This story should be a movie, actually the concept has already been put in any hopeless romantic movie. It goes like this…….not looking for love, found it unexpectedly, long walk on the beach was the first date, met the parents in the first week, fell in love within two weeks, talked marriage within 3 months! Isn’t that how they all work?   Okay, okay…to be more specific….I was working for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Franklin Graham Festival in Corpus Christi, TX in April of 2005. Chris at that point had Billy Graham as one of his clients and was asked to come to our office to help set up the computer database system, yes he was asked by my best friend, who I helped get the job at Billy Graham. Funny how all these things work out. Anyways, Kristin(the best friend) didn’t bother to tell me that a cute and oh so sweet guy was coming into the office and needless to say I looked absolutely horrible that day(he will say different). I mean, girls you know what I am talking about… got up late, threw something on...hair completely pulled up, baggy dress, no make up and as Kristin pointed out hairy armpits, which Chris did notice, come to find out 4 months later!

I guess that didn’t scare him off, because that night I was babysitting and he asked Kristin if they could visit me while I was babysitting. He came over and helped the kids with homework, science actually, which I remember all of us trying to answer some of the questions and we couldn’t, shows us how much we should have remembered learning about precipitation in middle school! Once the kids were asleep, we tried to watch Seabiscuit, but that didn’t work. I know what you are thinking…but you are wrong. We dove straight in to hardcore conversation while Kristin snored herself to sleep. The next day I didn’t get to see him until dinner, which we completed with dessert on the beach, catching crabs (Chris killed one) and taking a 4 mile walk (see the beach part was true). This was an eye opener for me, this is where I truly fell in love with the man of my dreams. As we were walking he proceeded to get on the opposite side of me when he heard a man running towards us. He was protecting me and that is something that a woman will always cherish.

Even though I was busy with a church conference that weekend, we spent every moment we could together. He even prolonged his weekend in Corpus Christi to Sunday, when he was supposed to go back on Friday. I remember a telephone conversation he had with a person that I still don’t know who it was, where he said “it happened” pertaining to I met the girl of my dreams. We were in the target parking lot getting a present for the girl who brought us together, Kristin. I will never forget the way he was trying to be discreet while he was on the phone. That night, Saturday night, we went country dancing and we danced like we had been dancing together for years. He even requested “The Dance” by Garth Brooks for us to dance to! Talk about cheesy romantic, but that is my baby! We ended that night with our first prayer together, a very heartfelt time.

Since I worked at all seven services at my church he hung out the next day in the church office studying to take a pilots test on Monday. Which he was supposed to be studying for all weekend, but never really got anything done. Go Figure. When the evening service was done he came to pick me up after cleaning my car, filling it up and checking the engine (another reason I fell in love with him). He told me he had just helped a man who had been hit by a car. This was a part in the relationship where I wanted to be there for him and didn’t know how, he was in shock about what he had just seen and I was there to listen as he described his feeling., Though I was having a tough time responding, I enjoyed hearing him open up.

This leads us to the weekend Goodbye. I could tell he had been thinking about something and come to find out he was thinking about giving me a goodbye kiss all day! We were at the airport, again picture the movies…..a romantic goodbye …..as he grabbed his bags to depart on the plane….he leaned in and the girls knees gave in and they locked lips for a split second. Yep….that is how it happened, now wouldn’t you say we belong in the movies. It was a sad goodbye but had exciting thoughts about what is to come.

The long telephone conversations started when he had his lay over in Houston, just 30 minutes later and they continued until September when I moved to Dallas. In between, we saw each other as much as we could and fell in love with each other over the phone. It has been a relationship that has put Hollywood movies to shame, one that we will cherish forever.

[ Top ]
Who We Are

Chris and I both cherish our relationship with the Lord, long to live overseas for a period of time, love to travel, like long walks on the beach, like to be active and love enjoying our baby boy Caden!
Chris has the sense of humor, I have the patience!
Chris is a romantic, I am a hopeless romantic.
Chris hates tomatoes and avocados, I love them.
Our stubornness sometimes gets the best of us, but we always give in to each other.
We both are outgoing and like to be the hosts of the party.
We have more faith in each other than we do in ourselves.
We cherish the relationships with our family and friends.
We both love to surprise each other, but I always manage to get his surprise for me out of him.
We know the value of hard work… Chris’ first job was a Christmas Tree seller, I was a Michael's cashier.
We love animals.
We love to ski, sky dive and do risky things.
Both originally from Austin, TX.
Chris is the Eagle scout - always prepared - Mel is the planner, always planning how to be prepared.

[ Top ]
The Engagement

As usual Chris went way beyond what I could have ever imagined in proposing to me. He had so many of my friends and family in on it for so long, I was astonished that I didn?t find out before hand.

Supposedly, all the planning started in January of 2006 when he asked my parents for my hand, and if I remember correctly my mother told him, ?What took you so long?? Then he was considering a trip to Canada to go skiing and purposing up there, then a weekend in the mountains, among his other adventurous plans. His master plan came down to whisking me away to Corpus Christ where we first met.

It was the last Wednesday in March, March 29th to be exact and I got a call from Kristin's (best friend from How We Met story) boyfriend Christian who told me I was going to Corpus the coming weekend to be a surprise for Kristin because Christian was purposing. I was so excited for her, there is no way I saw any of the events that really unfolded coming. Kristin was even playing along, and I was trying to hide from her that Christian was purposing. Those conversations during those days were quite funny. So Saturday, April 1st rolls around and my other good friend Molly is planning on taking me to the airport. (Chris was going to Mobile, Alabama for work and his friend Lance was taking him to the airport) He left an hour before me, little did I know from the same terminal, gate and going to the same place as me! Molly was a very good liar, we shopped that morning and the whole time she know what was going on, I have to give her some kind of award for not acting weird or sneaky. Others deserve awards too, like my boss, Kim, she was in on it to and when she thought I might have the slightest idea of what was going on, she called Chris who called Kristin who called Christian who called me and told me some more lies about Kristin?s ring and how he was going to purpose. All of that happening in a matter of 5 minutes, so my thoughts of it possibly happening for me completely vanished!

I got down to Corpus Christi where another friend Audrey picked me up. I didn't know that only an hour earlier she had picked Chris and Lance up and took them to a mutual friends house. We went to eat lunch at one of my favorite places for sandwiches, which I miss living in Dallas. She casually mentioned that some friends were going to be getting together at the beach for a cook out and we should head out there after we eat. I said okay, after all, Christian told me that I didn?t need to be surprising Kristin until the next morning, so I was up for anything on Saturday and anxious to see friends that I haven?t seen in a while. When we got to the beach, Audrey did start to act a little weird, not to mention the ridiculous amount of text messages on the way there. She was very intent on getting our feet wet, and Audrey is never demanding of what to do, she is very laid back and easy going, so that was a bit weird, but me being naive still did not think anything of it. As we walked along the beach, looking for our friends, we went underneath the pier. The minute we were on the other side, someone called out ?hey Mel.? Yeah I know I am leading up to it in a cheesy way, you all know that it was Chris! I immediately asked him what he was doing there, assuming he was just surprising me and was going to surprise Kristin too. Then I looked up and Lance is standing there with a video camera. That kinda gave it away and I was so excited to see what was next.

We had to pause the engagement for a bit because the video camera stopped working and Chris really wanted it taped, after about 5 minutes he gave up and we started walking down the beach. Then after a minute of walking he said, ?no we need to get the camera working.? By this time, smart Matt, Audrey?s then boyfriend, now husband, had gone to the car and gotten my camera which is also a video camera, so we got that working and started walking down the beach again, with Lance following us. Chris had an amazing proposal ready and I was literally swept off my feet, especially when he read me John 13 and washed my feet in the ocean. I don?t think he took into consideration the tide and he got wet, I ran so I wouldn?t get wet and then he washed my feet with sand and the tide washed the sand off, it all worked! He then read me Proverbs 31 and whispered sweet nothings about our future together forever. If I tell you anymore, you will know too much!

Once he was ready he got down on one knee, in the water and asked me to be his wife! He had to ask twice because I was ecstatic and overwhelmed, but did say YES!

He then swept me off to Cliff and Char Atnip?s house, our mutual friend from working with Franklin Graham. They had let him borrow their car to go to the beach and they opened their house for an engagement party. I walked through the door and my parents, Chris?s mom and sister and so many of my friends were there to wish us congratulations. It was so heart warming and touching to see so many of them there. The party was great, even down to the colors of the flowers that would be the same as the colors in the wedding. I could not have asked for any more.

The rest of the weekend was great, I got to see so many friends from Corpus and enjoyed a great dinner with family. Then another surprise of Kristin coming to Corpus on Sunday and us getting to stay there until Monday morning, Chris had cleared that with my boss too!

And as they say, the rest is history????.