Levi and Mary Kay (Style Me)
Levi and Mary Kay’s shoot was magical. Like actually magical.
But at the end of the evening, I asked Mary Kay to send me a copy of their LOVE STORY, and the entire story brought me to tears. It was beyond magical. It was real, raw. Full of ups and downs, and full of life, full of emotion.
Give it a read. It will be totally worth your time!
Levi and Mary Kay 9-16-17
Our love story began in the summer if 2015. I was 21, he was 23. One Sunday in July we were introduced by a mutual friend at church. We spent the afternoon together along with my best friend and her potential boyfriend (he was the one who had invited Levi along, basically we were just 3rd and 4th wheeling it on our friends “getting to know each other” journey)
We really hit it off and became fast friends. I was in a season of complete contentment in my single hood and it didn’t even occur to me to look at him in anyway other than a friend. I do remember that I felt at ease with him from the first “hello” and could be completely myself. (He says the same thing) From then on, the four of us spent almost every weekend together.
After about three weeks I had to admit I was thinking of him as more than just a friend. And one weekend in the beginning of August it became obvious that I wasn’t the only one feeling that. He started pursuing me, I kept denying my feelings. I mean I had big plans and dreams for my future and it didn’t include a man! Not just yet anyway! But God had other plans, obviously. My best friend and I went to the beach for a week the end of August 2015.
Her man and Levi came down to join us for the weekend, and that’s when Levi asked me out! Of course I said yes. I couldn’t resist the shy terrified sweetness in Levi’s eyes. My best friend’s man asked her out that evening as well so we doubled on our first dates! It was the perfect beginning of our relationship. The first year was tough but also beautiful.
I had a lot of emotional baggage from past experiences and trust wasn’t something I could do very well. Levi’s calm, patient ways helped me cope and heal. Something he said to me early on always stuck with me, “I believe God brought us together and I know without a doubt that your the one for me.” I believed that too, deep down, but hearing him say it to me gave me the confidence that he truly wasn’t going to leave me.
I’m just going to pause here and say that our story is full of twists and turns, heartache and healing and God’s goodness and grace is so evident throughout it all that it brings tears to my eyes.
Four months after we started dating my best friend and I went to live in Florida for four months. Leaving Levi behind was so hard, but this was something we had planned before we both started dating so we decided to do it anyway! Best decision ever. We had such an amazing time! And Levi and I both learned that distance really does make the heart grow fonder. Summer of 2016 flew by, and the fall rolled around, bringing drama and heartache along with it.
Things happened that caused us to separate for about two weeks. No communication. Nothing. It was so hard but I knew the break would help us both. It did! And after two weeks were finally over we started going out again.
We decided to head to Florida for the winter months of 2017. I got a job and an apartment in Pinecraft. His job was in Pinecraft too, but he stayed in a place a little outside of town. We drove my car down and he had his motorcycle shipped down so that had his own transportation too. We spent a glorious week together, and then something happened that sent all our plans spinning.
Levi was in an accident on his way home fromm work. He was riding his motorcycle and a car turned in front of him, causing a head-on collision. His lower left leg caught to brunt of it and was crushed before he was thrown into the air. He landed on his butt on the sidewalk. (We know angels carried him) He stayed conscious until he got to the hospital and they put him under anesthesia.
He was the one who called me to let me know what happened, and I’ll never forget that phone call. I knew something was horribly wrong. (Call it a woman’s intuition.)
He said, “Oh it’s nothing much, I think I might’ve broken my leg pretty badly but I’m fine.” Long story short, but he was far for fine, the next month was spent in the hospital, in and out of surgeries, the ICU, PT and a whole heck of a lot of pain. Physical and mental.
The leg he thought he had “just broken” was actually crushed so badly (the ankle and foot) that they had to amputate his lower leg. Finally after weeks in the hospital he got to come home! We thought about going back home to PA but since all his doctors were there in Florida, we decided to stay. We got a place big enough to accommodate both of us and I moved in to take care of him. It didn’t take us long to realize we couldn’t return home in the spring and continue dating like normal, so we set a date and started planning our wedding!
But the actual proposal didn’t come right away.
We had lots of people back home that had been teasing us that we’ll come home from Florida engaged, so we both knew that’s not going to happen! We had no plans to get married just yet! Levi actually had a proposal planned out in his head for that fall which would’ve been the fall of 2017.
We both know we couldn’t get engaged in Florida without being teased mercilessly by our friends. And neither of us actually wanted to get engaged there. So I knew a proposal is coming when we got back home! But Levi wanted to surprise me somehow, and he knew I wanted to be surprised too, but he wasn’t sure how he’d get that accomplished.
He knew that once were back home it would be hard to surprise me because I was expecting it. So behind my back he bought a ring, called my dad and added his blessing, and planned it all out while we were still in Florida.
Finally one glorious day in May, Levi and I packed up and left Florida to come back home to Pennsylvania. I drove the first few hours and told Levi I want to drive until Georgia, then we can stop and fill up. He grinned and nodded. Apparently that was his plan all along, and it was going great! So once we got to Georgia, I found a cute little place, (just kidding it was a gas station with a subway) and we stopped to fill the car and ourselves.
I went in for food and came out to put it on the front seat of the car. I turned around to see what Levi was doing and there he was, on his knee, with a ring. My jaw dropped. I was speechless! It was the most romantic thing ever! Honestly, his thought and intentional planning was brilliant to me, in our situation, it truly was the most romantic thing.
He knew Georgia was my favorite state, and he also knew the only way to surprise me was to pop the question sometime between Florida and Pennsylvania!
We got married in September of 2017, four months after arriving back from our eventful trip. We are now approaching our second anniversary, and our fourth date-adversary.
It has been a wonderful few years, and our lives are back to normal and Levi is thriving!
Our uncle said to us on our wedding day, “What you went through is something nobody ever wants to experience. If you can get through that together, you can get through anything!”
With God’s help, we’re counting on doing just that!
(written by Mary Kay Stoltzfoos)
Levi and Mary Kay, thank you for sharing your story, and for being open and vulnerable with us!
Also thank you once again for allowing me to attempt to capture who you are as a couple. I was so humbled and honored to have this experience. You made my “bride on a boat” dreams come true! Thanks so much!
xoxo
Ash