It was mid-September that one of my closest friends Chivonne, and I decided to bring the story of our struggles to the members of Miracle Temple SDA church in Baltimore, MD. After graduating from college in May 2003, Chiv and I decided to take life by the reins and make a huge move to Maryland after spending about 2 weeks at home. It was that time to go…
The reality of being on our own hit us like a ton of bricks, making us realize just how tough life can get. That night at prayer meeting, Chiv poured her heart out to everyone there. And instead of me being able to just sit in the back and observe, our very own Pastor Royes called me up to stand with Chiv for support as he called all the members to gather around us in prayer.
At the end of prayer, with tears streaming from our eyes, Miracle Temple members enveloped us with hugs and words of encouragement to soothe our aching hearts. I started to speak with Donnell Josiah, who worked in the IT field, to get an idea of what jobs were out there. In the midst of our conversation, he stopped, looked around and called to a guy who was talking to another member. This guy walked over and introduced himself as Kirk, another tech in the field. He was dark-skinned, medium height and build, with a charismatic personality that quickly drew me into deep conversation.
At first glance he was alright… sike I’m playin’… he wasn’t bad looking… joking again… He was Deadsexy!!! A lil’ more chocolate in his coffee than would catch my attention, but his energy and personality was like a magnet. Get to find out, we knew many of the same persons from his school Andrews and mine, AUC.
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Parents, send your kids to AUC. They will truly get a Christian education and have the time of their lives. No other educational institution can compare. Say it with me, AUC… Doesn’t it just touch your heart in just the right place?
As everyone knows, I am not much of a talker, but man was I talking. We talked and laughed like we were friends from way back, which not only surprised Chiv, but kind of freaked me out... in a good way...We parted ways after exchanging email addresses with the intention of me just sending him a copy of my resume for him to pass along to a recruiter he knew. That very night I emailed him my resume, and the following week, sent him another, just to get an update. Unfortunately, no leads for a job arose, so life went on. Each Sabbath we did see each other, and at each meeting we would exchange a hug and a hello and that was pretty much it.
It was not until march at another prayer meeting that he stopped Chiv and I outside of church to talk for a minute which turned into almost 2 hours. Then the next evening he called and spoke to both Chiv and I for a while via speakerphone, before we kicked him off to watch ‘Friends’. The following week he invited us over to watch a movie on like a Monday, which we did, and the next day again he invited us over, but this time since Chiv had to work, I decided to go alone. Can you say persistent?
After about two months of him requesting my company to various job sites and other small occasions, I began to notice that there was a little more than friendship there between us… ok I’m lying, I realized this a bit sooner, ok… much sooner. So, it was about a month later that with some nervousness he finally fessed up to this realization, and it was about a month later that he asked the big question, “Would I be his girl?” Well of course I said “Yes!” without hesitation, because I never felt more sure about something than this… I had no doubts, no worries; it all just felt so right. Since then, I have felt like God has just taken control. The devil tried to break us apart tragically, hence the car accident that totaled my car, but we both came out of it alive without serious injury. Instead of it breaking us apart, it only brought us closer.
On August 16, 2005 Kirk, my babe, asked for my hand in marriage, forming the reason for why you are here today, reading our story.