UsJordan Petty#marriage, #howwemet, #life, #miscarriage, #pregnancy, #pregnancyjourney, #hopeComment

OUR STORY

UsJordan Petty#marriage, #howwemet, #life, #miscarriage, #pregnancy, #pregnancyjourney, #hopeComment
OUR STORY

HOW WE MET + CURRENT LIFE


June 2015, Waco, Tx. Where it all began. Our friends were getting married that weekend. Bryce played football with the groom at Baylor University and I grew up with the bride in my hometown. Honestly, neither of us were looking for a relationship. I had actually just gotten out of a relationship and Bryce had just been drafted to the New York Jets, soon to move away for his first NFL football season. Funny how God works, right? We met at the rehearsal and immediately hit things off that weekend. I lived in Lubbock at the time as a Pre-K teacher and he was living in Dallas for the offseason, getting ready to move up north. After the wedding weekend we both went back to our own towns. Not ideal. Bryce had a few weeks left before leaving for training camp and asked if I’d come see him in Dallas that next weekend. After that weekend, I knew he was the one. It’s so cliché when they say, “you know when you know” but guys, you seriously just know. I was hoooooked.

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I flew up to New York two weeks after to go visit him. It was my first time to NYC and my second time ever on a plane. You should have heard me calling and asking Bryce how the SkyLink worked at the DFW airport hahaha. So embarrassing. After many many weekend trips to New York, hundreds of late night FaceTime calls (hello long distance life) and a football season later, we were engaged! Our dating life still to date holds some of my favorite memories. If I could go back, I honestly wouldn't change doing long distance. It had its hard days, but it was almost rewarding. Like we could conquer anything. No distractions, just us. We really got to know each other on a deeper level because literally all we could do was talk. And we talked and talked for hours. 

(Rookie NFL girlfriend mistake: I accidentally kept him up for hours talking the first few nights of his first training camp. I had no idea how exhausted he was or really what ‘training camp’ even meant. I was such a newbie. He was busy all day so we would catch up at night. Little did I know how intense camps actually were. Like, all he wanted to do was sleep as soon as he got back to his hotel room, intense. He never said anything. He just stayed up talking with me while he was basically dying of sleep deprivation (I married an angel). I quickly figured out at next year’s training camp how big of an a**hole I was for keeping him up because he got no sleep and was totally exhausted. In my defense, I had no idea how a training camp even worked. Sorry babe)!!!

We got married July 8, 2017. I now understand training camps. We’ve been married for two years now which sounds crazy as I’m typing this out. Time seriously flies by. Marriage is such a gift and is so sweet and refining all at the same time. There’s something so special about walking through life with your spouse. We’ve probably felt every emotion possible in our first two years of marriage: love, joy, excitement, nerves, anger, pain, frustration… you name it, we’ve experienced it. We’ve been through a lot in our first few years and we’re honestly still walking through some of it. We’ve sort of been wandering in this wilderness for over a year now. Bryce experienced a season-ending injury this past year with the Miami Dolphins. When we realized he was out for the year we moved to Dallas and bought our first home. We found out we were pregnant a week after. We were over the moon with straight joy. We couldn’t stop smiling! The day before moving into our new home, Bryce and I experienced a miscarriage. I was 10 weeks pregnant. I can’t even explain the excitement you feel when you find out you're pregnant. You become attached so quickly, it’s surreal. For it all to be taken away so abruptly, it was the worst pain and the hardest thing we’ve gone through as a couple. 

 
 

The first few months after we lost the baby were so tough. We felt angry, confused, sad, just broken. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was going through a mild depression. However, we remained hopeful. We felt peace and purpose with our angel baby. I don’t say any of this for sympathy. I want to be real with you guys. The term miscarriage has become so buried that people fear talking about it. I don’t mean to make any of you uncomfortable but my hope is to unmask society’s standard of not talking about real issues and only sharing the positive things in life. This is life. Sometimes it’s hard. I want other women to know that they are not alone. It’s been 8 months now since the miscarriage. We never really saw ourselves here, still waiting to become pregnant. It’s been hard. Every month that goes by, getting our hopes up at the possibility of another chance at pregnancy, then to find out we have to wait a bit longer. We have faith. We have hope. But its a daily testing. We are holding on to the promise that God has already fulfilled and His promises never fail. We know that we’ll be earthly parents one day but until then we will wait. It’s just not our time yet. 

We’re taking life day by day, enjoying the little things and pursuing things that bring us joy. We love our new life in Dallas and have found this even greater appreciation for the other because of everything we’ve already been through together so early in our marriage. We truly are made for each other. Bryce is my better half and makes me a better version of myself. I could not have gone through this past year without him. We are thankful for our story. We wouldn’t be who we are today without having gone through it. We have grown tremendously as husband and wife and are eager to see what God has in store for us.