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| Two Became One |
A lot has happened since we were driving the 8 minute route between our parents’ houses to see one another as fast and as often as possible. I went to college a year before Billy since he was still a baby senior at BHS. We knew we wanted to be married, but our families preferred that we finished college first. I graduated in May 2008 with my bachelor’s in exercise sports science and Billy graduated in August 2008 with his bachelor’s in economics from Texas State University. Eat ‘em up ‘cats! We became one on May 17, 2008 in Buda, TX with many of our closest family & friends at that time. It’s always so perplexing to look back now and think how different our guest list would look if we had it to do over. It’s probably a good thing, though, since we would have just added many more guests to it! The week after our honeymoon in Riviera Maya, Mexico, I began Physical Therapy school at Texas State. The next 2 years were a blur. All I know is Billy cooked and cleaned a lot to keep me sane and able to memorize muscles, nerves, diagnoses, and red flags. Needless to say, I graduated this past May 14
th with my doctorate in physical therapy.
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| Jumping in the San Marcos River After Graduation |
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| A Kiss for the Graduate |
PT school aside, Billy and I fell absolutely in love with a church that we began spending our time with the year before we got married. A couple that we now refer to as friends/mentors (
The Bollingers) took us into their family, and began apprenticing us in marriage, family, and life in general. River Stone Community Church (meaning the people) are the reason we are in San Marcos for the long run. Our eyes were opened by the Holy Spirit as we heard teaching from scripture in Galatians about freedom in Christ. Jason preached straight through books of the bible to ensure that we understood the context of the scripture; something we had not experienced in our past church endeavors. This teaching along with prodding from the Holy Spirit, led Billy to a place of independent longing for knowledge of the Word. He has since preached 4 or 5 times himself this year! If you had asked me in high school if my curly haired, punk boy sweetheart would preach to large groups, I would have laughed! This goes to show that it was the work of a higher power...aka JESUS. HUGE side note: Billy was offered a position serving River Stone as Director of Finance & Communication. Saying YES was one of the best decisions of our life.
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| Reppin' RS at an Org Fair |
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| Our Wedding |
Let’s bring the two together, shall we? River Stone Community Church & my interest/pursuit of a professional degree in Physical Therapy. I guess it would also be important to note that Jason is on the board for a missions organization called Links International. Billy is now the office manager for Links USA. For more info on Links’ work for the Kingdom, go here
Links International. Long story VERY short, Jason heard at a Links board meeting that an organization called ICC (
International China Concern) had a need for physical therapists to work at orphanages for children with disabilities in China. For some reason, God used me to organize the trip. So, our team of 15 (3 PT students, 1 PT, 1 nurse, and others wishing to love on kids with Christ’s love) traveled across the globe to love on Chinese orphans for 2 weeks. Billy preached his first sermon about our time in China. If you are interested, listen to his podcast here (
China & The Suffering). While in China, Billy & I realized we could adopt a child with special needs. If there weren’t an age requirement of 30, we would have adopted two 7 year olds with cerebral palsy. I’m realizing that my calling to PT may be way beyond taking care of knees and hips. And our call as a family to adopt was heard loud and clear.
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| The little girl we support monthly in China |
So, I am now a licensed physical therapist. I interviewed with ONE company (thinking it would be for practice) and ended up taking my first job offer! I prayed and prayed for God to be VERY up front with me in choosing my place of work...because I would not see it as just a place of work. The clinic is in San Marcos, one of my top priorities, and serves children and their families with speech, occupational, and physical therapy. I am working alongside some wonderful therapists and learning so much. I don’t know why I ever doubted if it was the place for me. Not to mention, the new owners of the company send their employees to provide therapy to the nations. I was able to speak with the president of Cole (that ONE company) last Thursday regarding my contacts in China, Haiti & Mexico. Praise Jesus.
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| In our framed house |
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| Ours is the brown one. |
That brings us to now. We are just chilling in our little cottage with our various roommates (friends who randomly need a temporary place to stay) and living life! We love spending most days of the week with our Wolf Revolution friends eating at local San Marcos restaurants, floating the San Marcos River, dancing on the square and meeting tons of new people! We moved into our house in July 2009...after painting EVERY room a different color to match my BiBi’s paintings. We love exercising, watching movies on Netflix, eating ice cream and playing with our gassy Boxer, Marley Leon Tate Wells.
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| Our Family So Far |
Enjoy the novel!
Jessica Wells
That's a pretty good 1st blog!! It was sweet of you to include us in your story. We have loved every minute we have been a part of it! :) Can't wait to read more...
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