Aaron Mark Powers. Our second-born and youngest “child”. Who, like our oldest, is such a light in our lives! Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves to believe that our kids turned out to be such amazing grown-ups. Especially considering the years when we survived solely on faith that our never-ending prayers would call our "kids" back from the place they were in to the place of God's purpose for their lives.
Aaron is the Youth Pastor at River City Community Church in San Antonio. He is married to a true-life angel, Breanna, and they have the most beautiful little girl, Abby, that ever graced the face of this earth (I promise that’s not a biased opinion). Why is Breanna a true-life angel? Because she came into Aaron’s life at his darkest hour, and to a large part, “saved” him. He was broken, and walking through some very difficult days. Breanna was actually Jason’s friend first. She interned at our church, and they became great friends before the rest of us got to meet her. I’ll tell you an amazing story tho about a time when we were at one of our Church's Women’s retreats. I had only met Breanna a time or two, but at this retreat, I had a surreal experience where I looked up and saw her, and the most definite KNOWING came over me that she was going to be my daughter-in-law. It really was surreal -- Like God was whispering a really cool secret to me because He couldn't wait for me to know! Later, I was standing behind her in a line, and I remember thinking, “I should get to know her because she’s going to be in our family.” But I had to assume that maybe it would be her and Jason who were to fall in love because she didn’t even know Aaron. Shortly thereafter, because mine and Bre’s offices were close together, we got a great idea to start a running program after work several days a week. She would come up and we would run. . .and talk. (I do remember telling her once that I had prayed that she would marry one of my children – either one would do, as long as it was one of them) She is a compassionate and trustworthy prayer warrior, and she became my confidante about the difficult experience Aaron was walking through. She admitted much later that it was during that time, hearing how Aaron was handling the most painful experience of his life, that she realized he was the one for her – even tho she didn’t even know him. God IS amazing !!!
The silver lining to those days was that Aaron’s broken heart turned back to the only One who could really heal him, and he decided to attend a college and career meeting at our church. After it was over, the whole group went to Starbucks, and guess who got to talking, and ended up getting kicked out hours later because it was past closing time??? Yep: Aaron and Breanna! Aaron called me like a little boy the next day, amazed that Bre stayed and talked to him all night -- just him and her. Of course, my heart skipped a beat and dared not even hope that this could be the beginning to the answer to my prayers! And sure enough, the friendship quite quickly became inseparable, and just shy of a year later, the first “right up there at the top” happiest events in our family happened when Breanna Cherry became Breanna Powers, and we felt like we got the daughter we always wanted!
An awesome and fitting sidenote about their wedding: It was that very day, that Jason’s eyes popped open to a young beautiful girl who had been interning at the church who says she had "admired" him for quite some time. Our Natalie. They look at Aaron & Breanna’s wedding as “the day” that they fell for each other and "their" life began. Is God faithful or what!!!!!!! Seriously. Natalie and Breanna are the gifts we are the most thankful for – every day we thank God for them – and we know that Jason and Aaron are the men they are today because of the awesomeness of these girls!
