By Kristinia
Our story is rather complex and goes back before I was even a glimmer in my parent’s eyes. I’ll start it off with some of the back story. It all started when my parents were married at Highland Baptist Church in 1978 after only knowing each other for two weeks. My dad had previously attended HBC as a youth and they were the only church that would marry my parents in such short notice. You see, my parents were both in the Navy and both had different orders. The only way to stay together was to be married. Ronnie would have been about a year old at that time and in no way aware of my parents.
After my parents were married, they were re-stationed in Norfolk, Virginia where over the next few years they would have Sabrina, my sister in 1981 and then me in 1983. Between when I was born and when we moved back to Louisiana in 2004 we lived in both Massachusetts and New York. My family moved back to Metairie in July of 2004 after being away from the south for about 20 years. After getting settled and trying to find a local church to attend, my parents wanted to revisit HBC, the place they were married over 28 years before. Since I was intrigued about where my parents were married, I was excited to visit. That is where Ronnie and Kristinia start - not as a couple but as friends. I remember sitting in the church pew that Sunday morning and looking at the choir and thinking, "the guy with round glasses looks pretty cute!" I even mentioned it to my sister, sitting next to me, who didn't necessarily share my opinion on the cute guy. After service that Sunday, a rather friendly older woman came up to my dad and mom and gave them a hug. She had remembered them from their wedding. She introduced herself to me and my sister as Dottie Dupuy and then walked up the cute choir guy. She introduced him as her son, Ronnie. As many people did when visiting Highland my family felt very welcomed and after some time joined the church. When I left New York, I had left many great friends, most of whom were girls. So when I joined the young adult group at HBC I was rather taken aback when the only other members were three guys. But, at least one the cute choir guy was one of them. I have never been more thankful for how God orchestrated my life to be in that young adult group. The other two guys David & Danny (Grooms Note: Both of whom are groomsmen.) would become more like brothers than friends over the years and still remain that way today. I can’t say the same for Ronnie and I. Over the next 8 years, Ronnie and I would become great friends, but unlike the others, I never thought of him as my brother. In fact, I struggled to hide my tender feelings for him over the years. There are so many reasons why we never “got together” before we finally did; most of it was because God had a time and a place for that in our lives. We were such close friends, and people would often ask why we weren't together. I would always say that God would have to do a lot of changing to both of us for that to happen! We were much different people when we met than we are today. I might have thought Ronnie had more to change than I did, but looking back it was pretty equal. (Groom's Note: I can agree that we both had parts of our lives that were not complimentary - or even partially compatible. While won't go into that here, those were the things that really kept us apart all that time.)
Over those 8 years, people would come and go out of our lives, friends would get married, houses were bought, babies born and so on but two people remained the same -- Ronnie and Kristinia. That is, until Ronnie decided to shake everything up by moving to TN in the fall of 2011!! I remember the night Ronnie told me of an opportunity to take a great position in Tennessee. That night would roll into months of him going back and forth on what to do. It was a game changer in both our lives. (Groom's Note: That was an incredibly difficult decision for a hometown boy who's lived his whole life within a couple miles of home, and had worked at the same job for 12 years. I knew it was the right thing to do, didn't know why, and certainly didn't expect to be back so soon, but I think I now know a little more than I did then.) When Ronnie finally made the decision to move, I was lost. I knew this was the best thing for Ronnie and technically we were still just friends, but we did so much together, and I felt like God had forgotten to do something amazing for me. So, Ronnie left and now God had my undivided attention. I sought out God more, made new friends and new adventures. Ronnie started a new job in a new town, with new people. We talked a great deal while he was in Tennessee. He always seemed so lost while up there- just a little sad and out of sorts. I prayed that God would settle him and his heart for this new job. During that time God was doing some major changing in both our lives - changes that we wouldn't see until much later. Then, one night in December 2011, Ronnie called and again it was a moment that would change my life forever. He was coming back!! After 6 or so weeks he was coming back, but not to Metairie. He was joining the BBB in Baton Rouge. I went from being sad and lost when he left, to being angry he was coming back. I was finally getting some solid growth with God both in the spiritual and physical aspects of my life. If anyone could derail me, it was Ronnie and I didn't want to be derailed. So back he came in January and started visiting back and forth from Baton Rouge on the weekends. Still only “friends” at this time I was seriously seeking God's will in what to do with this crazy boy. After 8 years of knowing each other, we were closer than most dating couples. I felt God saying you need to deal with this relationship, and on top of that, in March of 2012 Ronnie started acting WEIRD!! When I say weird, I mean weird. Ronnie was the perpetually single, bachelor guy to everyone. Most of us lived through his adventures and travels. He was the person you spoke about who did the crazy things we all wished we could do. Ronnie never spoke of relationships, marriage, or “the future!” He was, well, Ronnie. So, when he started saying things about relationships, and the future, I was one very confused girl. Ronnie was my constant and he was changing the game, and I was in far left field and running in the wrong direction. In May 2012, two of our best friends Danny & Kayla had a baby and Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Kristinia (not together) had to go see this blessed child, so off we went to South Carolina to see baby Emmanuel. It was during that trip to South Carolina that Ronnie and I would finally talk about our relationship and once and for all, decide to “see if this would work.” Yes! a relationship! We agreed that neither of us could imagine our lives without the other in it and neither of us wanted to date other people (or wanted the other to date other people) so it seemed like a good plan. God must have been laughing his brown beard off at us and our shenanigans. Over the next 3 months we did what we call “Super Dating.” We knew a lot about each other already so we just plowed through the deep and hard stuff right of the bat. Neither of us wanted to fail because failing would mean we would lose each other and that was never an option. We both worked hard to "put the other first." It became very apparent that marriage was where we were headed and in September, we went looking at rings. (Groom's Note: Read more in the Proposal section.) Our story is forged out of many years of listening and not listening, loving and arguing, sharing good and bad, working together and having fun and adventure, but most importantly being together at the end of it all.
I wouldn't change a single day of it, because it has made us stronger and made us the Ronnie & Kristinia that we are today. I hope our story has brought you into our lives for a brief second and that you enjoyed it as much as we have enjoyed it.
