not far from Southeastern Bible College (our alma mater). Neither of us attend church there, but I did used to help out with nursery there, and we both absolutely love the church… hard wood floors, high ceiling with wood beams, windows down each side of the church… the whole structure gives the church a wide-open feel. We are having a more casual wedding that will reflect who Clint and I are and that will hopefully portray Christ’s central role in our individual and joint lives. We hope our wedding and reception can be a big celebration of God’s love and that all present will have a great time visiting with friends and family!

First Memories: Clint and I met while attending Southeastern Bible College. I was a sophomore at the time and Clint a freshman. We remained acquaintances for a couple of years, talking to each other only in passing. One of my first memories of Clint is him coming to class dressed in a Sponge Bob costume. One of his first memories of me is playing ping pong with me at our undergrad… since I’m writing this I will say I totally beat him. Eventually, Clint approached me with the possibility of dating, and, after getting to know each other better for several months, we began dating in October of 2004. I am very thankful that we took time to get to know each other better before we began dating as we were able to enter our dating relationship with the strong basis of best-friendship.

The Engagement: Interesting story…. I traveled to Denver, CO (where Clint attends seminary) to visit over Christmas. The day after I arrived, Clint took me to Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather was perfect with clear skies, snow-covered lakes, and snow splattered mountains. We went to a few different spots in the park and ended up at a huge lake called Bear Lake. After walking around for awhile, we sat down on a bench by the lake. We ended up having a deep theological conversation on why we make snowmen and snowangels but not snowdevils. Clint suggested we have a contest… I would make a snowman and he would make a snowdevil. Then we would see who’s was best. About the time I was finishing up my snowman, a tourist decided that we had the best spot to take a picture, so he came over and asked Clint to take his picture. By this time I knew Clint was about to propose, so I thought it quite funny that this man walked up right then. Thankfully, Clint had time to cover his snow-drawings with his jacket before the man came up, avoiding any akwardness. Once the picture was taken and the man gone, Clint looked at my snowman (which was awesome, btw) and then I turned to look at his “snowdevil.” He removed his jacket from the snow, and the words “Marry Me” were written there. He then got down on one knee, opened the box with the ring, and asked me to marry him. Here is where my struggle began… I began searching for an answer. After all, people had been responding with “yes!” for centuries. Couldn’t I come up with a new response? After a couple seconds, my brilliant response was, “Are you serious?” Guess what? He was serious! My second brilliant response was, “I knew you were gonna do this!” I had figured he might propose that day seeing as we were in Denver together (where we would be as a newly-married couple ) and we were at a national park (we both love being outdoors). Now was not the time to let him know of my inklings, though. Naturally, Clint’s response was (very frustrated as he thought I was unsuspecting), “You KNEW?! …. Well, what is your answer?!” My third brilliant response was, “Of course I’ll marry you.” A perfect example of three things NOT to say during the most special proposal moment. Well, it didn’t end there. At this point, I had not even touched the ring yet; Clint was still holding it in the box. He later told me I was looking at the ring like it had the plague or as if to say, “You are asking me to marry you with THAT piece of junk?!” Clint, perceptively noting the expression on my face (I’m still not sure what it was), asked, “You don’t like the ring, do you?” Here my fourth brilliant response came bounding out of my mouth, “No, it’s not that I don’t like it…. It’s just different. I just have to get used to it.” Let me explain here… I was surprised because the ring did not look like ones I had shown him in the past that I liked. He knew I liked antique-looking rings. He had bought me an ACTUAL antique ring created in the 1920’s. I was thrown off at first, but please note that I LOVE my ring now! It is one of a kind and an actual antique. I love it! But, my first response was not what it is now. So, at this point, we both sat down on the bench again, and I began to quietly look at the ring some more. Clint was slumped over in disappointment, and I began to cry because I felt badly that I did not like the ring right away. People walking by would have thought we had just broken up. Here Clint looked up at the beautiful scenery around us and stated in an expressionless voice, “Well…. we’re engaged.” By the time we left the park, we were laughing at the situation. In the end, we decided it makes for a great story and actual fits our personalities better than a perfect engagement story would. The moral of the story is that the engagements in the movies should not be trusted! Real life is much different, and, if you ask me, much better!