You may remember this couple from the “Best Anniversary Video of 2013” that we recently shared on the site. Well, we wanted to get a chance to know the love story behind the couple. Be sure to check out their video if you haven’t already. They celebrated seven years of marriage this past September and have two kids (a girl and boy), ages six and eighteen months. This couple proves that if you face with challenges in a marriage, but when faced together, you can definitely come out victorious.

BMWK: So we want to know where your journey started and how the two of you got together?

Christina: Chris is laughing at me right now because I’m always the one that when people ask us that question, I have a mile-long story to tell about it. So I’m going to try to shorten that mile-long story right now.

Originally we met at Church in the choir. They asked if anyone had any prayer requests and so Chris stood up and said, “I’m on my way back to school. I want everybody to pray for me.”   And when I heard his voice, I kind of looked up and thought, “I never heard that voice before. Who is that?” Now, I don’t know if I left on purpose after him or not, I can’t remember. But we ended up bumping into each other in the hallway, and I said, “Oh, you know Brother Chris, I heard your prayer request and I’m going to keep you in prayer”. He thanked me and then we just started talking about school. Since he’s three years younger, I told him he could e-mail me if he ever needed any advice.  So I gave him my e-mail address, and to this day he’s like “Why you didn’t give me your phone number?” [laughs] Now that was in August of 2005. I didn’t hear from Christopher until…

Christopher: October or November.

Christina: So after several e-mail exchanges, he finally asked me for my number and we went out on the 16^th of December, and by the 18^th of December, we were a couple.  He said, “I want you to be my lady”. Those were his specific words. I will never forget it.

BMWK: How long were you dating before you got married?

Christopher: We had been dating for at least 10 [months].

Christina: We were dating from December ‘05, and got married in September ’06. Everybody was like “Oh, y’all got married so fast” and we had talked about getting married already, but we found out that we were expecting in August. So we were like “Hmmm. I guess it makes sense if we go ahead and get married”. So we got married in the next month, which was September of ’06.

BMWK: Is there a particular topic or article on BMWK that has really had a major impact on your marriage and relationship?

Christina: In all honesty, Christopher is the one that always comes to me with discussion topics that he’s read.

Christopher: Well there’s no one particular article that I have in mind, but I review all the articles and I really enjoy the articles like “These are five things that I bet your wife is thinking but doesn’t say” and vice versa. Or “These are five things to do to help keep the romance going in relationships”. So I always look at those articles to make sure that I’m doing what I’m supposed to do in the relationship. It just gives me a better understanding from her point of view because she can explain or say things to me, but I might not necessarily get it. I might have a better understanding coming from a different perspective. So really just all the articles, I use them collectively to help guide me as far as what I’m doing right, and in areas that I need improvements in.

BMWK: How would you say you guys have grown as a couple over the last seven years?

Christopher: We’ve grown tremendously. Obviously age plays a big role in that because at the time, we were very young.

Christina: Right, I was 25.

Christopher: I was only 22 at the time. With age comes maturity and a broader perspective of life in general. It was a period of growth and learning to respect each other more.

Christina: By me not growing up with my dad in the house, I was definitely protective over Chris when we got together. I would have jealous moments where he’d tell me he’s going out with college friends and two or three just happen to be ladies. That was another growing point for me too where I had to respect him as his own person. It’s okay to do things separately because you are still an individual. And I had to learn that.