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How the Elephants Came to Be ~Madison

"If you know Jordan at all, you would say that he is known for gifting things to people, especially things that he has tried and vetted and thinks would be good for others.

Before Jordan and I were friends, he gifted me a stuffed elephant (Ellie) because I seemed lonely and he thought I would enjoy having it. When I received it I had asked

Honour of the reasoning as to why he gave me one and I had learned that he had gifted others the same stuffed elephant and had one as well. Over time, as Jordan and I

began talking and became friends, and eventually started dating, Jordan would send photos of Wubble (his elephant) in lieu of photos of himself, which I found (and still find) very cute. After we started dating, Jordan had said that he wants to appreciate me in person and did not want to receive photos of me, so we exchanged photos of Wubble and Ellie. Thus, the photo gallery is of Wubble and Ellie.

Sidenote: Wubble is smaller than Ellie because Jordan put Wubble through the dryer on the high heat setting……Wubble was never the same after."

Pre-Dating ~Jordan

Joyful introducing Madison to me and my family at church. And I instantly had a crush. So being a Christian prayed for God to give me her*. Then after everyone had finished exchanging greetings I went up and told her she looks like a Chocobo** (she still looks like one). Of course she was bewildered and beat a hasty retreat. I then gave up on her as crushes aren't a good reason to pursue someone.

Through the years volunteering, I noticed her consistently. She would clean up, volunteer and be there. Also there were a couple of times where Joyful was extremely worried about her and I support Joyful.

Then last year Joyful got married and through some complex process. Madison needed to stay at my mom's, where I was, for a couple of months before moving into Joyful's previous apartment. Madison was staying in the far side of the house but then the Bomb cyclone hit and because Honour and I were worried for her, we invited her up to the second floor near us. While she was there Honour tried out some icebreaker games she had recently gotten and one of the questions was what is the worst thing you don't want someone to know about yourself? Well I said what it was, as I had already told my family and various people, but Madison said it was normal to struggle with something like that. Then I really wanted her.

But pursuing her while she was in the same house is creepy so I waited.

Then, after she moved out I am chicken, and decided wanting someone is not a good reason to pursue them 😅...

So a month goes by. In the book group we both attend, Joyful started asking for prayer as Madison for eating and sleep as she was living on 2 hours of sleep, had chronic stomach pain, and consistently was dislocating her knee.

One of the things I strive to do is to use love your neighbor as yourself to break social conventions. So I decided I didn't care that it may be creepy to start pestering her even though I liked her as it looks like she was on the road to dying due to overwork (I've had a distant relative die to that, yes it's real). So I started calling her. Daily. So for several months I checked up on her sleep, her tummy, encouraged her to do PT (Physical Therapy) and did PT with her so she wouldn't let my effort fall to the ground.

We still weren't dating. I just started seeing reasons to be closer with her. Whether it was video chatting while playing a game, dancing, or singing practice.

We did attend half a movie together, but we weren't dating.

Days flew by as the calls only lasted 3-5 hours on average.

Then I made a mistake. I prefaced a questions as selfish and outed my attraction to her that maybe I wasn't altruistic and I was seeing maybe girlfriend qualities in Madison. So of course the next day when I get my team in the trouble at work and the Joel the VP at the time (my boss's boss's boss) asks me if there was anything new in my personal life to which I reply that I maybe have a girlfriend. As I was telling this story to my brother Job that night, he looks at me and then at Madison and back again. You know, subtle hints...

So later that night when I’m on our 3 hour calls after our 3 hour date, I ask Madison if was alright that I was telling people that I might have a girlfriend? Madison says yes, so I think I have a chance. So I take my shot and ask, would she like if I asked her to be my girlfriend? She said yes. So I thought about it...

And asked immediately if she would be my girlfriend, and she said yes.

* Possessive much!?

** Chocobos are cute!

*** We believe in de Nile so why won't you.

How we met and started dating ~Madison

We first met when Joyful introduced me to her siblings, Joyful and I had become best friends, and I hadn’t yet met her siblings. Apparently, Jordan had an instant crush

on me when we first met…. and he gave, an unorthodox complement, he told me I looked like a bird (he thinks a specific bird, Chocobos, are really cute) and while in

context it’s sweet, I had no idea that he was calling me cute and I took it as a slight insult. This was our initial meeting and for Jordan it marked a five-year one-sided

crush…..he watched and evaluated my character through the various volunteer/ministries that I took part in. I was unaware of Jordan’s interest and didn’t really pay him much attention.

That all changed when Jordan volunteered for VBA in

2022, and this time I began noticing him and his character as he served alongside the VBA team. I saw his compassion, playfulness, kindness, and eagerness to help and jump in to do things, and I started liking him. I kept volunteering to help him set up for his VBA rotation and I volunteered to stay up late to wash the guys clothes. The more I saw his character and the way he relies on God to live out the second greatest commandment, the more interested I was to get to know him. I prayed and gave my feelings to God and pushed them away on to God’s plate to take of, as I wasn’t ready to admit that I liked him nor was I sure of my feelings. Every now and then I would see Jordan and have feelings but each time I prayed for God to handle them, as I only

wanted what God had planned for me and for Jordan.

Fast forward to August 26, 2024, I got the first notion that perhaps Jordan liked me ( though prior to this I would catch him staring at me on and off which I merely shrugged off) ….I remember the day… I was at

church working on my college final project in the conference room… while I was taking a break I was on my phone and I randomly received a friend request from Jordan….. at first I was confused…it seemed very out of the blue, other than the occasional ‘hello’ we hadn’t really spoken much before and days prior thoughts of Jordan began popping into my mind…but it was different than the previous times, it was like a gentle nudge, and I

was reminded of my feelings for him. I continued to pray for guidance and for God’s will to be done both in my life and in Jordan’s life.

Now Joyful would routinely ask me if I

liked any one, my answer always being some form of ‘no’…..so when after all this happened she had once again asked me if I liked anyone….and finally after admitting to

myself and God that I might like Jordan, I reluctantly told Joyful that I do think I like someone, but I am not sure if you want me to like him….she quickly guessed that it was

Jordan. I continued praying and trusting that God will take of whatever feelings that I had for Jordan, that God’s will be done.

Then in September 2024, Jordan and I just so happened to be leaders together in Awana, which allowed me more opportunity to observe Jordan and his character as

we served together. I kept pushing my feelings to God for Him to take care of, thinking that He would take them away from me, but God had other plans.

In November of 2024, I was in between homes, my previous rental was no longer an option, and the new

rental was open to rent starting in January, so for two months I was renting part of Siri’s home. During these two months I spent time with Honour and Jordan, playing games, talking, and watching movies together. When the bomb cyclone hit, the house was without power for 72 hours, which gave opportunity for Jordan and I to talk on a deeper level. One evening, since we were without power, we ended up played a conversation

game with Honour….we shared personal struggles and connected on a deeper level. We became friends during my two month stay and our friendship continued after I

moved the first weekend of January 2024 and by February Jordan began calling me every night and gave the reason that he wanted to make sure I was taking care of myself, having one-to-two-hour calls, and we would end the call every night by reading the Bible together. We had our first not-date on February 22nd , Jordan invited me last minute to see a movie with two of his BSF friends. We only stayed for about half of the movie and left together. He walked me to my car in rain and on the way pulled me into a small alleyway to show me a window display of a cat plushie. This was when I began

questioning if Jordan liked me, up until this point, I was unaware that he liked me and though I wanted him to, I was content with the friendship with Jordan that God gave me and gave it God. Jordan had wanted me to get discord and steam so we could hangout and so I did just that, as I also wanted to spend more time with him. We had six to seven hour discord calls in which we would chat, play games (I would occasionally play but mostly enjoyed watching Jordan play), watch videos, dance, and Jordan would do PT with me when I had a work injury to make sure I was taking care of myself…this was on top of our nightly hour to two hour phone calls.

On March 22nd , during our nightly call, Jordan said he had a selfish question….. I asked how the question was selfish and said because he was prospecting me to be his girlfriend and told me he would stop if I wanted him to and I told him I don’t mind, prospect away. Then, on March 24th, we had our second not-date where we played Lego-Batman together at the Brown’s house. As

we were playing, Jordan and his brother Job were talking about Jordan’s day at work and Jordan started talking about how after he got his team in trouble and brought it to the VP, Jordan and the VP started conversing and his VP had asked him if there was anything new going on in his personal life, and Jordan said that he may or may not have a girlfriend now…… and Job glanced over at me and back to Jordan…… and I was embarrassed and confused as to what he meant and figured we’d talk about it at

another time. Later that night during our nightly call, Jordan started reflecting on his conversation with the VP and said that he was rambling and didn’t mean to share that in front of Job….and I said that I was confused because I didn’t recall him at any point asking me to be his girlfriend and then he asked if I would be okay if he did ask and I said I wouldn’t mind….then he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes, and we had

our first ‘official’ date on March 29th.

After four months of dating, Jordan met my family over the 4th of July weekend, and on July 7th, Jordan proposed. We re-did our first date, playing Lego-Batman together, and he proposed during while we were playing with a ring he made when he was twelve.