Eight years ago today, after celebrating Christopher’s 16th Birthday, Christopher walked me to my car and asked me if I would be his girlfriend. I of course said yes and that is where the journey of Christopher and Kristyn began…

We had met at previous summer youth camps. At the camp in the summer of 2001 Christopher apparently noticed me and asked one of my good friends about me. Christopher was in a band, Mizmor, and so our youth group went to one of their concerts that Fall. I had no idea that Christopher was interested in me and so when he tried to talk to me that evening I guess I didn’t show much interest, I had no idea. Anyway, somehow our emails were swamped through a mutual friend and we began emailing each other.

On January 18, 2002, underneath the basketball rim in the driveway of his parents house Christopher asked me if I would be his girlfriend and here is a picture of us from that very night.

January 18, 2003, our 1st year dating anniversary. Christopher took me to a nice restaurant and we had our first date with just the two of us. We did a lot of group dates and double dates our first year together, I know a bit old-fashioned, but that’s how we did it We also wrote each other letters and communicated through email and phone calls more than we saw each other because we lived 47 miles apart from one another. Again, old-fashioned but it worked for us.

We celebrated Christopher’s 18th Birthday and our 2 years of dating in January 2004, also our senior year of High School. We were both making college plans, I was going to Berea College in Berea, KY and Christopher would be going to Greenville College in Greenville, IL. We knew that it was going to be tough, and it was, but we were committed to making it work.

After our first semester of college we were more committed than ever before. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? Well, it did and I decided that I would transfer to Greenville College. Christopher wasn’t the only reason for my transfer, but he obviously was a big part of it.

That very Spring of 2005 on March 7th Christopher asked me to marry him and of course I said yes! On August 6, 2005 we became Mr. & Mrs. VanBuskirk. ( Don’t worry I will write a separate blog for those momentous events!)

Here we are on January 18, 2006 in our apartment in Greenville, IL celebrating the day that our journey began. We had been married for 5 months and were very happy.

In January 2007 we celebrated Christopher’s 21st birthday and 5 years of being together. We were in our last semester of our Junior year of college. Christopher  majored in Media Promotions and I majored in Elementary Education.

That summer we went to Cincinnati, OH and Christopher had two different internships and I nannied for a wonderful family. At the end of the summer of 2007, on July 23rd we found out that I was pregnant. We were completely shocked. We didn’t know how anything was going to work, but God did.

In January 2008 I was 7 months pregnant with our daughter, Aubri. We celebrated our journey together in Hawaii this year thanks to a family Christmas trip with my family. We had been together for 6 years and married for almost 2 1/2 years. 2008 was a hard year and an exciting year for us. We lost Christopher’s father in February and then welcomed our beautiful daughter just three weeks later.

I finished my student teaching on March 14th and Aubri arrived on the 15th- perfect timing! Also, during this year God gave us the vision for Centerpoint, our church plant, so we were also planning to move to Chillicothe, OH to begin the process of starting Centerpoint.

Aubri was born on March 15, 2008 and on November 11, 2008 we found out that I was pregnant with our second child. We were beyond shocked. Aubri was 8 months old when we found out, we would have two children 16 months apart. Wow.

So, in January 2009 I was pregnant again with our son, Owen Eric Timothy. This time we are at Disney World, again another Christmas family vacation with my family. We had been together for 7 years and married for 3 1/2 years. On March 15th we celebrated Aubri’s 1st birthday and on July 9, 2009 we welcomed our son. Two months after that, we officially launched our church, Centerpoint.

So, here we are today (finally, not pregnant! Nor will I be this year ) Celebrating 8 years of being together. As you can see our journey has been quite eventful and these are just the highlights! God has blessed us with so much. I am so thankful for the man that God gave me and the relationship that we have together. I look forward to all the years ahead of us.

Do you remember the first day that you met your significant other?