The Story of Us – where it all began

It was 1999, and I had just moved to Tulsa. My sister, Haili, invited me to attend a Bible School graduation ceremony. She heard there would be a great speaker. That night, I walked in and sat next to a sweet lady named Shirley Egly. We chatted for a bit and I asked if she knew anything about the person who would be speaking that night. “Oh, it’s my son Ted!” She replied.

Her son walked out to the front of the room and my heart skipped a beat. Ted Egly. He really was a gifted communicator – and extremely handsome!

Ted and I chatted for a few minutes that first night and kept running into each other at different events over the next several months. The more I was around this guy, the more I liked him!  However, there was a problem. I had this “list” of several things a person “HAD TO BE” before I would consider dating them. One thing on that list was that the person HAD TO BE older than me. He was two years younger, and that was a deal-breaker.

I decided to set him up with my sister, Haili, who was also two years younger than me. For some reason, she thought of him as a brother and he saw her as a little sister, and they weren’t interested in dating. I thought Haili was CRAZY! “He’s PERFECT!” I told her.

“Then you date him,” she replied.

Hmmm…maybe I should consider breaking this rule on my “list.”

One afternoon, Ted invited Haili and I and some other friends to his house to play games. Haili couldn’t go, but I wouldn’t have missed it. That day I met Ted’s dad, sister, and mom (again). I later learned that Ted’s sister pulled his mom aside and said:

“Mom, I think that girl Kathryn is the one Ted is going to marry!”

Ted and I continued to see bump into each other or hang out on different occasions with a group of friends. In November 2000, we were both at the gym at the same time. I was working out with my sister, he was with his dad. He started running laps on the track, and I decided to join him. That night, he asked if I’d want to meet him later that week to go running at La Fortune Park in Tulsa. “Sure!” I answered (trying not to be too enthusiastic.)

How do you dress when your first date is to go RUNNING?

Do you wear makeup? (I wore a little.)

We met at the park and ran 6 miles together. I don’t usually run six miles. In fact, I’m not sure I had ever run 6 miles before that day or if I’ve run 6 straight miles since then, but it was that “first date” adrenaline and I mostly floated through the run. After that, we got some Mexican food and talked for hours.

From that very first date, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man, Ted Egly. I was crazy about him.

Thankfully, he felt the same way. On Valentine’s Day, 3 months later, he told me he loved me and wanted to talk about our future together. In June, we were engaged.

Click here to read the story of our engagement! 

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