Familia Hall Floreo Deus Gloria 

This is the story of BlueEyes and Blondee

      Blondee and I have written our story together.  When there is yellow type, BlueEyes is talking and when you see red, it is Blondee talking  

      Blondee and I have known each other every since we joined the same Mexico outreach team in the early part of 1996.  As the months went by our team met several times to prepare for our trip to Mexico.  It was over that time that our friendship first blossomed.  In addition to the team meetings, we also had some common friends, who I later learned were involved in a conspiracy for Blondee to get to be around me.  The primary culprit  being the one we call "Ang."
       "Ang" would often have a group of friends over to her house. Often BlueEyes and I were invited.  When I would hesitate about coming over "Ang" would tell me that BlueEyes would be there.  Needless to say, I would go over to her house.  I really wanted to be around BlueEyes and I liked him very much too.
     Our friendship soon became something a bit more than "just" friends.  Almost subconsciously at first we had started flirting with each other.  It was to the point were our friends would tease us about dating.  After some time had passed, we had a talk.  You see Blondee had broken up with a previous boy friend earlier that year, and had decided not to date anyone until January of 1997.  So when we had our little talk, we decided to be, just friends.  It was hard for a few days, but after that I was fine....or so I thought.
    I wasn't fine.  My emotions were doing flips.  The flirting wasn't totally subconscious.  ;)   Through this time my stubborn streak had gotten the better of me.  I really wanted to date BlueEyes but I didn't want to jump into another relationship right away... be my own woman... blah blah blah.  Or so I told myself.  I really really really liked BlueEyes and wanted to know him better than "friends."  So I conveniently became the "music holder" for BlueEyes because he was the musician for our Mexico team, just so that I could be close to him.
    When we left for Mexico in July, I thought we were just friends and everything was fine.  Looking back, I was probably more just aloof and out of touch with the situation.  About midway through our trip, I saw some what looked like date palm trees.  I made a really dumb wise crack about the girls on our team standing under the "date" tree so they could get a date.  To this Blondee said something about me asking her out in January.  At first I laughed it off as a joke, but she kept rambling on about how I could ask her out and maybe we could date in January.  Needless to say it brought up some issues in my mind that I thought were settled.  The rest of the trip Blondee vacillated between avoiding me and hanging around me.

Blondee and I after we had been dating a while, I was teasing her

      My run-on of the mouth got me in trouble.  I wanted to be honest with BlueEyes about how I felt but I totally didn't mean to go as far as I did.  I avoided BlueEyes because I didn't want to dig myself in deeper, I was avoiding how I felt about him and didn't want to jeopardize the friendship we had with my feelings for him.
    When we returned from Mexico, we had another of those talks and decided once again that it would be better to just remain friends.  In the months that followed it became more and more difficult as our feelings for each other became stronger and stronger.  We went through a cycle of push each other away, be friends, get closer, almost be dating and then go back to the beginning and start all over again, praying all the time for the Lord's will.
    Our friends helped facilitate BlueEyes and I being at the same get together.  We went through the fore mentioned cycle for a total of 4 to 5 months.
    Finally, in early October of 1996, I had enough.  I told her I was not waiting for her and I was going to seek out other people to go out on dates with.  Blondee seemed to take it pretty well. Or so it seemed.  Well at the time I felt pretty good about it.
    I didn't see this coming, but I knew that BlueEyes was his own person and I couldn't make him do what I wanted.  So I did my best to cover up the breaking of my heart while he was talking to me about this.  I felt like BlueEyes had broke up with me, even though we hadn't dated.  I tried to avoid him after that so that he wouldn't see the hurt that almost consumed me
    The following weekend was a wedding of a former roommate.  It was not until that day of that I learned that she was also going to be attending the wedding and the dance reception that was to follow.  The wedding was nice but there was a little tension between us, as only one person, a friend of ours, Violet, sat between us.  Later at the dance Blondee was dancing away, and I was feeling pretty low and wanting to leave but also wanting to dance at the same time.  Finally I got out on the dance floor and started having a good time.
    I was going to the wedding with some girl friends of mine, oblivious that BlueEyes would be there.  I felt dumb about that and wanted to back out of spending time with my friends.  But I pulled myself together and forged through with the evening.  I was fine through the wedding until it was over.  On the way to the reception, I broke down and sobbed to my friends.  I pulled myself together once more and avoided BlueEyes at the reception.  I tried to dance him out of my mind.  I finally started to enjoy myself.  Then BlueEyes joined the people on the dance floor, I tried to avoid him there too.
    Then the DJ played "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling,"  I lost it and left the room like a bullet out of a gun to go cry in the bathroom.  Then I walked the halls of the reception site to clear my mind and pass the time.  I so much wanted to leave but I had come there with friends so I couldn't leave until they did.  One of my friends Midlkid noticed me in the hallway and asked what was up. I told her what had happen the week before and that I still really wanted to date BlueEyes.  She told me that both BlueEyes and I would regret it if we didn't dance together and suggested that I ask him to dance.  I grew up with the notion that girls didn't ask guys to dance. So she told me that she was going to talk to BlueEyes.  I gave her the okay because I figured he wouldn't ask me to dance.
    Sometime later another mutual friend of ours, Midlkid, informed me that Blondee really wanted to dance with me, but did not want to ask me.  I did not believe her at first, but she finally coerced me into asking Blondee to dance.  I thought she would say no.  She said yes.   At first we started dancing at almost at arms length.  I was chatting like a magpie and avoided his wonderful blue eyes.  I came to a point where I just fell silent an began to melt.  When that dance was over, they started playing "Unchained Melodies" by the Righteous Brothers, and something came over me and I asked her to dance again, to which she said yes.  I had never danced with someone I had feelings for before.  Neither had I and wow what a rush of  "sappiness."  We literally melted into each other's arms.

        The St. Louis Gate Way Arch                     BlueEye's proposal           The ring

    The rest as they say is history.  A few weeks after the famous dance incident we started dating, "officially."  On our one year anniversary, I surprised Blondee by flying her to St. Louis Missouri, where I asked her to marry me at the top of the St. Louis Arch.  She said yes and we were married August 8, 1998.        

    Since then we have continued to strive toward our goals of serving Jesus and loving each other. We are not perfect, and yes, sometimes we do argue, but we love each other and with God's help we plan to stay together till death do us part.  Since our marriage we have had a vacation, lots of hard work and memories. May God keep us as we continue on in him.

    In September of 2000 we found out that we were pregnant and began excited preparations for this first addition to our family.  To our extreme sorrow we lost our baby as our world was turned upside down.  To read more about our experience regarding this matter please click here to go to our page on miscarriage.  

    God brought us through that time by his power and grace and with that we leave this tragic chapter behind and proceed to the next anticipation and hope.

    God has brought a new joy into our lives as we look forward to our first born in November! That's right, we are having a baby.  You can click here to hear Little BlueEyes' heart beat and see a first picture.  We praise God for the blessing and grace He has bestowed upon us in this child.  

    Much to our surprise, our little one showed up a whole month early! Our Little BlueEyes was born in October instead of November, what a surprise! Needless to say we are very blessed and very much are looking forward to raising this little one to love Jesus.

    In late September of 2002, I was playing with Little BlueEyes on the stairs in our home when Blondee emerged from the restroom and said "Well hello there baby boy, or should I say BIG BROTHER!"  That's right, we discovered that we are expecting our second* baby as God continues to bless our family!

Its a Boy!!

   With much anticipation Bright Eyes was born May 2, 2003 at 8:45pm.  We are so glad to have our little Bright Eyes with us and are excited about the things that God will do in Bright Eyes and through Bright Eyes.  

  As of this posting in December of 2004, Blondee and BlueEyes are expecting baby number 3!  Just before thanksgiving, we were able to hear our baby's heartbeat.  Click here to hear.   You can hear Blondee's heart beat mixed in periodically as well.

And the story continues...

*Note:  I am referring to this pregnancy as our second baby for ease of referral, however in actuality this will be our third