It took me 3 days to tell him how I felt. When I finally did, he explained that he’d felt the same way for quite a while. We prayed about it, and decided to begin dating. I told him on our very first phone call, that “if you’re going to do this with me, it’s going to be forever. I am not interested in games.” And of course, he agreed.
For the next 9 months we talked every day. He would travel unbelievably long distances to come and visit for a few short hours. The following March I almost lost him to rheumatic fever, which made him unable to work in his previous occupation... which eventually led to May of 2009, when he left the life he knew, and, with nothing but a duffel bag full of clothes, joined the band. My dad had built a room in the front part of our Semi-trailer that we had recently renovated to make a portable stage. The room was small... He had a bed, a microwave, a mini refrigerator, and a window A/C unit... and that’s where he lived until we got married. We were engaged that following 4th of July, and married on November 14th, 2009. On our wedding night, I gave him all the letters I had written to my future husband, as well as all of the ones I wrote to him while I was on tour, before he came with us.
To this very day, James is the biggest and greatest ‘I LOVE YOU” that God has ever given me.
After 2 years of traveling, James and I wanted to settle down, start our family, and for me, I wanted to experience a “normal” life. I didn’t realize how much I would miss traveling, until a few years later, but soon there would be an addition to our life that would make the restlessness worth it. In June of 2012, we found that we were expecting our first baby! Our Bailey Bee was born the following February. Welcome to a whole new world. Anxieties I never knew existed mixed with a depth of love I had not yet experienced. We moved to Cheyenne Wells, CO, close to his brother and sister-in-law, and worked for a local farmer for the next 4 years.
By 2018, we were parents to 3 beautiful children, and had moved from Cheyenne wells to North Dakota, down to AZ, and back here to Kit Carson to start the family farm, and the rest is history!
