Josh and I met in Canfield, Arkansas ( a tiny town between Lewisville, Arkansas and Bradley, Arkansas; Yahoo Map it..lol) the summer of 1996, I was 13 & he was 16 almost 17. We were both couselors at the children's summer camp there, Camp Canfield, where both of our churches always had ours kids there the same week each summer. We didn't see each other, unless it was just by chance, throughout the year at all until the summer and every summer, I would go to camp and he would go to camp. He was the lifeguard there.
Each year, the only reason I would go was to see Josh, I KNOW, how wrong that is, but I'm being truthful! haha... The first time I saw him that first summer, I knew I would marry him. I told myself that, not really thinking it was true, but I said it. He has such a way of catching my eye that it's just magic. The camp always had "The Great War," which is a HUGE shaving cream fight and all the adults, except the referees, would park their vehicles in a circle as the boundary and have our lights on (b/c it was at night)on the last night of camp and I NEVER wanted any part of it so our tradition was that we sat in his truck and watched everyone and would talk. I don't know or remember how that started but I do know that even when he was dating another counselor one year at camp, we still kept this tradition..haha...I cherished that one week a year more than any of the other days.
We didn't start dating until July of 1999. My mom played match-maker and would talk with Josh and get info. from him and then talk w/ me and do the same and put two and two together herself and ended up giving Josh my phone number and mailing address behind my back.
So, naturally I was bummed like always after getting home and unpacking and thinking how I have to wait a whole year to see and even talk to Josh again. Oh and one thing, I didn't even know Magnolia, his hometown and where we live, existed so I couldn't go visit him b/c I didn't know any of his information at all other than he was fine and drove a fine white customized S10 pick-up truck. :) haha... Well, turns out that week after getting home from camp, I received a thick letter in the mail FROM JOSH!! OMG!! I read it, and I wish I still had it but I lost it when I moved to college, and it was amazing, like God wrote it Himself. See, I had a lot of bad relationships previously and so I had had it w/ boys and was waiting on THE MAN God had for me. My youth minister at the time had all the youth write a standards list of their Ultimate Mate that they would like and challenged us to STICK TO IT so I did. I dated a few guys after writing that and all fit 95% of the standards but never all of them. One even fit all but one! I took that as God's way of telling me to "be patient," which I'm not good at. So, back to the letter, while I was reading it, I dug out my standards list and compared it w/ what I knew of Josh and what he wrote and can you believe it, HE MET EVERY SINGLE STANDARD TO THE 'T!!!' WORD FOR WORD!!! I still have my standards list, in fact, it's in this scrapbook I made Josh that has a lot of our pictures in it. :)
I was beyond blown away at his letter and how too good to be true this seemed. It gets better...
HE CALLS ME NOT EVEN 10 MINUTES AFTER ME PUTTING HIS LETTER DOWN and we talked for HOURS on the phone, long distance; sorry mom! At that time, he was the Youth and Music Minister at a church in Bradley, Arkansas (the town that Canfield is halfway between; TINY TINY TOWN WITH ONE STOP LIGHT)and mom knew where it was and it was his last night there and he was going to sing, which is another thing that drew me to him, and so she thought it would be fun to surprise him and go see him! So we take off to Bradley, about 45 min. from Texarkana, where I'm from and lived at the time, and go and walk in and I will NEVER FORGET the look on his face when we walked in. It was like he saw a ghost and I felt like my heart was going to fall out of my chest it was beating so hard. So mom & I stayed and sat down and listened and all and afterwards, Josh and I talked and even took a picture. I can't remember if we ever asked each other out but from that night on, we were "Josh and Bekah". This picture below is our very first picture as "Josh and Bekah" (can't you sense the childlike awkwardness?? lol.. this picture makes me laugh every time!):
We dated all through my high school days, college days, were engaged July of 2004 (We got engaged in his mom's guest bedroom at 2am. I couldn't sleep at all after that!!) and were married December 11, 2004. Our precious Shelby Lynne was born June 12th (Read the "Birth Story" tab for all the details about her journey!)! lol... We're not a perfect couple, and never will be. We've had our rough patches but God always mended them. I have loved him for 18 years and that love has never changed. We have been together for 16 years; that is so unbelieveable to me to know that this man TRULY KNOWS EVERY PART of me and loves me. I am the luckiest woman in the world to have Josh Randall Kee as my one and only and as my husband. "What God has joined together, NO MAN WILL EVER separate..."
This is just the jist of our love story. There is so much more and so many more funny, heart-tugging, wonderful memories we've had but there are not enough hours in the day to tell them all.
Here's some of our pictures from over the years:
Josh's College Graduation, Dec. 2002
Christmas at his parents 2003
One summer at the lake
My high school Senior Prom, May 2001
Once there were 2 and then on June 12, 2009, we became parents!
October 2009
March 7, 2014 we completed our family w/ our precious baby boy!
Here we are now with our growing babies....
Christmas 2015
The book of Solomon really sums up my love for Josh but this specific verse really sticks out: "...I found the one my heart loves." Song of Solomon 3:4
