It will be ten years this Sept. 6th when Dee, also known as (Henry Cleveland DeBardeleben IV) and I met at Auburn University on a Labor Day trip to the beach. We were there with 40 other college students for the weekend, so we only saw each other in passing. I just remember thinking, 'He seems like a rough, tough and funny jock'. During the next couple of weeks he and I started running into each other at events and football games on the weekends. The more and more time we spent together, the more and more we just really connected. Then of course I made intentional appearances just to see him at people's house or events when I knew he was going to be there. At every get together we ended up in a corner of the room talking to one another. About mid fall, I decided to ask him to my sorority formal via ice cream cake, which seemed to be a commonality we had. He said, "Yes," and the rest is history!
Just kidding, I will give you more information than that! Well we pretty much started dating after the formal. After about a month...we were 'head over heals for each other'. This is definitely fitting for our personalities...very dramatic and extreme! We thought,
'we are perfect for each other'. We spent the next eight months at Auburn together until Dee left for KAA (Kids Across America), the only African American camp at Kanakuk, for three months. On the very day he returned, was the very day I jumped on a plane to do my student teaching in Christchurch, New Zealand for the fall. So we were apart 7 months, which was very hard in many ways and created many arguements. Our once,
'we are perfect for each other', turned into,
'well, we are different than each other.' I graduated December 2001 and then decided to live with my parents in Birmingham, while I taught a Kindergarten class and attempted to take on a graduate level class. While I was in New Zealand Dee continued at Auburn because he is actually younger than I am by 2 years, but he also finished school in three and half years. We continued to date and see one another on the weekends. This was definitely a growing time in our dating relationship for many reasons and we both grew in our relationship with Christ significantly, especially Dee. We had to learn how to be
'different than each other, and realize it's O.K., we are still perfect for each other' That summer, we decided to do a short term missions trip together to Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia. It was strange, because only the people on our team could know we were dating...no one else could know, I know... kind of weird. After we got back, that fall Dee went back to Auburn to finish his final semester as a college student and I officially started graduate school in elementary education and worked part time as a preschool teacher. After Dee graduated in December 2002, he ventured off with his buddies on a "road trip out west" like so many other college students his age. If you can't go backpacking in Europe, then an American road trip was the next best thing. I did not think marriage was anywhere near our present future, but little did I know, he had already bought a ring to propose to me when he got back from his trip. How did he propose? Well, he bought this nice jewelry box and put a piece of jewelry in every level of the box, with a verse corresponding to each piece of jewelry. Each level also had a page of pictures from each year that we dated with the top ten things from that year. Then in the bottom of the jewelry box was the ring with a final verse,
"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Genesis 2:24. Wow, was I shocked! It was really special! Five months later I married my best friend on July 26th, 2003.
At our wedding ceremony, my Uncle Robert, who did the service along with Dee's mentor Tom Williams, said, "Marriage is not created to make you HAPPY, but to make you HOLY!" Wow, have those words been evident in our marriage, time and time again. Being married has been more hard than not. Dee and I both have very strong personalities and we both never give up, so things really have not been easy. Sin has definitely revealed itself, especially in the last year. But, God is definitely making us HOLY through our union with each other and now even making us HAPPY, or should I say JOYOUS. Oh, what a long way we have to go, but praise God for little victories! Praise God for how faithful he is to draw us to himself and to each other in Christ Jesus. I love you Dee!
(Jamaica on our honeymoon)
