// Click here if you missed Part 1  + Part 2 + Part 3 of this series.

Five years ago, I woke up to my morning phone call from Josh. His voice was growing sweeter and more loving each day. But especially this morning on Valentine's day. He asked, "if I would be his Valentine" and then went on to say he had great plans for us later that afternoon. We talked about the rest of our day and he told me he would plan to pick me up after work around 5pm.

I remember wondering what I would wear. And feeling a little anxious for our first Valentine's day in Jacksonville. Our very first Valentine's day was in Graceville and we had only really been "dating" for a month or so. So we kept it pretty low key. And then we were long-distance for our second Valentine's day. So this was an exciting time to finally be together. I was living with four other girls at the time. Yes, four. So there was plenty of options for clothing.

When the time came for him to pick me up, I felt an anxious/excitement come over me. I had a feeling this was going to be a special date.

It was actually a pretty cold February this year, but we went out to the beach anyway. Josh had a red blanket that he laid down and then spread out rose petals all over it. Yes, quite the romantic. He picked up the guitar that we brought along and started singing "You are so beautiful..." it was very sweet. And funny, because he doesn't play the guitar.

After he serenaded me for awhile. He then had the great idea to build a sandcastle. I really laughed at this, but then humored him by joining in. I started getting suspicious when he began motioning for me to dig in a certain area where "the sand was really soft" (ok, I was suspicious when he laid the rose petals down, but this threw it over the top!) While digging I came to a shiny, glass bottle poking through the ground. I was nervous to pick it up at first, not knowing what was in it. But Josh was giving me that knowing smile and jokingly saying, "What is with these people and their litter??" I picked it up and saw the sweetest thing - a glass bottle with paper rolled up... a message in a bottle!!!

On the message was a sweet letter with the following,

Dear Cassidy,

Ye come seekin' treasure, aye? I have traveled many miles looking for my greatest treasure. It has taken many years waiting upon you my love. We have been through some rough seas, but our anchor has always been Jesus Christ. You are the greatest source of joy in my life besides the Lord. I love you and cherish our memories and look forward to the future! Today, tomorrow, forever I will love and cherish you. I have one last question to ask you...

When I looked up, he was on his knee (and so was I actually, from digging in the sand! haha) holding up a ring and asking me to marry him! I immediately said YES and hugged him (and maybe a little kiss or two, in there! ;) )

What a rush of emotions that day was. And they still come flooding back as I type this. Knowing you have finally found the person you will spend your life with is a great blessing. And I am still so so so grateful that he chose Valentine's Day as the day to do it. We get to celebrate our engagement day every year for the rest of our lives!

After he proposed, I flooded him with questions! Like...did you ask my dad?!?! And WHEN?! haha. He told me he drove down to see my family (two hours away) earlier that week. I could NOT believe that he found some way to sneak down there to ask them! I saw him and talked to him on the phone every single day. That was one of the most impressive things to me. We called our families and celebrated with them over the phone before heading to Carrabba's to eat dinner.

When we made it back to my house (full of girls!) it was a fun time announcing our engagement and showing off the ring! And lucky us, one of the girls had also gotten engaged recently and had these cute props for us to take a picture with!

This was a day I will never forget. And though it will probably be hard to ever top this Valentine's Day, we still enjoy celebrating the love we share for each other.

Four months (to the date) later on June 14, 2008... we became "Mr. and Mrs. Robinson."

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This concludes the "Meet the Robinson" series (for now, at least). I realized after starting this, that it was going to be hard to capture our entire relationship in a blog post. I left out a lot of great stories that I wanted to share. But hopefully I can continue to share our lives with you in this little space - one post at a time. ;) Thanks for reading along!

// Click here if you missed Part 1  + Part 2 of this series.

I woke up late that morning. Overslept and didn't hear my alarm (which is a common occurrence for me).

Luckily I made it in time to get a seat next to Josh's family and my mom who drove four hours to support him at his graduation (a sign that this relationship was getting pretty serious). When he walked across that stage, I knew it was a turning point in our relationship. My heart pounded as the applause rang out through the crowd. Goodbye to the days of spending nearly every single day with each other. And hello to Josh moving four and a half hours away to Jacksonville, Florida where he would take on his first full-time job as a student pastor.

This is when a lot of our relationship becomes a blur to me. Why?

Because things got CRAZY. And fast.

The semester before Josh was to graduate, we sat down and had a huge discussion about the future of our relationship. We knew it was inevitable that we would be separated soon. I still had three more years of college left at this point, and for a couple who both shared the love language of quality time, we knew this was going to be difficult to sustain for too long.

So, I prayed.

Got counseling.

And decided to graduate early.

So we only ended up spending 5 long months away from each other. The separation grew our relationship more than anything else. Hard? Incredibly. But we made it a priority to make several visits to see each other and we talked on the phone throughout the day (I would also like to point out that we dated in the days before texting and still managed to survive!) And like they say, "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and this was surely the case for us. :)

I took 19 hours in the fall and 21 hours in the spring to graduate in May 2007, with my AA in Music. Afterwards, I transferred to the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, FL where Josh was working. (You see? I am such a committed girlfriend!) God worked out a place for me to live and a job right away. It was a huge leap of faith (and some people questioned if my motives to be close to Josh were too premature) but it was one I was willing to take. I believed in our relationship that much.

While living in Jacksonville, we served together at our first full-time ministry - The Fellowship @ Celebration Baptist Church (now renamed FaithBridge Church)

God really gave me a desire and love for student ministry before I ever met Josh.

I tell people this all the time, but I never wanted to grow up and leave our youth group. During my teenage years, I grew so much spiritually thanks to a wonderful student pastor who challenged me to live out my faith daily. And when I was called into the ministry at 16, I began praying for my husband. That God would protect him, guard his heart and mind, and that we would serve Him together one day.

Those prayers were answered.

And over the next several months as Josh and I went on mission trips, put on retreats and served together in that first ministry, I knew I was serving beside my future husband.

The only question now was when would he pop the question?

(to be continued…)

// Click here if you missed Part 1 of this series.

He picked me up around 5:00pm sharp to take me to dinner before the football game. I remember walking out of my dorm building and seeing him leaning on the drivers side door of his light blue toyota camry. (I drove a toyota corolla. We were kindred spirits right away) Tall, dark and handsome. With the most perfect smile I had ever seen. As soon as I made my way over to his car, he had already walked around to the passenger side to open the door. I remember mentally taking note of this sweet act of chivalry (it didn't come too often those days!)

Once we were on the road, he made me feel comfortable right away. He asked me to call up one of his friends and leave a funny voice mail. Seriously? Yes. That is what he wanted me to do. So here I am, with Josh, on our first date and acting ridiculous on a voice mail to one of his buddies. I don't even remember what I said. But I remember thinking it wasn't very funny and I hope I didn't fail some sort of "test." But he laughed hysterically at me and I immediately relaxed knowing I had earned his approval. :)

The conversation flowed so easily from the drive to dinner. I wish I could remember all that we talked about, or what we ate (this is when Instagram would have come in handy!) but it's true that people won't always remember what you said or what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel. And I remember quite vividly how he made me feel that night. I felt at home.

We had a two hour drive to the football game after dinner. But it felt like 30 minutes. We talked the whole way. Josh even came up with the "question game" where we went back and forth asking a question that both of us had to answer. It was fun and we learned so much about each other on that short long drive.

I'd been around quite a few guys with wrong motives by this point in my life. And I could immediately tell two things about Josh - 1) He was completely sincere in wanting to get to know me for me and 2) I was pretty sure he didn't do this all the time.

And by this, I mean take girls out.

There was such a genuineness about him. That is probably my favorite thing about our first date. I felt like I was special, and not just another girl in a line of others he had wooed with his charm.

My second favorite thing about our date was how excited he was to see his students at the football game! And even greater, the fact that most of them were in the band. Ha! Not what I was expecting. But awesome, nonetheless!

It was at this football game that I realized he wasn't going into the ministry as a career. He was doing ministry with his life.

"Student pastor" may have been his title, but he was way more than that. He was their friend, he made them feel important. And he made me feel blessed just being there with him (things haven't changed much, let me tell you!)

After the game was over and we were walking back to his car, a funny thing happened. The temperature had dropped quite a bit, so I crossed my arms and rubbed them while mindlessly saying, "Ooh, it's cold." This was not intentional. I was not fishing for anything. But, oh dear, Josh totally thought I was. Yes he did. And he was going to do something about it. Next thing I know, I have his arm straight across my shoulders, while we are walking. The timing was just all off, so he kept banging his arm into my head. And I couldn't handle it. I just started cracking up. It was literally one of the most awkward moments ever (and we still laugh about it today!).

But apparently it wasn't awkward enough to keep us from going out on another date. And then another. And then before we knew it, we had spent nearly every day of the next two semesters together.

And then came time for Josh to graduate. 

(to be continued...)