Our Story

Nate and I have been married for 5 awesome years, even though it feels like we were just married yesterday. Nate was playing full-time in a band called Worth Dying For at the time we met, and our first year of dating was spent mostly long distance as the band was signed with a major record company. 

While Nate was with the band I was working as a youth pastor's assistant in Stockton CA. We dated for two years and he eventually proposed at Disneyland.

Our engagement was only 3 months long (when you are married to a band guy, you are at the  mercy of his calendar). Our wedding was a day of love, and hope, and most importantly, Jesus.

Nate and I were living with my parents at the time because we were looking into buying a house. This was at the height of the market crash, so you could buy a home in CA for less than you would pay monthly rent. We had been looking for months but everything that we put an offer on, an investor would come in and pay cash. We must have put an offer in on at least 15 houses. Nothing. Finally, on February 15, 2008, our Realtor called to tell us that we had finally got a house! I was ecstatic. Finally all of our looking and hard-work, and dedication to staying in our price range had paid off! When Nate got home from work that day, he told me that the label had dropped Worth Dying For, and that his income was gone. We gave up on owning a house,  because my part-time pay, as good as it actually was, wasn't going to cut it. Three months later, I also lost my job.

Married for 6 months, no jobs, living with my parents. This was a season of serious searching for us. We asked God every single night; together, and separately. 

"What the heck?! We are in ministry! Why would you do this to us?"

That's when I heard the Lord speak to me. Maybe not in an audible voice, but whatever comes right under that... 

"Go back to school."

"But Lord, Nate has to be with the band"

"I'll take care of it"

"But Lord, it's going to be really expensive"

"I'll take care of it"

"But Lord, we don't know anyone in Sacramento"

"I'll take care of it"

But Lord, But Lord, But Lord,

"I'll take care of it."

So... The Lord arranged everything perfectly according to His timing, and not necessarily on our understanding. It made no sense. He moved us to a town where we knew no one at a time where we had no money. I auditioned for a music scholarship at William Jessup University and received $5000 a year. I started working at Urban Outfitters (and hated it enough to quite two-months in) and Nate worked part time at a Buy-Sell-Trade clothing store called Freestyle Clothing Exchange. He also tattooed on the side and that's how we got a long for the two years I was in school. It was not easy. During those two years Nate left Worth Dying For right before their song hit #1 on Christian Rock Charts. His Dad passed away that summer, and our apartment complex was a very dangerous place to live. Both our cars had been broken into, Nate's wallet and Computer were stolen as well as my laptop, and a drunken tenant let himself into our place while Nathan was gone and I was home alone. But we knew that we were doing the right thing. We knew that we were following the Lord. 

However hard it was, We were also blessed with friends that were more like family, multiple accounts of miraculous provision. Then ultimately the hard work and schooling paid off.

Six weeks after graduation, I was hired as a full-time Choir teacher at Vacaville Christian High School. He said would take care of it, and He did.

 . 

And while the Lord totally provided a job for me, and honored our obedience to him in a tangible way. The greatest take was, we learned to read scripture for what it actually said, not for what we wanted it to say. We learned what true relationship and dependence on Christ really looked like. We now have a very real relationship with Jesus. I'm not sure I could say that of myself before then. 

Now 5 years down the road we can see that god was doing something in our life. We have learned through difficult but necessary circumstances who is in control, and who is worthy of praise. We know our journey isn't over yet, but know for sure that we have a God we can count on to bring us through anything.

Anything.