Our Story

Several years ago two young people began praying that God would prepare them for the day when they would meet their soulmates. They also prayed for that unknown soulmate, that God would be at work in their lives as well. They prayed that in God's time, their two separate lives would intersect and from that day onward would never be parted.

On May 5, 2000 that prayer was answered. On the advice of Misti Oblander, a mutual friend, Chad sent a somewhat bashful email to Aubry introducing himself and telling her a little about his life. On the advice of that same mutual friend Aubry wrote him back. Thus began a deluge of innumerable emails and phone conversations. Chad lived in Oklahoma City and Aubry lived in Los Angeles, but over the next seven months they made a number of trips to see each other. With each trip, each phone call and each email their hearts grew more attached until they could no longer envisage a future that did not include the other in it.

On December 21, 2000 Aubry was scheduled to fly into Oklahoma City to spend her Christmas vacation with Chad. The two had planned to drive together up to Bourbonnais, Illinois to spend Christmas with Chad's family. Unbeknownst to Aubry, Chad had another event planned for the night of December 21st. Chad had decorated his living room and kitchen with green garland and white Christmas lights. He had woven red roses into the garland and written with white lights on his wall, "Will You Marry Me?" He had set a dozen red roses on the kitchen table on a pedastal with a long white candle on either side of the roses. He had placed a picture of the two of them at the base of the pedastal with a long white candle on either side of the picture. Across the face of the pedastal was written, "TEMAN SAYA KEKASIH" ("My Dearest Friend" in Indonesian). There were also two heart shaped cupcakes opposite the picture at the base of the pedastal.

The only problem was...Aubry's flight was delayed which caused her to miss her connection in Dallas. She was stranded overnight with no way to reach Oklahoma City! After arguing with American Airlines (whom they no longer like!) about the missed flight, they agreed to put her up in a hotel for the night and booked her on the first flight the next morning. Friday morning she finally arrived in Oklahoma City. Chad picked her up from the airport with a cup of hot coffee in his hand and brought her back to his apartment to wait on her lost luggage. Aubry walked in the door to soft music and white Christmas lights. She stood there speechless for so long that Chad began to get worried! Then she realized that this truly was her long-awaited proposal. Aubry turned toward Chad as he got down on his knee to ask the hand of the woman he loved. Both their knees felt like jelly and neither remembered much of what was said, except that Aubry said "Yes". As Chad began to slip the ring on her finger, Aubry hastily informed him that he was supposed to put it on the left hand, not the right one! Oops.

And that's how the whole thing started. The sincere prayers of two young people and a gracious God whose answer far surpassed anything either had hoped for. We hope you like our story. If you'd like you can email us your own stories. We'd love to hear from you!

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