the accidental swipe that changed our lives

​Let me just paint the scene for you. It’s 2AM. I’m standing in the kitchen with my roommate at the time. I had only lived in Nashville for a couple of months. I was expressing to her my distaste for the “bar scene” guys and being approached by random men. How I felt like it would be impossible to actually meet someone decent while being out and about with friends. Though I can’t remember her exact words, I’m inclined to believe she made a really good case for downloading the dating app ‘Tinder’, because 5 mins later I was setting up a profile and writing my bio.
 
To say I had reservations is a complete understatement! To back up for a second — I had moved to a SMALL, SMALL, town in Arkansas when I was 15. Population 5,000 people. It was a dry county. Like. You had to drive 45 mins to buy a beer. We had roughly 6 red lights to pass through the entire town. So from ages 15 - 23 I lived there until moving to Nashville. Needless to say I wasn’t properly “seasoned” at all for bar talk or being approached by men who were complete strangers or *ghosts* to me when being out and about. Anyone I had ever dated up until this time I had known from mutual friends, from school, and always with some direct connection. 
 
So. Back to the moment in the kitchen after I downloaded Tinder. I will never, ever forget this moment. Of course being new to the dating app and it’s functionalities... I had clicked on what I thought was a profile of one person. I thought I was swiping through THEIR photos. Not realizing I was actually swiping “YES” to 10 + people of which I normally wouldn’t have said yes to... (to put it bluntly) dey not all so cute. ​. My roommate and I freaked out when we realized what I had done. 
 
But guess what. Eric was one of them. 
 
 
YES. A FREAKING ACCIDENTAL SWIPE THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE FOREVER. HOW?!? Just how?!?! Obviously I snooped his profile after the fact and hello, duh. He’s a hottie. But let’s be real. I was not taking this app all that seriously given my small town background and the apps reputation, so I 100% did not think anything would even come of it. 
 
After we matched, Eric sent me a message asking me where I was hiking in one of my 5 photos I had chosen to put on my dating profile. I told him it was a waterfall located in Arkansas and he was really bummed that it wasn’t in Tennessee. Right after that he said, “well whenever you’re free some time we should grab a drink or rob a bank. When are you normally free to commit felony crimes” 
 
(Insert me instantly falling in love)
 
I replied, “If we’re going to rob a bank, we need to do this right. It needs to be after hours so I can at least have an excuse to repel through the ceiling”
​ — you know. Because bucket lists and stuff. 
 
Instantly I knew. This fella is going to be the kind of person I will have good banter with. I needed someone to feed off of and be morbid with. Someone that would take what I say 2 steps further while I proceed to take it 4 more steps too far. You know what I’m saying? Maybe not. BUT. I had met my match. Literally and figuratively. 
 
A couple weeks went by before we talked more and really planned much of anything. I had a lot of stressful things going on with my job situation at the time so after some of that slowed down I reached back out to him — a.k.a followed him on Instagram like a stalker which got the ball rolling. *subtle*
 
We met for drinks at Pinewood Social which is a really cool local restaurant that has an upscale bowling alley in the back. We seriously had the best conversations. Made up undercover nicknames for each other and everything. Look he’s hella fine, but if I couldn't have a meaningful conversation with him and most importantly LAUGH, I wasn’t interested. 
 
On our second date he asked me what my end goal was. I remember telling him... Listen, I’m not looking to get married next week and be a super attached/clingy person. But you also need to know that I don’t date people to just date them. If I’m seeing someone it’s because I see a potential chance at a long term future together. 
 
After our date, we were parked outside of where I lived at the time when he was going to drop me off. And he asked me before I walked in, “what do you believe?” --
I had walked very closely with God in my adolescence and strayed from him around the time my parents uprooted us to go live in Arkansas. From about 2008 - 2015 I was kind of just living for the world. I always had God on the “back burner” or at my convenience. Trying to have one foot in heaven and one foot in the world. But my heart always ached knowing it wasn’t okay and I truly longed to get my life back on track. When I moved to Nashville I felt the enemy almost working against me to derail my intentions of getting my life right again. There was a moment when Eric asked me “what do you believe,” that I thought... what if I scare this guy off? But then I also thought, if I do... then I don’t want him and he's not the one God has for me.
 
I replied, “I believe that God created the heavens and the Earth. I believe that he sent his one and only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins so that whoever believes in him may be with him in heaven and have everlasting life” 
 
I could have said, “I’m a Christian and I’m non denominational” — but I wanted ZERO confusion on what it is that I truly believe.

To which he replied, “I believe the same thing.” 

I truly believe that we met each other in God's perfect timing of both of our lives. Had we met any sooner we wouldn't have been in the place that God needed our hearts to be. So often He is waiting on us to be ready for what He has for us. During that time Eric and I were both really wanting to get our lives back on track with the Lord and we were able to be pillars of support and accountability for each other during this time.
 
I remember he uninstalled his Tinder account right in front of me that night. We spent almost every waking moment together from that point on. We were both telling our families two weeks in “I've met THE ONE!!” — our families naturally thought we we had lost our minds. Until we got to meet each other’s families and they were like... ok. We totally get it. We were engaged four months later. And then married five months after that. An absolute whirlwind, out of no where, completely unexpected and crazy, crazy love within a nine month period. 
 
But isn’t that how God always moves? In the unexpected. In the ways we never thought possible. It just makes me laugh when I think about it. And let me tell you — God continues to work in the craziest ways in our marriage. Through circumstances of provision, blessings and healing with baggage we've both carried from the past of our lives. Of course we fight and disagree on things and have communication issues, etc. Duh, we’re married. But I know without ZERO question I married the person that God intended for me to be with.
 
Here we are three years later and I just can’t imagine what my life would have looked like without that accidental swipe. But, it really wasn’t an accident at all was it? 
 
God is so good, you guys. What even is all of this if he doesn’t get all of the glory for it? That’s what it’s all about! 
 
Thanks for reading our, ‘How We Met’ story! :)

-xx
Katie