I’m sure everyone has just been on pins and needles to hear the results of our Love Story contest! I’m so sorry for the delay!
It really was tough to pick a winner! Thank you so so much to everyone who sent in an entry! The stories were so special, and I’m so glad I got to have a glimpse into the many different stories out there. It really was a blessing 
The stories were judged by myself and several unbiased judges (who knew none of the contestants).
The contestants were:
- Emily and Luke
- Jeff and Christina
- Rachel and Travis
- Chelsea and Lucas
- Jessica and Joseph
- Elizabeth and Nick
- Kristen and Corey
And the winner is…….
Jeff and Christina!!! I would describe them and how wonderful they are, but I think this story, written by Jeffrey, does that well enough Congratulations, Jeff and Christina! We will set up a time for the photoshoot soon! (P.S. Jeff-I edited out last names in your story for the sake of the internet!)
Hey Jenny,
I just read your blog, and thought I would tell
you our love story. Now, the following attachment is
something that I wrote a while back before we got
married, and if you haven’t read it before, it best
exemplifies the kind of person Christina is to me.
Hope all is well for you guys, and we are both honored
to be a part of your lives. Good luck in everything
and God Bless.
Jeffrey
P.S. We’ve been together 4 years
Yeah, She’s Pretty….
By Jeffrey
So she tells me we are 2 weeks away from 6 months away…wow. 6 months and I’m married…and so is she…wow. Crazy Nuts. yep. I’m nervous. Just a wee bit. I can’t write a. Complete sentence to save my. Life.
I knew I loved her the first time I took her to Nashville. You can learn a lot from a trip to Nashville. I learned about my Father’s dream of country music in many trips to Nashville in 1992. Driving back and forth from Dale, Texas every weekend, hoping and praying for something, just one little break that would set us free from “working in another man’s vineyard” as Daddy used to say. Daddy fell in love with her too. He had that gift of knowing when a girl was more than just a pretty face. He and I knew she was pretty the moment she walked in with me to The Station Inn on 12th Avenue and Daddy met her for the first time. Yeah we knew she was pretty, and a whole lot more.
The day I flew out of Nashville headed to L.A. for a month, I knew things would never be the same. Another gift Daddy passed along to me, that gut instinct that says, “hug a little tighter before you leave this time.” I did just that at the house before I left Daddy that day. He had that feeling too. Two weeks into that month long stay with my brother, we got the call that I had secretly dreaded long before any one else knew it was coming. It was Mama with her “be-strong-like-everything
’s-gonna-be-alright” tone that she would only use when things were not going to be alright. Even through the million miles of space and the countless number of satellites and cell phone towers between the home place in Allen County, KY and L.A.’s best Philly cheese steak eatery where my brother and I were parked, we could hear the doubt in Mama’s voice. After a little conversation between Mama and my brother, it was Daddy’s turn to talk. I sat and watched as my 31 year old brother’s eyes filled with tears. After a few minutes, and without a word spoken in that Ford Ranger parked in the City of Angels, my brother handed me the phone. “Hello Daddy.”
The emotions in the moments that followed replay in my mind like the scene in a movie that strikes you so hard, you regret ever watching it. I was in L.A. with my brother, and upon my Father’s instructions, was to “stay out there and enjoy these last two week’s, your brother needs you now Jeffrey, more than I do…I will be here when you get home.”
We knew she was pretty. And in those two weeks, an Angel visited my parents in the house back in Allen County on a nightly basis. She would hug my mother and comfort her. Then ask how my Father was doing. She would then walk into the living room where he would be laying on his back, on the floor watching a classic episode of “The Gene Autry Show” or a black and white “Gunsmoke,” for they were the still the best.
She would kneel by his side, hold his hand, and he would cry.
She would stay up late with him. Talk with him. He would tell her his fears and his hopes. And he would talk about heaven. What it’s gonna be like, who he’s gonna see, and how he was at this point looking forward to that prospect. He knew she was pretty, but God, was she beautiful.
When I finally made it home, she was there to meet my brother and I, and she had brought Daddy with her. He was much weaker than I had envisioned when talking to him on the phone for the last month. His eyes were weary, and his pain was real. But the smile his strength let him conjure up when he saw his two sons walking towards him was not at all a forced effort on his part, but a very natural reaction from a Father who loved his sons more than anything else on this earth. I hugged her when I saw her, and under any other circumstance would have held on to her longer than I did after not seeing her for a month, but she knew that I loved my father, and that greeting him was a luxury I no longer took for granted.
The months leading to my father’s death taught me a lot about life. The time I spent with him, though a lot, was of course not near enough. But he told me of that angel that visited him every night while I was gone. And he told me of how she blessed him, and comforted him just by listening to him. He told me of the heaven he had described to her first, before mentioning it to any one of us. He told me to love her, and cherish her, and respect her, and never hurt her.
He knew she was pretty, but God, was she beautiful. And he had witnessed that beauty first hand, we all had.
Daddy told me of the two times in his life when he met someone that possessed every quality of a truly beautiful person. The first one of the two is now his widow. And she will be attending an event a little over 6 months from now that involves that second person Daddy told me about, Christina. Yeah, he knew she’s pretty, but God is she Beautiful.
Christina, I wrote this because as you know, I can’t always tell you what I’m feeling. You know I deal with emotions in funny ways. Either with terrible, (although I think Hilarious) humor, or writing. So I’m writing this to tell you that I love you. And to let others know just how beautiful a person you really are. I am honored to be with you now, and for the rest of my life. God absolutely blessed my entire family with you, and that is something no amount of money or any worldly good can replace. I love you Christina, now and always. God Bless You.
). My rooommate at the time, Liz, actually laughed at me when I told her Chris and I were going to formal “as friends” and said she would laugh when we ended up married haha.
