A Love Story
Kristin and I have kind of an interesting story. I figured today would be a great day to tell it to you.
My dad is a pastor. His first senior pastorate was at a small church in a small town in Florida called Palatka. He started as the youth pastor and later became the senior pastor. I was born in Palatka. My mom and dad had a lot of really good friends in this small town. Among those friends were Billy and Melony Dunning. Billy worked in the local paper mill and Melony was a stay at home mom. At the time, Melony and Billy had two daughters. Natalie and Kristin.
Kristin and I at my Desert Storm themed 5th birthday party. She was the only Iraqi among a bunch of soldiers.
Kristin was a little more than a year younger than me but that kind of thing doesn’t matter too much when you’re five and three. When I was five my family moved to Montgomery, Alabama where my dad became pastor of the church he serves at to this day. My dad and his church are passionate about missions and every year we would take a trip to Russia where we would pass out Bibles, hold large crusades, and speak in schools. In 2005 we didn’t quite have enough people to fill out the team so we opened it up to my father’s former church in Palatka. A few people from that church decided to join us for a trip to Syktyvkar, Russia. Among those who joined us were Kristin (Remember? Melony and Billy’s youngest daughter who is about a year and a half younger than me?) and Beth.
Now Beth is Kristin’s cousin but she also grew up in my father’s youth group, moved with us to Alabama, and was the resident baby sitter of the Rippy children growing up.
At this point I was a freshman in college at Southeastern and I hadn’t seen Kristin since I was five. That said, her cousin Beth had been talking to me and talking to her about how she thought we were perfect for each other. We both lead worship at our churches, loved music, life, ministry, missions, etc.
Neither of us had any interest whatsoever.
Are you following all this?
So we meet up with this team of people from the church in Palatka in the JFK airport in New York City. Kristin was wearing jeans, a quarter-length baseball type shirt and…wait for it…her passport was in a “look-at-me-I-don’t-get-out-much” holder around her neck. If it wasn’t for this passort around the neck issue we may have had a love at first sight situation on our hands.
Kristin and I in Syktyvkar, Russia
I immediately knew there was something good about this Kristin gal. We exchanged glances and a few awkward conversations during our eight hour flight to Moscow. After that we were inseparable for the duration of the trip. We lead worship together, carried on lengthy, less awkward late night conversations, and even rearranged some things so that we could sit by each other on our transatlantic flight home.
Once we returned home the conversation about a semi long distance relationship began. Luckily Southeastern was just a hop, skip, and a two hour drive through the nothingness that is highway 19 away from Palatka and my newfound love. I made that drive nearly every weekend for a year and a half. Then one weekend I made that drive and asked Kristin to marry me…That story will come later.
Four years, four homes, and a beautiful daughter later we’re loving life in Lakeland, Florida.
Our family of three at Isabella’s dedication - October 24, 2010
