Kaitlyn’s Perspective
I wasn’t looking for him, and he wasn’t looking for me. I had spent a few days with my cousins in Warthen that June of 2010, working outside, swimming, and being adventurous. I hadn’t showered in two days (don’t judge me!) and stopped to pick up my friend Caroline (a bridesmaid) for a short Wal-Mart trip. As we turned the corner from electronics down to the home goods section, I spotted him. We made eye contact immediately. He nodded and smiled. I smiled and mouthed “Hey.” Caroline asked, “DO you know him? Oh em gee that was creepy if you don’t.” I said, “NO, I don’t know him but WHOOO he was cute!” She called me crazy (nothing I hadn’t heard before) and we went on about our business. A few days later, I had a Facebook message in my inbox from a guy named Cole Fronebarger. I opened it and read “Hey, I saw you in Wal-Mart.” I sat for a second and giggled before responding: “Yep, I saw you too.” Ultimately he asked for my number and the texting began.
Within a few weeks, my dad came home from work one evening and asks, “DO you know a fella name Cole Fronebarger (of course butchering the last name)?” I PANICKED! You see, Daddy is a Research Scientist, so he is a professional at finding out information when he wants to and discovering things. It turns out, Cole’s Uncle Scott (the person officiating the wedding) had called my dad about Cole transferring a membership for a local club. I decided it was time to tell them about how we had been talking and getting to know each other. Like any parents of a girl, especially an only child, they wanted to meet him. I mentioned it, and he said sure. I was nervous because I didn’t want to run him off. I was jumping to conclusions that he would think I wanted to move faster than he did. On top of that, he had a mow hawk at the time and I wasn’t sure how well that was going to go over with Randy and Ellen (ha!) My parents have always been supportive of me, encouraging me to make my own decisions, knowing they had raised me to make the right ones. On August 25, 2010 He asked me to be his girlfriend. We have since helped each other through deaths of grandparents, family issues, college applications, friend drama, scary events, tooth knockouts, and getting our first dog(s). 6 years together, in a relationship with each other and with the Lord, we have learned patience, trust, forgiveness, and unconditional love. We have shared happiness, sadness, anger, bitterness, anxiety, stress, hugs, laughter, and good times. On May 28th, 2016, he asked me to marry him. Everyone else said “about damn time!”
Cole’s Perspective
I had just recently graduated high school; I had no plans for college, no plans for a career, and no plans to find a girlfriend anytime soon. I said that after I graduated I would just be myself and whatever happens, happens. However, God had a different plan for me, and he was about to change my life forever. I was hanging with my cousin and best friend Dustin (My best man) and his lady friend at the time and we decided to go to Wal-Mart either for something to help us in our hunting and fishing adventures or just to walk around and kill time. We were walking in the back of the store toward the grocery section when we passed two young ladies, me being raised how I was, I nodded my head and smiled as we passed as if to say hello without breaking stride. One of these young ladies really caught my eye, but I didn’t know her and neither did my cousin so I had no way to make a connection with her other than going up to her and introducing myself, lets just say I was too shy for that. Several days later thinking that I had missed an opportunity I was scrolling through Facebook when, bam, there she was Kaitlyn Hall, on the people you may know section and I thought, I’m not missing this opportunity again, so I messaged her and said “I saw you in Wal-Mart yesterday” how cheesy and awkward could I get. But to my surprise she replied immediately and said yes you did. So we swapped numbers and it went from there. After several weeks of nonstop texting, a few short phone conversations, she told me that her parents wanted to meet me. I immediately became nervous wreck thinking, “they are not going to like me, and I have a mow hawk for crying out loud”. So we met and everything went smoothly to my surprise. After that we were inseparable, I went to her house nearly every afternoon and half the weekends for about a month until the day I decided that I wanted to take things to the next level. So on August 25th of 2010, I asked her to be my girlfriend, and she said yes. We began to spend every free moment of our lives with each other and our bond grew and grew into something that I had never experienced before, Love. I had fallen in love with this girl from Deepstep who I didn’t know six months before then, but I was completely fine with it. I was happy. As she mentioned before, the next six years after that Wednesday evening, would be filled with ups and downs, peaks and valleys, the loss of loved ones, the breakdown of friendships and births of new friendships, the milestones of our transition into adult life, and ultimately the decision to ask for her hand in marriage. As I said before, I thought I knew where the road of life was going to take me, but God had another plan and I couldn’t be happier because of it.
We don’t believe in coincidence. The bad things that happen in life only prepare us for the joyous times. Faith is trusting in God’s plan even when you can’t see where the road is leading or don’t have the answers to all of your questions. God planned this all for us and we know in our hearts His plan is ongoing. We trust it. We can’t wait to see what He has in store for us.
