My dad and his wife Becky had attended a 3 day seminar through a company called Turning Leaf. When they got done they came to us (me and my sisters) and told us how wonderful it was and that in a couple months we would all be attending.
Fast forward to May 8th 2008.
I was not looking forward to going to this seminar. I was dealing with a whole bunch of problems with my now ex husband who was refusing to sign divorce papers. I was hoping that maybe this would help me work through some things, but felt like the timing couldn't have been worse. I pulled up to the hotel (location the seminar was being held at) and went inside. We had to wait for everyone to show up before we could start. When I walked into the lobby I saw a very pregnant woman and a man sitting next to her who looked familiar. I assumed he was her husband, but I couldn't figure out why he looked so familiar. I didn't know "his wife" so I knew she wasn't the connection. I decided to ignore the feeling of familiarity.
Through activities put on throughout the seminar I learned that they were in fact not husband and wife but brother and sister! haha. When I found this out I actually got a little excited. That hot guy on the other side of the room wasn't married! :) Their mom was working for Turning Leaf, which was the reason they were attending.
I ended up being paired up with the sister-Zeffie for the remaining of the 3 days, and her hot brother-Jon ended up being in the same group as me. YES! We were gonna have to have some contact for the next 3 days. I couldn't wait. :)
Through out the 3 days we both learned a lot about each other. The baggage I was going through was all out on the table, which was nice. At the end of the seminar everyone was walking around giving hugs. Jon came up to me and hugged me 3 different times!! I tried not to get excited. Maybe he was doing this to everyone, but I still couldn't help myself. He had told me that he wanted to hang out and he would get my number from his mom. All of us had decided to attend the 2nd level of the seminar at the same time so at least for no other reason he'd have to call me to verify when we were going to go.
By the following weekend he still hadn't called me. I had his mothers phone number and had decided to just call her to get his number. I was just going to tell her that I needed to find out what month he was planning on going to the seminar so I could sign me and my sisters up for the same time...lame excuse I know. She willing gave me his number (thanks JaRene :) ). I called him and we got the "official seminary business" out of the way. He then said he was having a bbq that night and invited me to come over.
I need to mention that one of the "rules" of the seminar was that you aren't supposed to get into a relationship with anyone that you meet there for at least 30 days. This is due to the fact that you get to know so much personal stuff about everyone and its such an emotional experience that you gain a connection with everyone there. Makes sense to not want people to jump into relationships right after going through the seminars. This rule was ok with me, technically I was still married. By the time we actually started hanging out my ex had signed the papers and all we were waiting on was the judge to sign off on it. We really were just friends first. (at least for the first 30 days and my annulment was finalized anyways :) ). After both of those came through we officially started dating. Our first kiss was a little over the 30 day mark and on Sept 16th he proposed!! We had been taking walks around the temple every week so when we were headed over to his parents house and he "randomly" decided to stop at the temple, it didn't seem like that big of a deal. I did have a little bit of an inkling, but I didn't think he had the ring so I didn't think anything of it. As we were walking around the front side of the temple he grabbed my hand and turned me around. He was down on one knee and asked me to marry him!! We were married November 7th, 2008.
Our son was born April 13, 2010 and we were then sealed in the St George Temple on January 7th, 2012. It may have taken us 3 years to get there, but being able to have Taegen sealed to us was so amazing! I am now pregnant with a girl due in late September. Our journey has been filled with its ups and downs but we couldn't be more happy. The love we have for each other has grown so much over the last 3 1/2 years that I can't wait to see whats in our future. I couldn't be more in love with my wonderful husband. I feel like the luckiest girl alive!
p.s. Jon thought I looked really familiar the first time he saw me as well and to this day we can't figure out when/if we've ever actually met or seen each other. Maybe it was just our spirits recognizing each other :)
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