Can you believe it's been 10 years already? It's remarkable how time flies! Where do we even begin? Well, let's start with the fact that we now have three kids and two dogs, which makes our lives wonderfully chaotic.

Our love story is quite unusual and non-traditional. I had been a single mom for 13 years and had almost given up on traditional dating. That's when I decided to give online dating another chance. I wanted to shield myself and my daughter from the chaos of the dating world. At the same time, Menta was determined to avoid dating someone from his church, so he also turned to online dating. It wasn't something I regularly checked, but in late May of 2015, something I read changed our lives forever.

After being ignored on Blackpeoplemeet for 10 days, I finally responded to Menta's request to talk to me. His profile showed a well-dressed, smiling man who spoke about his faith and his service in his church. It was exactly what I was looking for! We spent about two weeks talking on the phone, each conversation lasting for hours, before we finally decided to meet in person. At 30, I wasn't looking for anything fancy on our first meeting. I just wanted to see if it was worth all the "adult" date effort.

Our first meeting took place at TGI Fridays – a bit cheesy, right? It was during basketball season, and if all else failed we could at least watch the game while enjoying some wings, with no pressure. When I arrived at the restaurant, I found him sitting at a table, already waiting for me. I was a bit late because I wanted to make sure I didn't need to run! He was in his work clothes after volunteering for Habitat for Humanity through his job. It was very impressive, but man he was short! We laughed, talked, laughed some more, and had very engaging conversations.

As we walked to our cars, I found out that he was driving his work truck, which happened to be his only mode of transportation – a bright orange Vivint truck! At that moment, I started to look for any reason I could think of to get rid of him. After all, the man didn't even have his own car! His response was that it's free, he can drive it anywhere, and the company covers gas, insurance and maintenance. After the date, I called my best guy friend, who's always had it together to complain. He said to me, that's a smart man!

Frustratingly, Menta and I continued talking, but I refused to ride in that bright orange "bus." He asked me to a proper date and I met him at the restaurant. He chose, The Capital Grille! I guess he had a little money not having a car payment. Needless to say, I was all smiles. He cleaned up well, and knew how to treat me like a daughter of a King.

As time went on, we got to know each other's hearts towards Christ and our families. We grew closer and it seemed as though we spent every single day together after. By this short time, I felt like he was the one, but I had to be sure our visions for the future lined up with what God had placed in our hearts. Kingdom service and discipleship were very important to our faith, so we each wrote down what we believed we were called to do, and surprisingly, they were practically identical!

At that point, unknown to me, Menta made the decision to ask my dad for permission to marry me. He took a drive with me to North Carolina to pick up my daughter, Aleicia, and my mom to bring them back to Texas. During the visit, he asked my dad for permission to marry me. Upon returning to Dallas, he spontaneously said, "Let's get married." After three months of dating, we took a leap of faith and went to the courthouse with just a few family members and friends, and we said "I Do"!

Although our journey hasn't been perfect, we've had many hurdles, losses, heartbreaks, and failures, but we remained faithful and consistent. We continue to keep Christ at the center of it all. As the scripture says, "...a cord of three strands is not easily broken." Ecc. 4:12. We have grown together, individually, and as a family unit – Daniel's Party of Five! Aleicia, Carter, and Christen Moriah have been our greatest successes and blessings!