Hello Friends,
Alex and I couldn’t be more excited to introduce you to two of our closest friends. We have known the Burgess family for several years now and we can truly say this is a family everyone needs to know. They love God, love each other, and parent well.
They have agreed to partner with A Beautiful Adventure Marriage by not only telling us their love story but also by writing a new reading plan about marriage and parenting. This plan will be live very soon, but we want to take some time and let you get to know them. Below is a little bit of their story.
Ashley and Tylar Burgess
My name is Ashley Burgess. My husband Tylar and I have been married almost 19 years but have been together going on 23 years. We have 3 teenage boys who are 14, 15, and 17 years old. I guess you could say we are the definition of high school sweethearts. Being a little older than him, I was in the 10th grade and he was in the 9th grade when we met. The story of how we met is really kind of cute, let me break it down for you.
How it Started
Summer’s end, 1999, it was late September and the temperatures were still sweltering hot that year. My parents decided to throw a pool party for their employees and their families. Having only one sister myself, I was very shy and awkward around boys at the time. My husband has 3 brothers, so when they all showed up and jumped in the pool and carried on as boys do, I pretty much tried to hide as much as possible.
We both have older siblings who knew we were around the same age and both too shy to function. So they took it upon themselves to do some match-making that night. They got us together in the house to play pool and when you’re in a room alone with a stranger, you’re kind of forced to talk or endure crazy, awkward silence, and nobody likes that!
He tells me now, that there was a moment when he walked into the room and saw me, when he said to himself, “I am not prepared for this.” He had seen me around school a couple of times and even at my home when his dad and mine would do things together. He would tag along but was always too shy to say anything. That night, as we played countless rounds of 8 ball, we started talking and didn’t stop until they said goodnight and drove off.
The Story Continues
That next Monday at school was the same as usual routine, until lunchtime. I walk in, get my tray, and as I’m walking to the drink machine, who do I see? That nice boy I talked to for hours just a couple of nights ago.
I hurry along to get right behind him and say “hey”. He doesn’t respond. I try a different phrase, “Well, look who it is.”. Nothing. I had my hands full of lunch items, so I did the only thing I could think of. I kicked him in the back of the leg and said, “Are you not going to talk to me now?” He told me some years ago that he was afraid to talk to me. At the time because he was under the impression that 9th-grade boys weren’t allowed to talk to 10th-grade girls. I say that’s crazy, but either way, we like to joke that I was the one who literally “kicked” off our relationship. That was 23 years ago and we don’t have any awkward silences anymore.
How It’s All Going
Over the last 23 years, life has happened. It’s happened a lot. We got married at 17 and 18. We had plans of going to college and getting degrees and doing everything the “right way” as the world would see it. But when life gives you choices and you’re 17 and 18 years old, you don’t always make the “right” ones. Maybe we didn’t finish the degrees that round (Tylar has since gone back and gotten his bachelor’s degree) or wait the appropriate years to start having children, but God is with you no matter the path you choose. It’s learning to discern His voice and His choice that has gotten us to where we are today.
We’ve made a few life and location changes over the years that have brought us to Oxford, Alabama. We can see now that every move was ordained by God. Tylar and I are very happily married and have 3 of the greatest boys. That’s not just our biased opinion, we are constantly being told how great our boys are.
Now we have a wonderful church home and more close friends than we’ve ever had before in our lives. We love a lot and laugh even more. We have seen and experienced the power of God and we all have faith in the power of prayer and the name of Jesus. Keeping God at the center has been the key to making it through the ups and downs that life will inevitably throw at us all, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
What’s Next
What an amazing story of two people who chose each other and God, and are continuing to do so 23 years later. Like Ashley said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” Their lives and the lives of their children are evidence that “it ain’t broke”.
We are so excited that the Burgess family agreed to share their story with us! Be sure to stick around for our next blog and video. The Burgess family will be back and we will be talking about the reading plan they have written for us talking about parenting and marriage- The Marriage Toolkit: Parent Edition.
Parents, you do not want to miss this!
In the meantime, check out our other two reading plans.
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