Kathy Oakes: [00:00:00] Oh, I looked at him in horror, in shock. Only shock at that moment because then he said, are you going to eat that? And I said, I’m sorry, what? And he reached over and he got the glog of mayonnaise covered lettuce, and he stuck it in his mouth and it was hanging out like it’s cole slaw. It’s hanging out of his mouth and I go.

You are the most repulsive person I have ever met in my life. And he said, y’all love it. Don’t you

Dawn Pruszkowski: love stories? Fill us with joy and inspire hope for the future. And a true life romance can remind us that sometimes just one spark is all it takes to change everything.

She’s a self-proclaimed army brat who grew up all over the south. He’s a Knoxville boy who was miraculously healed of [00:01:00] a bone disorder. Have you ever wondered if opposites really do attract. We’ll find out today. Welcome to Unexpected Love Stories. I’m your host, Don Pruski, and today I’m so thrilled to have precious friends with me, Jeff and Kathy Oaks, to share their love story.

You’re gonna enjoy this a lot. Kathy’s the founder of Greater Impact Realty in east Tennessee. It’s a real estate firm with five offices and more than 250 agents. She’s an award-winning leader, coach, an instructor who encourages people every day to live on purpose. Jeff is the founding pastor of Hosanna Fellowship in Johnson City, Tennessee, and he currently leads forward ministries, which equips pastors and missionaries all around the globe.

Hi Kathy. Hi Jeff. Hi. I’m so glad you guys are here.

Jeff Oakes: Good to see you.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Yay. You too. Alright, so I want you to take us back to the beginning before y’all ever met, and tell us about what life was [00:02:00] like for the two of you and were you expecting to find love soon?

Jeff Oakes: Ladies first.

Kathy Oakes: Good answer. So our story began in 1984.

Jeff Oakes: No, but before that, tell her about yourself. Before that.

Kathy Oakes: Did you Let me start?

Jeff Oakes: Okay.

Kathy Oakes: Our story began in 1984 when my father and mother had moved to Tennessee. I stayed back in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to finish high school, and I had moved a ton of times, 12 other times, and I was not moving again before I was out of school.

Now my father, precious as he is, called me in Alabama to say. Come on up to Tennessee. I have found you a husband and I said, very submissively. I would never marry anyone you picked out. Thank you so much. And that was the end of [00:03:00] that until I came up for Easter break and I walked in to

Jeff Oakes: church.

Kathy Oakes: Church. But what was the name of the church?

No. Well, Knoxville Christian Center. Knoxville Christian Center where my parents were attending church and. Jeff, my brother and I walked in and Jeff, this man right here who has on a nice blue polo shirt, he didn’t look like this. He walked in in a three piece plaid leisure suit.

Jeff Oakes: It was not a leisure suit.

It was not

Kathy Oakes: suit. There was, it was nothing leisure about that suit, let me tell you. It was a polyester blend from the late seventies and it was 1984 and I was this deep. So I was like, oh my, and then he said, hello, I’m Jeff Oakes and it’s great to meet you. And he. Stuck his hand right in front of us and my brother and I.

Now, mind you, this was right when PTL was at a peak. Okay? So PTL was a big deal, not,

Jeff Oakes: and [00:04:00] I didn’t watch PTL, so then

Kathy Oakes: my, well, he was a TV evangelist in the making. Let me tell you. So my brother looks at me, I look at my brother and we’re. This guy must be in like TV evangelism school because nobody talks like this.

Nobody dresses like this. Nobody acts like this. So when he walks up and he goes, hello, I’m Jeff Oaks and I wanna invite you to our youth group this week. We meet Sunday nights. We meet Wednesdays. Well, my brother and I are like looking at each other and I very. Graciously said

Jeff Oakes: graciously.

Kathy Oakes: Well, it will be a pretty long trip.

Jeff Oakes: Smugly said,

Kathy Oakes: we live in Alabama. He replied, that’s nothing. They come from the north, the south east, and the west. And David and I just walked. We were so stunned by this character. So we went to, we had church. After [00:05:00] church, we go to my parents. My parents are, we’re sitting around the Easter table and my dad says, well, what did you think?

And I said, what did I think about what? And he said, the guy, the guy I told you about. And I said, oh dad, I’m sorry I never met him today. He said, I saw you talking to him, and I went, you must have lost your mind if you think that I would marry a TV evangelist.

Jeff Oakes: And that’s probably true.

Kathy Oakes: This Saturday is our 39th wedding anniversary, so clearly my dad was onto something.

Jeff Oakes: He, he, he got it. That’s right. This Saturday. That’s right. March, Saturday, 21st. Yeah.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Yeah. So you met him while you were still in high school? Yeah,

Kathy Oakes: yeah,

Jeff Oakes: yeah.

Kathy Oakes: But I went back after that.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Mm-hmm.

Jeff Oakes: And

Dawn Pruszkowski: Jeff

Kathy Oakes: visiting,

Dawn Pruszkowski: were you, were you in high school or you were in college?

Jeff Oakes: I was a year out. I was in, I was at the University of Tennessee and, and, and [00:06:00] before that I had.

As you mentioned in the, in the introduction, I had had a real encounter with Jesus and, and so had gotten involved in, you know, different kind of children’s ministries, youth ministries and stuff, even as a teenager, uh, was really, you know, not, I, I had a, I had a direction that I was headed, but uh, wasn’t sure what it was gonna look like.

I, I didn’t plan on being a pastor. I wasn’t thinking about seminary or anything like that. As a matter of fact, I. Kind of ran from the idea of seminary, but I, I thought I might become a meteorologist. That was something I really wanted to do. But they got rid of the program at UT and I was too cheap to go somewhere where they actually had one.

My mom worked at the University of Tennessee, so in the hospital, so I got a, a, a real deep discount. So I decided to go to UT and ended up in earth airspace science education. So I was. I was, uh, training to be a, a, a secondary, uh, educator and specifically being a coach probably, [00:07:00] but teaching science and doing it.

And so I was also a part of this church was working with the youth group and it was one of my responsibilities to meet and greet all of the, uh, the perspective young people that came to the church on that Sunday morning. And I did meet Kathy and actually what was interesting, I didn’t remember her name.

But I remembered her face and, uh, and she was a cutie, that’s for sure. And so, um, uh, when she did come back to Tennessee after she graduated high school, she, her mother apparently made her come to the youth group meeting, and I, and I went up to greet her again. And when I came up and I said, Hey, how are you doing?

It’s good to have you here. Then I went, wait a second. You don’t wanna be met.

Kathy Oakes: But I didn’t remember him because when I, I did not remember his face. And in fact, he had on a polo shirt and a great tan in June when I met him. And he looked like a different person than he did in his, you know, TV [00:08:00] evangelism and training mode.

So when I met him, I was thinking, hi, this guy’s cute. And I said, hi. And he said, hi, it is, get rid of it. And he went, oh, she does not wanna be met. And I said. Well, that was so rude, and he said, ‘

Jeff Oakes: cause I remembered her from on Easter Sunday how she, how she, you know, was real smug in her response. So we had a, a rule of thumb at this youth ministry that we would actually.

Mock people, which I’m not saying we should do, but we, this is not, we mock people. This was horrible. So this was so, you know, it wasn’t like we were like, oh, we’re so glad to have you. No, we would mock them and, and, and, uh,

Kathy Oakes: this was not a seeker friendly group. And when you were not. Yeah. So I, first of all.

Had just literally moved to Tennessee a few days before I was gonna go to the University of Tennessee that fall. It’s a long story there, but I wound up there. But the crazy thing was he was just rude. And so then fast forward,

Jeff Oakes: well, so [00:09:00] then in that summertime, which was really interesting, and you might wanna ask us another question I’ll do, because we can get into the story.

I’m not sure, did we answer your first question?

Dawn Pruszkowski: Yes. You, you’re telling me what you were doing before you guys. Met, and you’ve told us now how you’ve met.

Jeff Oakes: Right.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Okay. So.

Kathy Oakes: Now you wanna know about

Dawn Pruszkowski: the how long, how, yeah. How did the connection happen?

Kathy Oakes: I think I’ll take that one.

Jeff Oakes: Well, and I’ll definitely correct it.

We have, we have two stories here. So anyway, go ahead.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Story A, let’s start with story A and then we’ll go to story.

Kathy Oakes: So during that summer,

Jeff Oakes: okay, judge and jury here is ex Exhibit A. Go ahead.

Kathy Oakes: The correct version of this story, I moved, my parents had, um, rented a house ’cause they had just moved to the area earlier that year.

Well, as God would have it not faith, they rented a house which [00:10:00] happened to be on his street, just a few, just a block over. So he didn’t know it. I didn’t know it as people at the church had volunteered him. He didn’t know it to come help us move. So we were now living up and down the street from one another.

So we were beginning to see each other more and more. The youth group had. Um, an outing to a waterpark. Now, we got on this bus. My mom made me go. I said, I’ll go be a leader now that I’m at a high school. Right? So I got on this bus and there’s, there’s something to note even all these years later. I always have a stash of cash.

Jeff never has a stash of cash.

Jeff Oakes: Now that is true. Uh, she’s right about that.

Kathy Oakes: So I get on the bus not knowing anybody in the city. Mind you, I, I’ve only been here two months and three months I guess at that point. I don’t know. Anyway, I didn’t know assault, right? So I’m sitting in my little seat. Jeff comes down the aisle at the [00:11:00] bus and.

Dawn, he looked like a character in a circus he had on a brown and peach.

Jeff Oakes: I was trying, I was trying to be silly for the young people.

Kathy Oakes: That’s what I was trying to do. No, his story has changed over the years. He had on plaid shorts and a striped tank top with a Hawaiian shirt over it all. Now, he said for years he did not until about two or three years after we were married, someone found a lost role of film and developed it, and there he was.

We were all in a group picture, and there he was exactly as how I described it. However, we. Caught. So he is now changed his story. So he was coming down the bus and he goes, he gets right in front of me and he pats his pockets and he goes, oh man, I forgot my wallet. And I said, oh. I reach over and I pulled out $20 and I said, do you need some cash?

And he said, I’ll find you later. I said, okay. So we [00:12:00] get to the waterpark and I’m laying out in the sun, you know, putting the tanning oil all over me, how we did in the eighties. And he

Jeff Oakes: not sunscreen. Right?

Kathy Oakes: Oh man. We were oiling it. We were oil in it. We were saying skin cancer comes on.

Dawn Pruszkowski: And ’cause I need to smell like coconuts.

Kathy Oakes: Yeah. In

Dawn Pruszkowski: the tropics.

Kathy Oakes: Yes. Not right. If I don’t and below around and I’m thinking, oh, he is totally flirting with me. He is to, he’s so into me and I’m, I’m thinking, you know. Mm-hmm. All of a sudden he says, so are you gonna eat or. And I said, I’m sorry, what? And he said, well, are you gonna eat? ’cause I’m hungry?

Well, I was like, well sure what? You know, like he wanted me to get up and go with him to the Snack shack thing at the water park so that I’d pay for his lunch. Okay, fine. So we go over to the snack sh. Now again, you mentioned I was raised in the deep south. [00:13:00] Now think about that. Seventies and eighties in the deep south.

We didn’t refrigerate things the same. We didn’t make things the same. So I was always taught back in the day, we did not order what we called mayonnaise on anything, because if you’re going to eat that, I don’t know how long that mayonnaise has been out. We could all dive salmonella by sundown, so I was not kidding.

So I ordered, could I get a chicken sandwich please with no mayonnaise on it? Well, they brought me the sandwich. We went and we sat down. Jeff ordered whatever he ordered. I never saw it. You

Jeff Oakes: think I ordered two

Kathy Oakes: sandwiches? Well, he ate it so fast I never saw

Jeff Oakes: it. Well, that’s true.

Kathy Oakes: I have no,

Jeff Oakes: but, well, I’m not, not, not because I ate it so fast.

You would just have to understand that it takes her forever to get the meal ready to eat that. That’s,

Kathy Oakes: and I’m glad that you started this podcast. We do. Opposites attract. So, yes. So I sat there and I discreetly, um, scraped the mayonnaise. Off of my sandwich into the paper. ’cause they did not prepare it properly and it had lettuce us all in it.

[00:14:00] And I just sat it off to the side. I started to take my first bite and I looked up and I was like, he had, he was done. He was done. He was completely done before I even got a bite in my mouth that I went. Now, mind you, I was raised very differently than Jeff.

Jeff Oakes: Uh, very, very much so. Yeah. And I,

Kathy Oakes: I would say we were a little more mannerly.

Is that

Jeff Oakes: safe to say you? I’ll say that she went to white gloves and party manners, and I don’t know that we had any manners in my house, so,

Kathy Oakes: so Jeff was what I would call Appalachian, and I was like. Wow. So anyway, I was so Stu stunned.

Jeff Oakes: No offensed, all the Appalachian viewers of this podcast, but we can identify,

Kathy Oakes: we live here.

So we obviously liked it. So I looked at him in horror, in shock. Only shock at that moment because then he said. Are you gonna eat [00:15:00] that? And I said, I’m sorry, what? And he reached over and he got the glob of mayonnaise covered lettuce, and he stuck it in his mouth and it was hanging out like it’s cole slaw.

It’s hanging out of his mouth and I go. You are the most repulsive person I have ever met in my life. And he said, y’all love it, don’t you?

Jeff Oakes: Because I knew, see, I knew I was pressing the envelope because I knew she was so prim and proper acting that she needed to bring down, and that’s exactly what I thought I was called to do.

So. Iron sharpening iron. That’s what we had.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Yes. So obviously you had not, didn’t know her mother well.

Jeff Oakes: Oh, no, no. I didn’t know her mother.

Kathy Oakes: In fact, the first time you

Jeff Oakes: walked, I don’t think I ever met. I don’t think I’d ever met your mom. Honestly. I’d met your father,

Kathy Oakes: but the first time you did walk into our home, he walked over to our refrigerator.

It’s [00:16:00] famous, this story. He That’s true. Opened our refrigerator, Mike. My mother said

Jeff Oakes: it was a habit. I, it was a bad habit. I admit it was a bad habit, but yeah, I just would do that.

Kathy Oakes: Don, he walked in and he opened,

Jeff Oakes: I do it here at my house right now. I just opened shut,

Kathy Oakes: shut up. This is our home. But he opened up a stranger’s refrigerator and he went, and my mother and I both leaned to see what he was doing, and my mother said.

Good God does he have no coo? And I said, I don’t think he even knows what that means. And you know, she thought he was a barbarian.

Jeff Oakes: That’s what she said. I was a barbarian.

Kathy Oakes: She would call him a barbarian. I know. Because he had no raisin or something. But yeah, I don’t even know. So eventually

Jeff Oakes: I paid, I paid you

Kathy Oakes: back.

He wanted to pay me back by taking me to lunch to pay me back.

Jeff Oakes: Right.

Kathy Oakes: At which time he told me he was fasting from women.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah. So then we’ll fast, fast forward, fast forward to when we’re walking through our neighborhood.

Kathy Oakes: Okay.

Jeff Oakes: And, uh, ’cause we [00:17:00] would, we would start, we started walking. And, and so then, uh, Kathy, Kathy was very bold and she said to me at that moment, what

Kathy Oakes: I said, when are we ever gonna go on a date?

Jeff Oakes: And then I, I retorted back when I asked you. And then I asked, then I said, what are you doing Friday night?

Kathy Oakes: And I said, I’m busy

Jeff Oakes: take that.

Kathy Oakes: And then he said, I said, what are you doing Saturday night?

Jeff Oakes: And, and I said, I’m busy.

Kathy Oakes: And we stood there like two stubborn mules on a road and I looked at him and said.

Well, I suppose that I can change my plans. I had no plans. I didn’t know anybody in this city. I didn’t have any plans. So we adjusted to Friday. I say we, that would be me. He shows up to pick me up. Back in the day we were gonna go to a movie.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah, back in those days, you had to actually [00:18:00] have a newspaper,

Kathy Oakes: newspaper to

Jeff Oakes: find out what was actually playing.

Kathy Oakes: So. A boy would pick you up to take you to a movie. You looked at the newspaper. You selected the movie. You went to the movie. So I had opened the newspaper. I was looking at the movies. He gets there now. There were many blockbuster hits in 1984. Might I tell you many Blockbuster, I dunno what

Jeff Oakes: they’re, but many Okay.

Kathy Oakes: Foot loose for one. I mean, I could think of all kinds of them. I mean, uh, Ghostbusters, I mean, there was all kinds of big hits in the eighties. I don’t

Jeff Oakes: wanna go see Ghostbusters.

Kathy Oakes: Well, clearly. So I said, I thought we could go see whatever it was, doesn’t matter at which point I said, and it starts at seven and I’m just looking all cute.

He says, and

Jeff Oakes: she was looking cute. She,

Kathy Oakes: he said, oh. I’m not going to that movie. I’m going to this other movie, but I guess it’s at the same time. We can just.

Jeff Oakes: But then what happens?

Dawn Pruszkowski: Go into your separate places,

Kathy Oakes: [00:19:00] separate

Dawn Pruszkowski: movie theaters,

Kathy Oakes: what kind of first date is this?

Jeff Oakes: But then tell what you heard from the background.

Kathy Oakes: So then from the other room, my father yelled, yes, the taming of the shrew.

Jeff Oakes: And I knew at that moment. That, that I was barking up the right tree

Kathy Oakes: and I knew I was doomed.

So I said, well, I don’t know that movie, but I suppose I can see it. Lucky for Jeff. I really like movies. So we went to the movie and we, being the only two people, we were the only two people in Tennessee I’m convinced, who paid money to see a movie about a runner who was a bed wetter. Now that was, that was a record breaker.

And if I could classify our relationship, I would say we have definitely [00:20:00] taken the road less travel.

Jeff Oakes: We have definitely,

Kathy Oakes: it set us up. It teed us up. Why do what the whole world is doing by seeing Footloose and Ghostbusters when we can see a runner who has a bedwetting problem.

Jeff Oakes: But he, he did really well in the Olympics.

Kathy Oakes: Yes, he did.

Dawn Pruszkowski: I think I remember that movie actually.

Kathy Oakes: So one day, Dawn, after that, a couple of months later, we were on another walk and Jeff leaned into Kiss Me. And when

Dawn Pruszkowski: you’re like, no,

Kathy Oakes: no, no, no. I’ll

Dawn Pruszkowski: tell you the time to do it.

Kathy Oakes: Oh, no, no. I love kissing. So I leaned right on in. But when he kissed me, I literally lost my balance. I, I took a step backwards and thought, oh my gosh, I think I’m gonna like fall [00:21:00] back.

I’m, I felt weak in the knees, and I know that’s the most ridiculous thing ever, but. I was like. This guy is the guy now, three months before, during all of this, the Lord had already said Jeff Oaks, as your husband woke me up, told me, I said, I don’t think so. Keep looking.

Jeff Oakes: And I had the same experience. It was a weird, I mean, around the

Kathy Oakes: same time,

Jeff Oakes: yeah, it was really very closely.

And, uh, maybe this maybe the same time, I don’t know. But it was really, uh, I had that same thing and I laughed, uh, because I was praying. I said, Lord, who am I supposed to marry? And, and he said, you’re gonna marry Kathy Oats. Kathy Glasgow and I, and I laughed out loud and I said, oh gosh, I don’t think so, because we were so different.

She was beautiful and she was magnanimous, her outgoing personality was very attractive, needless to say, I, I love being around her. She was always, and it still is. I say she’s the kindest person. That I know. And I, and I don’t, I I really mean that. That’s [00:22:00] so

Dawn Pruszkowski: sweet.

Jeff Oakes: But she is, she’s the kindest person I’ve ever met, and, and she’s also a, an exhorter by.

By motivation. So she loves to exhort people and to encourage them and, and I think coming from,

Kathy Oakes: so to live with a curmudgeon,

Jeff Oakes: well, it’s really been, it saved my life. By the grace of God, he sent me the right person to do.

Kathy Oakes: I just have to cheer him off, you know?

Jeff Oakes: So. But we’ve definitely, oh my

Dawn Pruszkowski: gosh,

Jeff Oakes: we’ve definitely had some challenges in our, in our walk and becoming, that’s for sure. So

Kathy Oakes: yes. I don’t know that, have we become,

Jeff Oakes: no, I, but I mean, we’re still 39 years into

Kathy Oakes: it and we’re just practicing right now. Yeah. And then three years, well, two years later.

Jeff Oakes: A year and a half

Kathy Oakes: later, it was two years later,

Jeff Oakes: a year and a half later,

Kathy Oakes: there was a thing called Haley’s Comet.

It was happening in the Earth and everyone was super excited about it. And Jeff being an Earth Air space science [00:23:00] person was like, let’s go out and watch Haley’s Comet. And so I said, okay, great. So when he came to pick me up, my mother ran through and yelled something like. Take a picture or something, something.

And I was thinking, I don’t think we can get a good picture of Hailey’s comment.

Jeff Oakes: In the meanwhile, I started working for her mother, which was really an interesting thing. So I was working for her mother, uh, and uh, and so she said I’d made a bunch of mistakes that day, which, because I’d already had a conversation with Kathy’s father, who is a military veteran.

He served three tours in Vietnam and the day that I went, uh, wanted to talk to him, he was cleaning his guns. On

Kathy Oakes: purpose

Jeff Oakes: pointed at me

Kathy Oakes: even though he picked him.

Jeff Oakes: So, uh, anyway, so that was kind of, uh, how, how that all went down. And so then, uh, I asked, you know, for her to maybe let’s go out afterwards. And so I had a place that I had been praying about us and [00:24:00] about whether we should be married and.

And so I asked her to go and I had, I had always had this one song that I wanted to sing or not sing, but I wanted to play for the person

Kathy Oakes: Since you were like 14?

Jeff Oakes: Yeah, since I really got saved, uh, wanted to play for my bride to be, and I had it on the tape. I had it ready to go.

Kathy Oakes: Were you about 21 at the time?

Jeff Oakes: Is

Kathy Oakes: that about right? Yeah,

Jeff Oakes: it was in 86. Yeah. So yeah, I was 21. Um, and so I had, I had it in the tape player. I pushed it in the tape player, and dawn, you won’t believe it,

Kathy Oakes: but well wait, wait. We pulled up to this church parking lot that looked out over the lake. It’s, it was beautiful. The moonlight was perfect.

There was a streetlight not far away. I just need to get you to get the mood. Absolutely.

Jeff Oakes: She had been working all day. I would wait until

Kathy Oakes: she got off work and so I, it was just a beautiful evening looking out at the water

Dawn Pruszkowski: and you’ve seen, have you seen the Comet now?

Kathy Oakes: No,

Jeff Oakes: no, we didn’t. Oh,

Dawn Pruszkowski: okay.

Jeff Oakes: We didn’t see [00:25:00] the comment.

We never did. Yeah. No, no. But that wasn’t the purpose of the evening anyway, so anyway, so, uh, I, uh, I, I, I pushed, I said there’s, there’s a song that I wanted to play for you if, if, um, I’m gonna play it for you right now, if that’s okay. And I pushed it in and,

Kathy Oakes: and this is tape player days. Of course.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah. It was a cassette tape player.

And you know how sometimes, and you, you never knew when it was gonna happen. The tape player just decided to eat the tape, and literally the tape starts coming out of the, the tape player. I mean, it could, could it have been any, I’m sorry. Could it have been any crazier? I don’t know. But anyway, I was like, you gotta be kidding me, so and so, but I was really committed to this point, so I ended up having to sing the song to her.

Which I guess in the end was,

Kathy Oakes: was

Jeff Oakes: more perfect, was probably the Lord, the Lord’s per his, his sense of humor about the whole thing. Anyway, so it’s

Kathy Oakes: true.

Jeff Oakes: Anyway, I sang to her and I wept through [00:26:00] the singing, and then I, he

Kathy Oakes: wept. Oh, it was precious.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah. And then I asked her if she would marry me, and I didn’t have a ring, but I asked her if she would marry me, and of course she, she just laughed.

She laughed.

Kathy Oakes: But I laugh. I’m a funny person, so I was like, he said, was that a yes? No, he’s crying over here. Now, our children say to this day, I mean Jeff is definitely the crier. Between us, I am definitely gonna laugh at inappropriate times and you are definitely gonna cry at inappropriate times

Jeff Oakes: or at the right time.

Kathy Oakes: I dunno, is there one

Jeff Oakes: sometimes at the right time? But anyway, so she said yes, yes. And then she wanted to go tell everybody. And I was like, well, can we just say her the moment? Can we sit here in

Kathy Oakes: this moment?

Jeff Oakes: Can we just,

Kathy Oakes: you know, he’s trying to have a romantic experience. And I’m like, let’s go tell all our friends.

And he was like, can we just sit here and absorb this magnitude? And I was like, sure.

Jeff Oakes: And then I was like, [00:27:00] alright, let’s go.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Okay. I have to ask, what was the song?

Kathy Oakes: Do you

Dawn Pruszkowski: remember?

Kathy Oakes: Yeah.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah. Well, I mean, I, the title of the song I Like Me, I think is the title of the

Kathy Oakes: song. It’s like Me’s, it’s My Sweet Comfort van.

Jeff Oakes: Sweet Comfort van. So

Kathy Oakes: it’s, mm-hmm. It’s Marry Me. If you type in Sweet Comfort Van Song, marry me.

Jeff Oakes: As It Marry Me. Okay. But

Kathy Oakes: I think it’s, well, but it comes up. It may be like me,

Jeff Oakes: I think the title of the song is Like Me.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Okay,

Kathy Oakes: so, and actually we, um,

Jeff Oakes: and IS you know, and I sing it every now and again to her, especially on that.

And

Kathy Oakes: again, our kids love it. You know, he’ll sing it. I could jump in. He sang it to me at our 25th wedding anniversary party and everybody was like, what is happening right now? We’re like, oh, it’s just another Tuesday, Jeff. We’re gonna sing to each other. That’s,

Jeff Oakes: yeah, we, we always like musicals,

Kathy Oakes: so we were fine.

We’re, we break out into, you know, we, how did two extroverts live with each other? We had a famous author come to see us once and she said, Kathy, she was at our home group one night and she was in town for something. She got to [00:28:00] come and it was wonderful, but she said, Kathy, you are a star. And I said, thank you so much.

She said, but Jeff. You’re a Galaxy, and Jeff said, really,

it has been the truth of our

Jeff Oakes: That’s not true. That’s not true.

Kathy Oakes: Oh, it’s very true. It’s very true.

Jeff Oakes: I mean,

Kathy Oakes: year one year later, March 21st, 1987, we got married in front of 200 ish people in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the

Dawn Pruszkowski: hood.

Kathy Oakes: In a beautiful church

Dawn Pruszkowski: in the book

Kathy Oakes: and yeah, downtown Knoxville. It wasn’t a great area at the time, but it was very pretty building.

But we had a, we had a very beautiful southern. Wedding thanks to my mother, meaning, you know, just lovely every lots of flowers and just all the things, the, the quintessential what a, what a woman would’ve wanted at us, a wedding.

Jeff Oakes: But all the bridesmaids got [00:29:00] robbed at the wedding.

Kathy Oakes: But during the wedding,

Dawn Pruszkowski: what, what

Kathy Oakes: the church was broken into, while we were all up in the middle of our nuptials and they came in the room where the bridesmaids were and they took all the bridesmaids belong, uh, money out of their bags.

Yeah, it was terrible. We felt terrible.

Jeff Oakes: Uh, you know, I, I, I tell people, you know, when they have a difficult start, you know, I say, well, it sounds to me like it’s a, it’s a kingdom. It’s a kingdom. Covenant is what it sounds like to me. Because sometimes, you know, when you make decisions, you know, the enemy doesn’t like it.

And I think. There’s just been so many things that, you know, we, uh, have, you know, had to face that you go really, seriously, this is kind of ridiculous. But the fact is, I mean,

Kathy Oakes: and we make it look fun, but it hasn’t always been fun.

Jeff Oakes: No, not but it, but it’s been, been, it has been an adventure, that’s for sure.

Kathy Oakes: Well, no one will deny that.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah. So.

Announcer: How do you know when you’re falling in love? [00:30:00] Join us for the Love Unexpected podcast. This true life romantic journey dives into the whirlwind story of how one woman’s life miraculously transformed leading her across the sea, where she discovered the love she didn’t expect. Listen now on your favorite podcast platform.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Oh my gosh. So you had a beautiful wedding. Yes. Despite, yes. The break in and the theft.

Kathy Oakes: Absolutely.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah, absolutely.

Dawn Pruszkowski: And so and so, um, any other special memories from your wedding, or should we skip right to the honeymoon?

Kathy Oakes: Really our honeymoon was pretty, I mean, nothing, we didn’t roll in sand bugs. We didn’t anything.

We, uh, it actually stormed and we

Jeff Oakes: were well, and it was March and you know, get us like this. Never know. Were like, we were thinking we were gonna go to the beach. We went to Hilton Head.

Kathy Oakes: We only had spring break. Jeff [00:31:00] wasn’t done with college yet.

Jeff Oakes: Right? So we got married and had our honeymoon over spring break.

Kathy Oakes: So we actually came home early

Jeff Oakes: from

Kathy Oakes: our honeymoon. It

Jeff Oakes: was cold. I mean, because we went to Hilton Head

Kathy Oakes: and you know what? We wanted to open all our presents. Yeah, I can’t even make this up. We want, so we snuck in our mom, my mom’s house in the middle of the night, late at night, one night, came home from our honeymoon, snuck in my mom’s house, and we were in my bedroom.

Mom had put all the presents in there. We were opening all the presents, and my parents like ran out to shoot us and we were like, don’t shoot, we just wanted to see all our stuff.

Jeff Oakes: Well, you know, at the wedding, I, I tell you, her parents really did bless us with a, a wonderful reception. Of course, my parents did the.

Rehearsal dinner. But in those days, you know, receptions were more like, you know, cake, cake punch, and mint. You know, they’re nuts.

Kathy Oakes: Mm-hmm.

Jeff Oakes: And so, uh, they actually put on a beautiful, beautiful reception, you know, and our pastor. Was a, he was a born again Jewish guy and he, he said, guys, this is the best [00:32:00] gentile wedding I’ve ever been to.

And so food to eat and stuff like that, so,

Kathy Oakes: and we were like, wow. High praise. Yeah,

Jeff Oakes: exactly.

Kathy Oakes: High praise right there.

Jeff Oakes: But, uh, yeah, great. I

Kathy Oakes: think, and it was at a really beautiful hotel and the,

Jeff Oakes: I think at the ti in retrospect, I think I would. I would, I wish that I could have told myself to enjoy the day a little bit better, you know, like Uhhuh not to be in a hurry and, and probably have changed my plans because I’m, once I make a plan, it’s, you know, my tendency is to stick with the plan as opposed to, uh, being, you know, free flowing.

And, and

Kathy Oakes: I think you’re

Jeff Oakes: more of a watercolorist.

Kathy Oakes: I, I can be. So, I was gonna say, and I, you know, people, we, we have told people this over the years, like, what would you do differently? And I, there’s not a thing. I loved my wedding. Thought it was one even getting robbed. It’s part of the story. There’s nothing that I’m sad or wish I’d done differently, but, um, I woke up the morning of my wedding and I enjoyed every moment.

I [00:33:00] just enjoyed every person I looked at every face. I took it. I drank in every second of that day. And when I literally drove through a ch, a chicken sandwich place that I loved a chicken back to the chicken sandwiches, the ch some chicken place, ’cause I’m from the south. Honey, if you can fry that chicken, eat it.

So I drove through someplace with my veil on my head and said, I’m getting married today. And they said, free chicken sandwich for you. And I said, Bravo. And you know, I just enjoyed it all. I just, I, I was very present and I enjoyed that.

Jeff Oakes: Our wedding party actually did us a number.

Kathy Oakes: Let’s not tell that that’s too long.

Jeff Oakes: Okay. All right. We won’t, but it was, it started the day off pretty difficult

Kathy Oakes: for you?

Jeff Oakes: Yeah. And for her, you too.

Kathy Oakes: Well,

Jeff Oakes: they stole our tires, but that’s whole nother story

Kathy Oakes: and swapped them and took them all over town and we had to get people to go get our tires. That was just not

Jeff Oakes: with friends like that, who needs enemies.

Right.

Kathy Oakes: Exactly.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Oh my gosh. I love it. [00:34:00] So then you guys started off your life together.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Um, how, how did things begin to change quickly now that you are living under the same roof? Um, life is changing. I, I, Jeff and you graduated. I know you guys moved from Knoxville to Morristown.

Kathy Oakes: I would say

Dawn Pruszkowski: how, how did things change and grow and

Kathy Oakes: yeah, I would say in 1987 I was a professional changer.

Right. I, that was 13 schools with college at that point. So many homes, lots of moving. When I met Jeff Oaks, he literally lived in the house. He came from the, came home from the Hospital Inn. In all of my life, I had never met a soul who had that experience. So it was like he was from another [00:35:00] planet. When I met his grandmother, she said, who your people?

Well, that is not a complete sentence. There is no syntac connecting that, those words who your people. And I was like, like your people. Call my people. I mean. I was not tracking at all. So we came from the most different worlds that you could come from. So for me it was just an adventure. We got an apartment, we only stayed a few months ’cause then Jeff took another job or took a job.

You were in your last semester. But we went ahead and moved to Morristown, Tennessee where we went wound up living in someone’s basement while we looked for a house. So we had a little moment in an apartment, which was a lot of fun.

Announcer: Two months. Yeah.

Kathy Oakes: And then we moved in somebody’s basement who had three little girls who loved to come down and visit us.

Well, good thing we’re social, but that was a little awkward. And then we finally bought, we bought our first home and that was a good decision.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah,

Kathy Oakes: that was a good decision. We have looked back and said, you [00:36:00] know, we were so not bright, but that

Jeff Oakes: was a good decision. Well, and we didn’t make a lot of money working.

In the, in the church world, as I’m sure you, you know, uh, Don. So anyway, we, uh, we didn’t have, we didn’t have a big salary or anything like that, but that’s okay. I went on as a youth, I went on as the youth pastor first and then, uh, later, uh, once I had finished school, ’cause I had another, we didn’t do semesters, but once I finished in December, I started teaching in the, in the Christian.

Christian Day school,

Kathy Oakes: and I’m pretty sure our entire home was as big as this room. Uh oh.

Jeff Oakes: No,

Kathy Oakes: I think we paid $42,000 for it. We

Jeff Oakes: did

Kathy Oakes: with an FHA loan. It was

Jeff Oakes: a 50 square feet on the top. 1,050.

Kathy Oakes: It was actually, I don’t think it was that big, but Sure. Okay.

Jeff Oakes: It was. But as far as the interest rates, you know, people argue about interest rates today.

We had a great rate at 9%.

Kathy Oakes: No, no, we were 11.9.

Jeff Oakes: No, we were at nine. But the more the other people were having to pay 11%. So we got,

Kathy Oakes: and [00:37:00] about a year after that, um. Was it about a year? Yeah, about a year after that. Um, I was surprised with getting pregnant with our first child, and then about six months after she was born, I was surprised with getting pregnant with our second child.

And about a year and a half after that, I was surprised again. Now, at some point you’d think I would wane in surprising, but No. No. And then the third and then the fourth. So we had. Four children in four years. Technically just under five years. Yeah,

Jeff Oakes: under five years.

Kathy Oakes: Bethany was still four when Jeffrey was born, and she turned it a few weeks later.

So that was a, we stressful. Now we don’t advise that to people.

Jeff Oakes: No, but that was, you know, basically those first five years of marriage was a lot of, a lot of shifting and a lot of change that

Kathy Oakes: Yes, he changed houses a couple

Jeff Oakes: of times. We couldn’t, that we couldn’t, you know, that we. I wasn’t used to. I mean, and yet at the same time, our finances, you know, Kathy was [00:38:00] working.

Now she’s not work. I mean, she’s stay at home working. So she was working at home and uh, you know, it was, it was, it was not easy by any stretch of the imagination. So we

Kathy Oakes: were, I had never babysat. I had never thought of, oh, I’m gonna grow up and have babies. In fact, in high school, they used to do these predictions for people.

And the prediction for me was that I would be the first woman talk show host. ’cause back then there had not been a Sally, Jesse, Raphael, no, Oprah, right? So they said, oh, Kathy, you will be the first woman talk show host. And the last one to get married. And I came to my 10 year reunion living in Tennessee with four babies and a husband, and they said.

Do you listen to country music? I mean, it was, it was a thing.

Jeff Oakes: And do you wear shoes?

Kathy Oakes: Do you wear shoes? Somebody did ask that. They thought maybe I did wear shoes,

Jeff Oakes: and she was barefoot and pregnant the entire time that she outta high

Kathy Oakes: offended. I was so offended. I was so offended. So when, that was a big change for me to change my.

The DNA of how my, my mind worked and we [00:39:00] look back and Jeff was with a, a church that he worked a whole lot and the demand that was expected, I maybe not, demand is not the right word. The well, the expectation. The

Jeff Oakes: expectation

Kathy Oakes: mm-hmm. Of what the, that you, you work all day, but then you go to all. Meetings and you wear a suit and you do all the things.

And it was just a different era of life. And it was a different world. And so it was, it was too much. And we look back and I go, that is definitely, you asked, um, about the seasons of our marriage, I would say. Um, I, I was in bed rest with Jeffrey for 11 and a half weeks. It was just a terrible season and.

One thing after another health wise. But we look back and because of Jeff’s level of responsibility, but also the expectations he was under, he felt like he had to be there versus here. And I felt that abandonment and that resulted in a whole lot of having to re, we had to do a lot of [00:40:00] repair work after that, you know?

Mm-hmm. Instead of, um, yeah. So that was probably the hardest. Season at first.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah. I mean, the one was hard then the, then the, the, the results of that was pretty hard after that. Plus we were, we moved again and we had moved to a city that we knew nobody and, and, and started a church. Uh, so, you know, we were nine years on staff, uh, there at the church in Morristown.

And then we went and planted Hosanna and I think it was during. That season, which was in many ways, uh, the grace of God because Uhhuh, not a whole lot of people were coming. And at the same time, uh, you know, we were having just to trust the Lord, but it was a, a time for me to be really present for my kids.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Mm-hmm.

Jeff Oakes: Uh, and so Kathy worked and sh you know, she was doing. Odd jobs. Kathy’s always been very resourceful about, uh, things and has always been really good at sales. Uh, it was [00:41:00] really, uh, after we moved, it was probably seven, seven years later that she actually started in real estate, but, but she was always really good in salesmanship and.

You know, she could always turn, uh, you know, turn, turn a dollar. So she was, she was doing selling, selling perfume of all things. So, uh, and did a, did a tremendous job. But at the same time, it was a real opportunity for us to work on our relationship in those years and. And,

Kathy Oakes: and for you to really get to have more time with your children, which it’s funny because kids don’t remember being little and those, those difficult, they just think, you know, oh, he is always, you know, he’s the.

He’s always been there.

Jeff Oakes: I’m in all the pictures.

Kathy Oakes: He’s in all the pictures, and that’s what we say. You know, women don’t like their image. They don’t want their picture taken the moms or whatever. And I said, hold on a second. I just realized, I think it was around that same time, wasn’t it, that I said had the [00:42:00] epiphany that I had created everybody’s memories and I was nowhere in them.

Because I was just orchestrating them for everyone else. I was the, I was the background. And even as we joke with our children and they’re like, oh dad, do you remember that time in the pool, that blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, the pool that you got out and put on the fresh towel and then came up and ate that meal that I just made for you, or the one that you.

Through that house. And so all the things that I did, they don’t remember, but they see the pictures and they’re like, dad, dad, dad. And so at first, when I was in a more broken season, that really bothered me. And then I realized that was a wonderful gift I gave my children. And that ha, I could rob them of that for the sake of my own wound.

But what, what good is that? On the other hand, to this day, thankfully they’re very close to both of us and you know, it wasn’t like they were traumatized.

Jeff Oakes: Well, and they’ve all followed her into her business so

Kathy Oakes: Well, you know,

Dawn Pruszkowski: [00:43:00] now they wanna be with mom all the time.

Jeff Oakes: Exactly. So

Kathy Oakes: I am the fun. I am fine.

Jeff Oakes: But anyway.

Aw,

Dawn Pruszkowski: that’s so great. Okay. Well, looking back at your journey together, what’s just one piece of advice or wisdom that you could share with people who want to find a kind of love like you have or are struggling with? Wait a second. I feel like that’s him. That’s her, but we’re nothing alike.

Jeff Oakes: Yeah, I, you know, I think, I think that is a big challenge, especially having pastored a lot of young adults who are looking for, I, I think one, one thing list.

Yeah. I think

Kathy Oakes: this generation man, in their

Jeff Oakes: list, I think we’ve gotta be careful about our expectations, number one. I mean, if, if Kathy’s expectation was somebody that was, you know, uh, refined, uh, GQ ish. Kind of person. We would’ve never, we would’ve never been able, because I [00:44:00] wouldn’t have met those expectations.

And, and I think if anybody had a list person, yeah. If anybody had a list, I had the list. And so I had, there were things that, you know, I mean, you know, she, she joked a long time, well, I’m not a piano playing, uh, bun bun wearing woman revival, you know, thinking that I was gonna be a, you know, a. And I am, I am a, definitely a

Kathy Oakes: revivalist.

Jeff Oakes: I am definitely, you know, a minister of, of the gospel, but I’m not, you know, she, she had this mindset as to what that would be. But, uh, you know, the reality is, is that, you know, really checking that before the Lord and just saying, God, I, I, I’m looking for your will in my life. I think that’s the. And, and you know what the reality is?

Marriage is not. Marriage is really meant to refine us. Marriage is meant to make us holy. Marriage is meant to be mission on, you know, uh, made manifest. And so I think for us, it’s, it’s been, you know, the best thing in the world because it’s changed me. It’s, [00:45:00] it’s made me a better man and, um, you know, a better.

Father a better spiritual leader. And, and I think, you know, when I, when I think about, you know, who, who’s out there looking for a mate, and, and, and you know, we’ve, we’ve had girls and guys, you know, that we’re talking to, and, and they, they, they’ll definitely have a list and you’re like, it may not be a spoken list, it may not be a written out list, but they have something there, you know, and they’re looking for.

And what really, we weren’t looking for each other. What we were looking for was, okay, God, what do you want for us? And in that. All of a sudden it is like, you know, we saw each other and when it happened, you know, I wanted everybody to meet Kathy because I thought, okay, this, this girl’s amazing. And, and I think I’m in love.

And, and I think that the same was true for, for her too. So, but Kathy, what would you say?

Kathy Oakes: I would say that was great. I would say that, um, I do see that as well, Jeff’s right. We’ve, we’ve set many a young person, you know, we’ll sit on our [00:46:00] couch and tell us, um, all the things that they’re looking for in someone else.

And I, I do believe that the question is, that’s the wrong question, right? Like, where’s my date? You know, when our oldest daughter, she just married last year at 36, and when she married. The Lord sent her a 46-year-old guy who has never been married, who has no children, who loves Jesus, and she loves Jesus.

And he was just across the country on his own journey. And he had to get where he needed to be so he could be holy who God called, heard to need in that union and vice versa. Mm-hmm. And so looking at their relationship and how happy they are. And so I look at, I think about when we married so young. Some people marry older, some people marry younger.

The key for me that I think is, is, is twofold. When you’re looking for that mate, it’s just to hear the Lord. Your life is not [00:47:00] for you. Your life is to be a gift of to others from the Lord. He gave it to you to give away. So what did he create you to be? If that is to be something bold and beautiful, well that’s us, right?

You know, I don’t know who’s the bold and who’s the beautiful I was gonna say, and vice versa. I’m not

Jeff Oakes: sure about the beautiful, I mean, you

Kathy Oakes: know, we take turns. You’re beautiful, honey. You’re beautiful. But we’re sassy. We’re more like, um, sassy you in a hot and spicy or something there. Yeah. So either way.

When you think about

Jeff Oakes: sweet and

Kathy Oakes: sour, what does the Lord wanna give the world through your union? And then if I don’t have somebody to be in union with, then how am I given that alone? And so for Bethany, when she was in her late twenties, she wouldn’t buy a house. She wouldn’t, she kept waiting. I can’t get settled until, and I had to say, did the Lord put a time limit on things?

Did he say, well, you have to be married, have two kids and a station wagon before you can do X, Y, and Z. And I think that’s where we miss it. Looking for an ideal [00:48:00] expectation, Jeff? Well, I was never Jeff’s idealized woman. He was never my idealized man, and yet he, we are exactly where we are supposed to be with one another.

And he has been everything I’ve ever needed in a mate, and I believe for him as well. I like to tell him that I do. Donna.

Jeff Oakes: You do.

Kathy Oakes: And then I think the other thing is that when you’re married, you know, people think, well, getting married solves it. Right? And then you see people go, well, we outgrew each other.

And I always feel sad for that. Like, well, why did you quit growing? Why did they quit growing? So I think my mom gave me this advice when I got married, and I have adhered to it all along. Jeff is a very, very, very smart person and one of the smartest men I’ve ever, or person I’ve ever known. And so I think it’s, it’s very helpful to always say, I say to myself, you know, am I challenging him?

Physically, am I challenging him emotionally? Am I [00:49:00] challenging him mentally and am I challenging him spiritually? And there might be a season where he’s having a high in one of those areas and I’m not. That’s just a season. It’s not forever. And then the next season, I might be in a, I’ve read these 42 books in the last 30 minutes and I wanna tell you everything.

And he’s like, I can’t ingest any more information. And that’s okay. He’ll be there in a minute. And so I think we just keep challenging one another because the more we challenge one another, like Jeff said, iron sharpens iron. We grow, we become better, and we become more purposeful. And people say, you know, practice makes.

Pur, uh, perfect. But I believe that practice makes purpose. And every day we practice being married. We practice loving one another. We practice preferring or being kind to one another. What we’re doing is we’re fulfilling our purpose here on this earth because this is the demonstration in the word [00:50:00] what Jesus looks like for his church, right?

Mm-hmm. Even. Mm-hmm. And those are pretty opposites. Jesus is pretty perfect and his bride is pretty not. So that’s what I would say is, uh, how to do that.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Absolutely. Well, do you have anything else you wanna share before we. Say Tu Lou.

Jeff Oakes: Have another.

Kathy Oakes: I got all my words out. Ooh, I got a lot of words.

Jeff Oakes: Well, we, we, we, we adopted a, a, a girl as an adult.

So we have five kids.

Kathy Oakes: Yes.

Jeff Oakes: And then we also have 14 grandkids, so,

Kathy Oakes: oh my gosh.

Jeff Oakes: Which is really, lemme

Kathy Oakes: show you pictures.

Jeff Oakes: We’re really, you know, we’re really thankful for the Lord for

Kathy Oakes: that. You know what, let’s talk about that. Can we talk about that for just a minute? Sure. Thank you. We have five children now, five in-law children, and 14 grandchildren, and I think.

You talk about, um, seasons, right? We [00:51:00] have the preseason before we find one another. The early season where we nearly kill one another and then so on and so forth. Well, suddenly you’re in your sixties and you look around and go, well, this is an odd season. But to me, this has been the, this is like the thrilling season because suddenly we have 14 grandchildren.

And a couple of years ago we heard. Um, I went to a conference, I read a book, a John Maxwell book that really stirred something up in me about legacy. That legacy was not something we were to leave. Se legacy was something I should lead. Legacy is something to lead because that is the challenge, right?

It’s that the, that our youngers, they think we’re supposed to just receive. And I’m like, no, no. We got something to impart here. So this has been a really fun season as we’ve cre we, we decided to create our own, um, legacy camp for our grandchildren that were double dig. And it’s everything from identity to who do you need to [00:52:00] be in this family, who do you choose to be in this family and our stories and these kind of things like questions you’ve asked today.

And it’s, it was a very cool thing to bond with our older grandkids. In a unique way because so often we just bond when they’re so little and they’re so cute and then they get older and brick clearer and all that. And that to me has been a real joy. And so we’ve actually been writing a book called Leading a Legacy and we creating a curriculum for grandparents to do this everywhere.

And I think it’s really our next season mission is to impart two couples. Now what. Because we don’t believe in retirement. We’re more in like rewire like, what is next? You know, rewire me Lord. Because there’s still purpose.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Mm-hmm. Job is not done.

Kathy Oakes: No. Nope, nope, nope.

Dawn Pruszkowski: That’s good. Uh, that’s perfect. I love it. I can’t wait till that comes out. Sure. You let me know.

Kathy Oakes: [00:53:00] We’ll, we’ll,

Dawn Pruszkowski: and that goes along. Um, we have, I have a free guide. To have couples document in all sorts of creative and and fun ways, document their love stories, because I think it’s important not only for themselves to recall all those beautiful things, but to hand it down.

’cause their children need to know, and your grandchildren need to know, so it’s free. I’ll send it to you.

Kathy Oakes: Thank you. In our, we have, uh, photo albums upstairs. Remember the creative memories phase of life? Mm-hmm. We have all these albums. Well, I took time years ago and I wrote out this whole how we met on Easter Sunday.

She wrote

Jeff Oakes: out her story

Kathy Oakes: and I get to the very end and I say, and it’s pages in there, and I say, and this is the story per Kathy Oaks. And if you want the other side, you can ask Jeff, but he will never write it in a photo album. So I figure for all posterity my story is being the one that’s gonna be told.

Jeff Oakes: That’s that’s right. [00:54:00] But

Dawn Pruszkowski: that’s beautiful. Unless they watch this video.

Kathy Oakes: Exactly. And we, they do.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Well, this was so much fun.

Kathy Oakes: Yeah.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Thank you guys for sharing your story. I loved it.

Kathy Oakes: Good. Yay.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Come on. Coming on.

Jeff Oakes: Thanks for having us.

Dawn Pruszkowski: Well, friends, remember, every love story begins unexpectedly. And when two people choose to live on purpose together, their union can touch countless lives like Jeff and Kathy’s.

Now I’m sure that you’re saying to yourself, well, how can I learn more about Jeff and Kathy and connect with them? I wanna see their love story photos. I wanna explore all the stuff they’re doing around the world, and I wanna get in on that book once it gets published. Well, it’s really easy. Just go to the show notes.

You’ll see a link that says more info and photos here that will take you right to Jeff and Kathy’s episode on our website. Word. Just visit unexpected love stories.com. And you’ll see their episode. [00:55:00] I’m gonna challenge you right now to live on purpose and share this episode with someone today that you know could use a little hope.

Use a little laughter and be sure to follow and subscribe to this podcast so that you never miss an episode. ’cause these are true love stories and they’re all unique. Trust me, you’ll wanna watch every single one of them. Well, I hope your heart feels lighter and full of hope after hearing this story. As you know, often the best love stories are the ones we never saw coming.

So keep your heart open because love truly is waiting for you. We’ll see you next time. Bye.