Our Story

Better Together

A cord of three strands is not easily broken. –Ecclesiastes 4:12

The best things in life are meant to be shared. We love our story, so we want to share it with you…

(Photocredit: Meagan White)

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you the great and unsearchable things that you do not know. -Jeremiah 33:3

Sometimes God surprises you with something you’ve always hoped for. Other times He surprises you with something you never could have imagined. For us, He surprised us with both. Both of us continually find ourselves trying to fathom the reality of how much we each long to be in the other’s life in such a significant way. It is undeniably humbling to like someone so amazing and for that person to like you back. Unbelievable.

DARIN: I have always taken relationships very seriously, which is why I’ve never been inclined to just jump into one. I believe a relationship should be absolutely intentional. So, why would I ever desire to “date” someone I did not see as a potential marriage partner? My aim has always been the pursuit of contentedness regardless of circumstance and feeling, committed to waiting until God showed someone obvious to me. In short, dating is dumb and God is sovereign.

EMILEE: Neither Darin or I were looking for a relationship, but always loved the simplicity and fun of our friendship, never giving a thought that we could or ever would be anything more. However, as the Lord began to reveal His will, we trusted that He would align our hearts and allow us to love and be loved in a way we had never experienced before. We have never been interested in “dating just to date” or “dating to find out” and wanted to make sure we were stepping into something that was both God ordained and God glorifying. And ultimately, we wanted to be sure that we would be able to serve, love, and glorify the Lord in a way that we couldn’t do as well separately as we could together. This sounds simplistic, and the end result was, however the journey to this place of intentionality was certainly one of great refining, dependence on the Lord, and complete surrender. As we started our journey, we prayed for obedience, wisdom, patience, and for His will to be done…which turned out to be a pretty dangerous prayer. Ha!

(Photocredit: Meagan White)

Trust the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. -Proverbs 3:5

DARIN: I had been close with Emilee’s family for several years and had never given a thought, or even a feeling, to Emilee being anything but a sister. In fact, I was extremely excited to be able to play the brother role in her life. And in an instant and a simple moment, God allowed me to see her in a way I had never seen anyone…a way in which I could not imagine my life without her. I knew Emilee was different as soon as I experienced an unforeseen desire to spend my life bringing joy to her life. I knew this was something special, because I had never experienced anything like it before. In fact, I still don’t understand. But, I love it. The desire to give regardless of what I get was a sure sign I was in view of something I could never fathom letting go of.

The more I got to know her heart, the more I longed to be a part of her future. By far the most attractive thing about Emilee is her love for God and her love for people. It is contagious. It is convicting. She just flat out makes me better, especially for the sake of the kingdom.

EMILEE: For an entire year, there was never a doubt in my mind about how Darin felt about me. He was everything I had ever prayed for and more and pursued me in a way I had always dreamed of. The journey of understanding the Lord’s will and getting to a place of absolute surrender definitely caused frustration, however the Lord used this time to place my dependency and trust in Him and allowed me to fall more in love with my Creator. He guarded and protected my heart as He molded me into who He had created me to be and prepared me for who He had in store for me. After several months of surrender and preparation, the Lord allowed me to see Darin in a way I had never seen anyone before. And that makes me SO happy!

(Photocredit: Meagan White) 

The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still. - Exodus 14:14

DARIN: When I first began having feelings for Emilee, I immediately sought the wisdom of those I respected because above all I wanted what was best for Emilee, and was not convinced that I was it. Through many (seriously MANY) emotional days, both good and bad, and through countless questions to God, I discovered clarity, conviction, and confidence to take a step forward in life WITH Emilee. It is surreal. It is humbling. It is amazing.

EMILEE: Having never been in a romantic relationship before, I had a skewed idea of what a relationship looked like. I had read books, watched movies, and had seen firsthand what I wanted and what I did not want in a relationship. Beyond my third person vantage point however, the idea of entering into a relationship completely terrified me. For years I had dreamed and prayed for the man the Lord had been preparing for me. I would swoon over the love stories portrayed in movies and be completely enthralled in the books I read. As I watched and read the stories, I always prayed that someday I would have a love story of my own. Well, after years of refining, teaching, and preparing me, God revealed my Prince Charming. The best friend and “big brother” I had known for years unexpectedly stole my heart and has completely changed my life. Darin surpasses every hope I had ever hoped, every dream I had ever dreamed, and every prayer I have ever prayed (I know it sounds cliché and cheesy, but it’s true). He teaches me how to love better, serve better, and ultimately be better.

Can I just take a minute to say the Top 5 that I love about my sweet boy? I could certainly give more than just 5 but will spare you all. Ha! If you can’t handle the gush, skip on down to the next paragraph.

1. He loves the Lord and seeks to serve and glorify Him in every way possible. He is truly a man after God’s own heart. I absolutely love that about him!

2. He is such a humble servant to all he comes in contact with. He is so generous with his time, money, and resources. I absolutely love the way he loves and serves people and love that I get to serve alongside of him for the rest of my life.

3. He loves his family. He never misses an opportunity to spend intentional time with his family and loves them with such a grateful and humble heart. I love watching his face light up when he talks about his family and love how proud he is of them. They are absolutely amazing and I love getting to love them as well!

4. He loves my family. Darin has been a part of my family for years now and hasn’t left us yet…that tells you something. Ha! He serves, encourages, and loves my family in a way that brings me so much joy. I love how perfectly he fits into my family and love that my family loves him and he loves them.

5. He makes me laugh. I love how quick he is to laugh at himself or with others and love that he enjoys the simple things in life. I feel like I am constantly giggling or smiling at him…or shaking my head at his silliness. I love it.

(Photocredit: Meagan White)

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. - Isaiah 41:10

DARIN: Honestly I have always been afraid of love, because I didn’t believe I had the capacity to love someone, especially in the way a girl deserved. But when my heart was turned toward Emilee, I experienced the unforeseen desire to spend the rest of my life giving all that I could to her in an effort to make her the happiest girl in the world. I am absolutely humbled to even have the opportunity to walk down the road of life alongside her. Her sheer beauty blows me away, but what really makes her shine in my eyes is her love for God and for others. Her desire to give her life away for the sake of the Kingdom focuses me, humbles me, and just flat our makes me better. I love Emilee Hancock with all that I am and simply cannot imagine life without her.

EMILEE: I absolutely LOVE getting to LOVE Darin. I am humbled every day that I get to be the one to love him, serve with him, and do life with him for the rest of our lives. I love so many things about Darin and look forward to falling more in love with him every day as we learn and grow together and make memories for a lifetime. I am excited to learn how to better love, serve, and affirm him and pray that the Lord would refine and humble me to become the best partner in ministry and partner in life for Darin and to ultimately become the woman that God has created me to be. I am excited to be led by Darin as he is led by the Lord and cannot wait to be Kingdom Builders together. I am enjoying every moment of the stage we are in now but certainly smile when I think about all that the Lord has in store for our future together. I can’t wait to see where He leads us and who He leads us to and pray that He would prepare and refine us in the meantime. I love getting to love and be loved by Darin and pray that I’ll never get used to hearing him tell me that he loves me too. I just love love.

(Photocredit: Meagan White)

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added onto you. - Matthew 6:33

So…who are we together? What are we?

First of all, we hate titles and labels…just too trite…and never fully accurate. Yet, we understand the importance of establishing an intended direction…So, regarding more of a direction and less of a label, we are: not dating, but instead a more accurate description of our intent is that we are courting. Our relationship does not exist for the sake of us going out or just having a good time together. Instead, it is a time of both intentional pursuit and intentional waiting. A time committed first and foremost to God as a time of refinement and preparation for what He has for us. We are good together now, but we want to be great together later. This means how we move together now is extremely important for the sake of our future in glorifying God in the utmost.

The bottom line is we are TOGETHER and believe we have been brought together. And that brings us both great joy! BUT, it doesn’t end there. While we love having the opportunity to be together, our relationship is not about us. We want everyone who comes in contact with us to experience joy as well and know that our ultimate purpose of being together is to better love, serve, and glorify God.  We are so much better together at being distributors of His joy.

(Photocredit: Meagan White)

Our journey has been one of many struggles and frustrations but has also been one of so much joy and special moments. Our journey has brought us to the place we are now and has shaped us into the people we are and for that we are so thankful. We have learned to be more dependent on God and how to surrender our lives to Him and trust Him with all that we are and all that we hope to be. Through this refining process, we have been given a beautifully written love story that is perfectly imperfect in our eyes. We are so humbled and thankful to be able to serve and do life TOGETHER and cannot wait to see how the Lord continues to use and bless us as we seek Him. We are so excited to see where He leads us, who He leads us to, and how He shapes us into His likeness. AND we are excited to see what fun adventures we’ll experience, what fun memories we’ll create, and what laughter we’ll share.

So there you have it, that’s our story…a story authored by God our Father, our Encourager, and our only Constant.

The Lord is my strength-my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. -Psalm 28:7

For over a year now this has been our ultimate song of surrender. Our greatest desire is to daily give everything we have to the Lord for the sake of the Kingdom and to bring Him glory.