Andrew' Story
I met Celeste for the first time in January of 2006, when I went with my family down to California to meet the Keulens. We were having church at the Keulens and her family was there but I didn't really meet her particularly as there were a lot of people there I didn't know and I tend to be a bit shy about introducing myself to girls. I did however meet her parents and talked to them for a while and remember liking them.
The next time I saw them was at a Shield of Faith conference in Oregon , I remember talking to Celeste very briefly at one point and thinking she was a nice girl but that is about it.
It was almost a year later when I saw the Kerrs at my sister’s wedding, Celeste and and her sister Melissa stayed at our house for a couple days and then went home with the Keulens. Here again I had very little contact with her, we did talk a little about cameras and so forth but that is about it.
Next was a few weeks later when I went down to California for my sister Aimee’s wedding reception, I ended up staying in California for six weeks after the reception working for Mr. Keulen. During this time I saw the Kerrs several times, I did think Celeste was a nice girl although I was careful not to get too interested.
During this time in California I really enjoyed getting to know her parents, especially her dad and spent quite a bit of time with him. Although my time with Celeste was quite limited we did talk a few times mostly about photography and a couple times about Charles Dickens.
Next I saw the Kerrs at Booher music camp (the place where Aimee met Jonathan Keulen), here I worked in the kitchen with Mr. and Mrs. Kerr while Celeste went to classes, I talked to Celeste’s parents quite a lot at this event as they were among the few people I knew and I was available at the same time as they were to talk, I had a great time with them and thought it would be neat to be able to have them for in laws although I didn’t think that was likely. I had definitely noticed Celeste by this time, although I was not very optimistic that anything would happen, after all I tend to be bashful and slow to move forward on anything and I definitely didn’t know her well enough to consider a courtship and what were the odds that I ever would, I left Booher Camp not thinking much more about it.
Then I was surprised to see the Kerrs come up for the Shield of Faith Conference near Spokane WA , it was nice to see them again although still nothing happened between Celeste and me.
It was the day before Jenny’s wedding, I was the assistant photographer in charge of taking pictures of people, preparations and other things of interest. Celeste was painting letters for a sign to go out by the road and I took a picture her, then I realized that was about the third or fourth picture I had taken of her that morning. I had this thought run through my head of “that is interesting I wonder why I have taken so many pictures of her today? I wonder if I like her? I wonder if she is the one I am going to marry?” to this I felt this feeling of “Yes she is the one”, I quickly thought “that is weird, I don’t know enough about her to think that” I really didn’t know much about her, how she lined up with what I had been looking for in a potential wife. I didn’t know about her relationship with the Lord, what she thought about leaving California , children, really I knew very little except she had a very feminine and conservative look and manner about her, things that I highly admire in a girl. Over the next few days this feeling that Celeste was “the one” got stronger and stronger until one day I asked my brother in law Jonathan about Celeste and told him what was going on in my head, he said from his observation Celeste was a very nice girl. He advised me that if I thought God was leading me in this direction I should move forward and see what doors open and close. So that night I talked to my dad about the situation and to my surprise he didn’t seem surprised to hear it, he said he and mom had talked about the possibility of Celeste for me and liked her and gave me their blessing to talk to Mr. Kerr. So the next step was to call Mr. Kerr at work and ask if I could get together over his lunch break. He agreed and so I came over to his workplace a very nervous young man not really sure even what to say. I stumbled all over my words basically told him that I had been thinking about his daughter Celeste and didn’t know if it was from the Lord or not but I had this feeling like Celeste was the one for me. Mr. Kerr quickly eased my mind and gave me his support, he told me that he also had wondered about me for Celeste, and he didn’t know but he was pretty sure that Mrs. Kerr and Celeste would be open to the idea of us getting to know each other. He then spent quite a while telling me what a wonderful girl Celeste is and answered some of the questions I had about her. When I left after that meeting I was on top of the world, I knew at that time that I would marry Celeste and that any things I didn’t know about her would work out, I had confidence knowing that only the Lord could have brought me to this place in this manner. It was a couple days later when we went up to Oregon for Bobby Keulen’s wedding, I don’t remember much about the wedding, I had too much on my mind, what would I say when I saw Celeste after the wedding? What did she think about me? I was nervous and excited at the same time. After the wedding it was at least as awkward as I thought it might be, I didn’t know what to say, it was awkward. Then several of us were outside talking just after Bobby and Molly left and it was a bit on the cold side and I could tell Celeste was cold, after debating with myself for a few minutes I removed my jacket and placed it on Celeste’s shoulders, it made me nervous to do that (I didn’t really want people to know anything was going on at that point for some reason) but I would have done it for any other girl so I thought I really should do it for the girl I hoped to someday marry. Celeste turned red when I did that, (she always blushes easy) and I wondered what she thought of it.
We ended up having a couple more days together in Oregon , very interesting awkward days, days we now laugh together about. We both didn’t know how to act, (of course it didn’t help that her parents left on Saturday after the wedding for an anniversary outing and we spent the rest of the weekend without her parents being there). Celeste was very helpful and gave me many opportunities to talk to her but I was too shy to take very many of them, we were so reserved during that weekend that very few people even suspected anything was going on, including most of my siblings.
When I got home I announced to my family at dinner that I was going to be courting Celeste and they were all very happy for me although some were a bit surprised.
I was home for a couple of weeks during which I sent a few letters to Celeste and received at least one back, I talked to Mr. Kerr on the phone regularly and he was very helpful keeping me informed on what was going on there, and then he let me talk to Celeste on the phone a couple of times. He suggested earlier that I could come down and help do some work on there house that summer and so after being home a couple weeks I left for California. I was so sure at this point that I told my rentors that I was going to be getting married at some point and that they would have to move out.
Celeste's Story
One Sunday in January of 2006 we went to home fellowship at the Keulens. It was just like any other Sunday, except there was a family from Washington visiting them. I had no idea at the time that I would become so closely linked with the Engells
That was the first time I met Andrew. I actually don't remember very much about him from that day, I don't even remember if we really met, just that he was there. I have a more distinct memory of talking to his sister Aimee during a walk that some of us took.
The next time I saw Andrew was at a conference in Oregon. Again I don't have much memory of him. We may have talked just a little but it is all very vague.
After that I didn't see him for a year. But in the meantime I did see his sister occasionally because she and Jonathan Keulen began courting and were soon engaged.
Their wedding was the next opportunity to see Andrew. Melissa and I even stayed at the Engell's house with the Keulens for a few days afterwards. But still we didn't talk much or even see each other a whole lot. There were a lot of people around and it was a busy couple of days.
A few weeks later they all came down for Jonathan and Aimee's California reception. That is the first time I very distinctly remember talking to Andrew. We were out on the back patio and we talked about cameras.
After that, through a series of interesting events involving car trouble, Andrew ended up staying with the Keulens for about six weeks. During that time we saw each other at least once a week. We got to know each other slightly more.
We saw each other again at Booher music camp in Sisters, Oregon. I remember seeing him a lot during the week and talking to him quite often, at least for me as I usually don't talk to young men much. By that time I had definitely noticed Andrew and although I wasn't admitting it kind of liked him. I also had a suspicion that he might be interested in me. But I convinced myself that it was all nothing and I probably not be seeing him again for awhile. I did see him a little at a conference near Spokane in September but I didn't talk to him much.
During the next several months and though various circumstances God had been teaching me to be more content in him and to trust him completely with my life and future.
Then suddenly a few days before my dear friend Jenny Keulens wedding on March 1st, 2008, he appeared on the scene again. Well, actually I had known he would be here for the wedding but I didn't think about it much. Once he was down here though we saw each other a lot, with all the preparations and festivities going on. During it all I really started to think about him quite a bit. I also began to really wonder if he was thinking about me. One evening a week after the wedding he and his family came over to our house for dinner. We all had a really good time. Afterwards I noticed that I had spent most of the time talking to Andrew.
I began to be afraid that I was thinking about him way to much. My next thought was that I was glad he was going back to up to Washington in a few days so I would stop being so distracted.
But then the strangest thing happened a few mornings later. I was still in bed when both of my parents came into my room to talk to me about something. I knew something must be up, because that had never happened before. My dad said that there was a young man interested in getting to know me, then proceeded to try to make me guess who it was. Now I hate guessing so wouldn't say, but I had a pretty good idea who it was. Finally he just told me that it was Andrew Engell. I didn't really feel like I knew Andrew very much at all so I was a little nervous, but after my dad relayed his conversation with Andrew to me, and thinking and praying about it I decided to go ahead and get to know him. We were not really calling it courtship yet. Both of my parents had talked (at music camp and other conferences) to Andrew quite a bit more than I ever had and they had a good opinion of him and were supportive of the idea of us beginning to pursue a possible relationship.
The next phase was the most awkward part of the whole process. Both of our families were heading up to Oregon for a wedding and a reception that weekend, so the next time I saw Andrew was at the wedding around a lot of people. We had the go ahead to get to know each other but weren't really sure how to proceed. To make matters worse my parents left right after the wedding for an anniversary trip, while my sister and I stayed the rest of the weekend with friends. We both knew that we needed to talk at some point during the weekend and figure out the next step but it was pretty awkward with so many people around all the time, plus I was pretty shy and had never really talked much to guys. Finally on the last morning before we headed our separate ways we did talk and we decided that we should begin by writing letters to each other.
We wrote a few letters back and forth mostly asking each other questions about what we thought about different topics, such as various theology, standards, child training, etc. The letter writing didn't go on for too long though because my dad arranged for Andrew to come down a few weeks later to work on some projects for him. This was probably around the beginning of April. For the next month we we spent a lot of time talking and discussing things. My dad was very good at making us feel awkward by making up scenarios that usually started like this " So, Andrew, if you are married to Celeste and this issue(whatever it might be) comes up what will you do?" or "So, Celeste if you are married to Andrew and he does this how will you respond?" It was really good and made us think hard about some things, especially some of the areas where we had significant differences of perspective.
It was so amazing to see how God was obviously leading us together. Both of our families were very supportive right from the beginning. As we talked and got to know each other it became clear that we both had similar priorities, vision for our lives, and goals. We were already going the same direction, it made sense to go there together. I am not saying that we agreed on every thing. There were 3 or 4 areas, mostly theological points, where we had pretty big differences which we discussed thoroughly and decided we could live with.
On May 8th, only two months from when Andrew asked to get to know me he proposed to me. I said yes.
We then continued to get to know each other and "fall in love" while planning our wedding for September 27th, 2008.
Together
