our love story

Our story is pretty crazy and at times does not feel real because it is so fairytale-like, but I promise it's for real.

When I was in the fourth grade, my parents pulled me out of public school and plopped me into a small private school halfway through the month of October. Bracken Christian School. The fourth grade classes, all two of them, were upstairs. The rowdy fifth graders were next door, but across the hall were the MIDDLE SCHOOLERS. Sixth grade English to be exact. Every afternoon I would watch the "big kids" (that would be the sixth graders) enter their classroom as my class was coming in from recess or something. Even at the ripe ol' age of 10, I could pick out the nerds, sweethearts, athletes, and popular kids…and oh was there one boy in particular I thought was cute, but no way would I think twice about liking him because, well, let's be honest, two years is way too big of an age difference…ha.

F A S T  F O R W A R D  (four years later)

Now I am in eighth grade. Awkward years are here. My mom's good friend, Liz, asked if her daughter, Lauren, could spend the night at my house so that my Poppy, the Bracken cross country/track coach, could take Lauren to the meet early the next morning…a mouthful, I know, but all very important.

Lauren, though a grade younger than me, became my very best friend almost instantly, and thus the weekend trade-off of slumber parties began. If she wasn't at my house, I was at hers. My sisters became her sisters, and her brothers…well, actually her older brother was a lot older than us and much too cool for us…so brother, GRANT, the cute sixth grader I mentioned at the beginning of the story, yeah…he became my brother…for only so long.

One night, when Lauren and I were tucked in bed talking about boys, school, and whatnot, she planted in my head the single greatest idea that would forever change my life…

"Oh my gosh, I have the greatest idea!"
"What?"
"You should marry Grant, so then we could be sisters!"
"Hmm, yeah.…"(YEEEEAAHHHH is what I was really thinking)

It was that night I began looking at Grant Moore differently. Good bye brother…hello CRUSH!

F A S T  F O R W A R D (almost two years later…I know…I was in my awkward years, remember)

It was the night of my sweet sixteen that my heart began to fall for Grant Moore. Pretty much the whole high school was invited (Bracken is super small, mind you), and very few upperclassmen came to the party. There was a DJ, bonfire, my dad's famous bar-b-que, a giant cake, but nothing stood out to me more than the glowing light surrounding Grant Moore as he entered the scene. My heart literally sank. I wanted to throw up. The next thing I knew I was dancing with Grant to the song "You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful, and You're Mine". Everything else that night was a blur. I. was. in. love.

We began talking on the phone. Yes, I owned my own cordless, metallic gold phone, and yes, I would talk with Grant for hours at a time on the floor of my bathroom, giggling like a little school girl does. We would have the best conversations about our families, dreams, goals, and most importantly, the Lord…which is why I was falling fast for him.

Our first date/my first date EVER came. We did the typical dinner and movie, but ended up at Barnes & Noble talking about our relationship. Our first date story is one for the books, but I will tell that tale another day. Grant told me this night he wanted to PURSUE me. I knew this was serious, but I couldn't have been more ready to hear those words. How could we be so serious at 16 and 18? I still don't know the answer to that question.

Grant drove me back home (we still hadn't kissed at this point, but we sure did hold hands on the way home!!), and walked me into the house to say a quick hello to my parents, then left.

"Well, how'd it go?"
I literally held my heart, frolicked into the living room, and may have even spun in a circle or two, "I am going to marry him."
They laughed.

Four years later, on June 9, 2007, my dad walked me down the aisle so that I could marry that cute sixth grader across the hall, and we became man and wife that day.

Photos by the incredible Rachel Ledbetter.