It's going to be difficult to put this story into words, because we've lived it for so long. I am much better at telling ever-so-slightly exaggerated stories about that weird encounter at Kroger. The story of me and Adam meeting, falling in love and somehow coming through the challenges of the past eight years is my heart. It's a story that has defined us in really beautiful ways. And one that we sometimes let define us and hold us back. We're closing that huge chapter this month and I have to tell the story.
Adam and I moved to Nashville within a few months of each other, me from Waco and Adam from Youngtown. Both of us felt pulled to this city. Couldn't shake it. Couldn't not move. One of the biggest defining moments of both our lives. And we both ended up in the same friend group! Taking a step of blind faith can unravel you. At the time, that seems contradictory to expectations. Looking back, you begin to see that the unraveling is what makes you who you are.
After a long year of friendship, we started dating, knowing this was it. There was no doubt in my mind that I loved Adam, but navigating a serious new relationship with your very best friend can feel a little awkward sometimes. It's a big transition. A few months after we started dating, we took this on-the-cheap, spontaneous trip to NYC to a Jonsà show. Stayed with a friend in Brooklyn. Drank gin out of water bottles. Spent maybe $100 the whole trip. 22 year old magic.
One of the most spiritual experiences of my life was at that show. They performed Grow Till Tall against a backdrop of film and lights that made it look like we were in a storm. It starts raining and the wind picks up. As the music builds, the storm grows and begins breaking down the walls, sweeping everything away like a tornado. I'm linking it here. This performance has stuck with me all these years, because it visually represents so much of our story. Tearing down to build back up.
"You'll know when it's time to go on. You'll really want to grow and grow till tall."
Two days later, I was driving us home to Nashville. We were outside of Cincinnati when a torrential downpour hit. We hydroplaned and I lost control of the car. We rolled several times off the side of the interstate. When the car settled, I realized Adam wasn't next to me. He was lying in a rocky stream, his head bleeding badly. I thought we were going to die or that I'd lose Adam. We were separated as he was airlifted to a Cincinnati hospital and I was taken in an ambulance. I kept telling the paramedic that I cannot lose him. I love him! After hours of waiting, when I was brought into his room, I leaned down to tell him I love you- he said it first.
In the aftermath of the wreck, our relationship was tested through intense family conflict and difficult insurance and financial situations. As Adam recovered from dozens of staples and stitches, I recovered emotionally from our traumatic experience. It took months for the dust to settle, and the whole ordeal ended with Adam getting a large sum from the insurance company to cover the mountain of hospital bills.
That painful season produced beautiful fruit in time. Trauma propelled us forward in our relationship, bonding us together for good. We got married a year and a half after the wreck. Adam had to defer his student loans for a few months while he recovered, which was not ideal. But we were able to buy a house using leftover insurance money for our down payment!
In the first six years of marriage, we've walked through so many good and challenging seasons. We've lost friends and family. We had sweet Linden bug. We took on a dog and a cat. We've built Adam's music business. We've bought and inherited cars that we eventually wrecked and lost. We have struggled under the weight of student loan debt. And we've seen God's provision e v e r y step of the way.
So, at the end of February, feeling absolutely crushed by the weight of debt, we both started to wonder if we should sell our house. Thanks to East Nashville real estate, we'd built up so much equity that selling would guarantee freedom from student loans. But that meant leaving the house we'd poured into for years.
You'll know when it's time to go on.
We just knew this was our next step. We knew this house was a gift. It was only ours because of the crazy wreck we lived through and the pain of family conflict. It wasn't ours to hold tightly to.
We closed on the sale of our house on August 1 and paid off all of our debt. All of it. Our estimated payoff date on our loans was 2077. And by God's provision, we are free from that burden.
That is beautiful in and of itself. But I think the winding story of how we arrived at this moment is more beautiful. A million deliberate choices and a million circumstances out of our control woven together have brought us into a new life.
This is our story. This is our new beginning!
