FRIENDSHIP

    Sonny and Angela met at Cornerstone Christian Church on Valentines Day, 1998, after Cornerstone's Revolution youth church meeting.  Sonny was a sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY while Angela was just beginning her student teaching assignment for her music education degree from the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY.
    The first common interest they shared that night was the music of Keith Green: a God-loving musician who died in the early 80's.  After "jamming" together on the piano at church, Sonny found out that Angela played the violin and jokingly asked her if she would like to join the band he was putting together.  To his surprise, she took the request seriously and showed up at the next rehearsal.  By the end of the first week, and after playing in the Battle of the Bands together, Sonny already had his eye on the funny new girl.
    Their friendship grew slowly over the next two and a half years through band rehearsals, breaking into each other's cars, Angela visiting Sonny while he was a co-op at General Electric, Schenectady, "Zone Trips" (adventurous road trips with our good friend Angela D.), studio recording, WRPI 91.5 radio shows, clubhouse building for the kids next door, random church events, youth group leadership meetings, voice mail wars, and lots of phone calls.  Throughout the months that followed, Sonny's interest in Angela grew more and more.  Angela also found that she had fallen in love with one of her best friends!  By mid-spring 2000, their friendship had grown so close that it became uncomfortable to proceed from there without defining where they were going.  The only problem was, neither person knew how the other really felt...

COURTSHIP

    Angela's mentor couple, Wayne & Michelle, had felt that the friendship had become very close and that the two were a little too attached to each other.  The analogy that was given to Angela was, "If Sonny were to announce to you today that he was going to get married to someone else, how would this change your friendship?  If what is acceptable now wouldn't be acceptable under those circumstances, then you may need to evaluate the direction of your friendship and decide to either back it off or proceed in a clearer direction."  Though the idea was first presented to Angela, they all agreed that the initiation of any discussion of the friendship should come from Sonny.  Wayne & Michelle had asked Angela for permission to confront her friend.
    A few weeks later, Wayne & Michelle had a talk with Sonny about the same things presented to Angela.  "Start praying about the direction you should take.  Are you going to back off or move forward?"  Ten days later, Sonny initiated a meeting with Angela to discuss ways to get their friendship on the right track (in order to honor God and each other).  After 45 minutes of discussing ways to cut back, Sonny finally had the nerve to ask,

   For this couple, courtship was defined as being a time when two people explore the possibility of a life together by sincerely seeking the will of God for their lives.  Should we get married?  Is it God's plan that we be together for the rest of our lives?  Do we each have the character and maturity to enter into marriage together?  Will it honor God and honor those around us if we get married?  Do we really want to get married?  Both of them really wanted to honor God and each other, their families and their friends, by guarding each other's hearts and not entering into a romantic or physical relationship without commitment.  It was also a challenging time: learning how to function in the specific roles of a relationship, learning to communicate more effectively, and really getting to know each other beyond the surface.  Many important issues were addressed over those seven months regarding their individual lives as well as their relationship together.  More about the specifics of their courtship is outlined in the "Your Courtship Can Start Here" portion of this web page.

ENGAGEMENT

    After eight months, Sonny's time at Rensselaer was winding up and Angela was preparing to have to say goodbye to Sonny when he left for the Navy in two months.  What she didn't know was that Sonny had been carefully planning every detail of a surprise proposal over the last few weeks.  The day before the planned proposal, Sonny's plans fell apart because the ring wouldn't arrive on time!  Thanks to the help of a crafty church staff member, Sonny was able to get Angela to come to church the next day, when the ring would be available.  Angela was slightly irritated when she found out that she had a meeting with the church staff member right in the middle of her day off and without a reason.  After twice trying to cancel the meeting, Angela showed up to a dark and empty church building at two o'clock that Saturday afternoon, and for some reason, Sonny's car was in the parking lot and the church door propped open.  Sonny nervously awaited inside.  Angela entered; Sonny sang a love song written just for her.  He handed her flowers.  He got down on his knees... and, well, the rest is history!
    Two months later, the two were married at the very place where they met, started their courtship, and got engaged.  They shared their very first kiss that night following the vows.