Rosa & Alexander

About Alexander

About Rosa

Rosa is a 22 year old young woman who is also in love with Jesus Christ & currently attends Metro South Church. She is a newly graduated registered nurse who works at Oakwood Hospital on an Advanced Progressive Care Unit. Rosa comes from a great family with 11 kids!  She is in love with kids, especially her nephews and nieces, and also has a passion for the elderly. She is a super caring person who can be pretty shy when you first meet her. Matching Alex's personality, she is quite silly and cheesy; which makes for a perfect storm between the two of lame puns, poorly delivered one-liners, and a plethora of nonsensical inside jokes. This may be one of Alex's favorite things about Rosa, her ability to joke and laugh about everything; especially herself when Alex chooses to mimic something she may have just done or said. Rosa seems to be the only girl that Alex has ever met who understands and/or can tolerate his aforementioned capacity for lame puns and dumb jokes. Not only does Rosa posses a wonderful sense of humor, but she also has one of the most caring and compassionate hearts in the world; Her capacity to love others more than herself shines through in her life. Rosa's inner beauty is only surpassed by her outer beauty, as Alex would say "She is the fairest maiden in all the land! When my eyes fall upon her, it's as though the world stops spinning and suddenly hummingbirds surround me." Alex absolutely loves everything there is about Rosa, he couldn't have thought of a better person to spend the rest of his life with even if he tried! God has truly made us and brought us together to spend our lives in each others company. There is more that Alex could say concerning his love for Rosa, but he'll spare you all the details and leave it at this... "Yeaaa, she da one."

How we met

Random background fact: Alex has been attending Metro South Church's college group, UNITE, ever since it started back in 2008.

(Early January 2010) Immediately after breaking up with a boyfriend of many years who I had been wrongfully depending on to bring me joy, I knew that I needed to run back to God and offer my life completely to Him.  On the night of my 21st birthday (January 10th, 2010), I decided to check out ALIVE (Metro South Church's HIGH SCHOOL group) with my sister Hope & my friend Zack.

There are specific moments in your life that completely alter the path you are taking & impact your life so much that they define the person you become. This night was one of those God directed moments in my life.

That night at Alive, I felt God wrap me in His arms. His presence was so real to me and I realized how wrong I had been for trying to be fulfilled and satisfied with anything but Him. True joy can only come from Jesus. He was the missing piece of my heart, the reason I had been feeling empty and heart broken. I had to allow ALL of Him to consume my life instead of just letting Him in for a little bit each day. I loved being immersed in the presence of my Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ, and knew that I was coming back to Alive the following Sunday to hear Adam's Spirit led message & worship God with the anointed and talented Alive band.

I went back to Alive the following two Sunday's and loved every minute of it.. but there was one little problem..  I WASN'T IN HIGH SCHOOL!

Solution: Someone told me about Metro South's college group, UNITE. So in late January of 2010, I asked my friend (now bridesmaid) Erica to check Unite out with me. Not knowing anyone, we went for a few weeks together. Through a high school friend of hers, Erica met and introduced me to Bekah Bosh who went to Unite.  When Erica stopped attending on a regular basis, I would go to Unite every Friday night and sit by myself, yet not care because I was in the presence of God listening to Him speak through Chris Pasik and worship Him with the also anointed and talented UNITE band. All I cared about was God. I wasn't there to make friends and definitely wasn't there to meet any boys, since in my mind I had still hoped to get back together with my ex after we both renewed our relationships with Christ at the center of our lives.

Eventually Bekah Bosh & I became better friends and we started hanging out. (Bekah is also one of my bridesmaids) Fast forward to a Friday night after Unite (May 7th 2010) and you find me & Bekah being invited by Joe Lewis to his and Joe Nerdly's house to hang out and watch a movie with Joe Renaud. (Yes, there were 3 Joe's there that night.) When we arrived, Joe Nerdly and some other boy were sitting on the couch chatting. Little did I know that this random BOY would become my fiance one year and 4 days later! That night we watched a movie called STARDUST and the whole time I was thinking "WOW, This is a great movie!!!" and apparently the whole time Alex was thinking "She's really cute!" and tried to get my attention as often as possible by talking through the movie and being funny. I honestly didn't notice, but I was having a great time hanging with Bekah and watching an awesome movie.

Back in January of 2010 when someone asked Alex why he didn't have a girlfriend, he responded with "I don't know. It'd kind of be pointless unless she was in nursing school too." When Alex met me, he thought I was in high school since I was wearing an "ALIVE" shirt. After the movie when I mentioned that I was in my Junior year of nursing school at UDM, he freaked out and thought "Oh no, maybe she's the one!" and then rushed to leave. So that was the end of that night.

The funny thing is, I never saw Alex & he never saw me at Unite even though we had both been attending the same place for the past 4 months.

I had been planning a road trip to Pennsylvania with my cousin Grace and our friend to see some of our friends who live out there, but mainly for me to see if it was time for my ex and I to start dating again. We were scheduled to head out at the very end of May. Well a couple of days before we were supposed to leave, my mom was feeling really sick and my dad took her to the hospital. She stayed there for a few days and needless to say, we had to cancel the trip. We found out something was wrong with her but didn't know what & it would take some time for the tests to come back (maybe an infection, maybe TB, or maybe cancer). So mom came home the day after we were supposed to leave. Since she was home and feeling okay, I checked to see if Grace & our friend wanted to head out the next morning since they were both disappointed about not going. Well, Grace being the busy girl that she is had already made plans and told me "It's probably better if you stay home with your family anyways." And I knew she was right. So the trip got completely canceled and I was disappointed since I REALLY wanted to get back together with my ex boyfriend.

That week that I was SUPPOSED to be gone, I hung out with a lot of new Unite friends with Bekah. It turns out that ALEX was at these same hang outs.

Monday June 1st: Our second RANDOM hang group out happened at Joe Nerdly's house again. I was talking to a friend online and said I wanted to have a bonfire. Instead of doing that, he said I should come over to his & Joe Nerdly's house to hang out with the group that was coming over. So on a whim, I showed up with my sister Amanda and had no idea Alex would be there.  Okay, so the first time I saw Alex, I don't remember being attracted to him at all (not because he wasn't cute, but because I wasn't LOOKING for any guys to like). The SECOND time, on the other hand, I thought "WOW, this kid is really cute!"

Although there were a lot people that came over to watch Alice in Wonderland, me, Amanda, Joe and Alex randomly hopped in Joe's car to go visit Bekah since she was working at Starbucks. It was very bright out and since I had two pairs of sunglasses in my purse, I let Alex wear a pair to shield his gorgeous eyes.

These matching sunglasses resulted in our FIRST PICTURE TOGETHER!
(thanks Amanda Lynn for taking this pic!)

Since I was camera crazy (and in the beginning stages of my crush), I creeped on Alex from behind and snapped pictures of him dancing to Edwin McCain's "I'll Be". I wonder if he was secretly singing ME the line "Tell me that we belong together." ;p A girl can only dream.

Who knew I'd be the greatest fan of HIS life? :)

Friday (June 4th) at Unite, I was expecting to see Alex, but he wasn't there. (insert sad face here). That Sunday I must have been thinking about him because I was brave enough to write on his facebook wall: "missed you friday!" Alex NOW tells me that he got REALLY excited when he came home to that post, since he had been telling his best friend Andy about me all weekend on their trip up north! :)

That Monday (June 6th) I finally followed through with my Unite bonfire and sent Alex a facebook message to invite him to come. I gave him my number to have him text me if he was going to come, since I didn't know if anyone was going to show up! As I was preparing for the bonfire, I got a text from a random number saying "Congradulations Rosa Klos! You may have already won a fabulous vacation to Hawaii! Just text back '7789' to be AUTOMATICALLY entered into our give-away!!!" Not thinking anything of it, I ignored it and then another text came "Apparently your too smart for cheap scams..haha. Anyways, thanks for the invite, sadly I cannot make it due to work at 5am :(... oh yeah, this is Alex btw. :-p"

(Insert another sad face here) Wait, scratch that sad face! I got to see Alex the very next day! Bekah and I met up at Joe Nerdly's house AGAIN to eat dinner and play a game with some Uniters. Alex and Joe Dunne (groomsmen) showed up as well! At first I was in the kitchen with Bekah and we were invited to go to Diary Queen. We didn't feel like going.. until Alex and Joe Dunne came in the kitchen & decided they were going! It was such a fun trip!

After eating blizzards at the incredible price of $100.00 off, we headed back to Nerdly's house and played "The Game of Things." I don't even remember how to play exactly, all I remember is I kept guessing Alex's answers and he didn't understand how! Our personalities are so similar that people were calling us twins! As the night was coming to a close, Alex, Joe Dunne & Bekah were talking about meeting up at Panera in the morning to do some homework like they usually did. On our way out, Bekah had invited me to come with them, but Alex, not knowing that Bekah had ALREADY invited me, sent  me a personal text inviting me to hang out with them in the morning! Needless to say, I got really excited (insert excited face here) to receive a personal invite! Let's just call it that butterfly excitement.

The next morning I met up with the gang & Alex at Panera. After a half hour or so of sitting kiddy corner to Alex, we all of a sudden had to move booths because of the need for an outlet! During this switch, I somehow got stuck sitting next to Alex, but I didn't mind. :) Each of us studied the Bible and talked about interesting verses.. and then completely out of the blue Alex broke out his sewing kit to sew the rip in his camo shorts! 

(I love this part of the story.. Alex was not afraid to be his silly self one bit! There was no "I need to be really cool to impress her" attitude that I ever witnessed, and I love him for that!)

I ended up having to leave Panera before everyone else in a rush to bring something home that was left in my car. On the drive home I MISSED MY EXIT because I was thinking of how cute Alex was. I had officially decided that morning that I truly liked Alex, more than just a "cute-boy" crush, WHICH WAS CRAZY FOR ME TO EVEN THINK ABOUT because I had still been expecting to get back together with my ex boyfriend at this point. (You forgot about him, didn't you?) We texted a little bit when I got home.

Later that evening a bunchhh of Unite friends met up at Elizabeth Park to celebrate Renee's birthday. I got there early and hung out with Alex and Nerdly, threw a football & snapped candid photos of them playing. Alex and I brought our roller blades (as we had earlier discussed) while Bekah and Jose long boarded. I HAD SO MUCH FUN.

After Elizabeth Park closed, we all headed to Sonic to hang out. I followed Alex the entire way there (I'm bad with directions) and giggled like a little girl as I watched him wave his hand up and down in the wind as he drove. When we got to Sonic, I remember Alex asking me what I was going to get / what I recommended he get. I felt so special :) We played a couple of group hand games and Alex & I sat next to each other. I loved every moment.

Two days later (Friday June 11th, 2010), was mine and Alex's first Unite together.. little did we know we'd be getting married that night! After Unite was over, we talked for a little bit and I told him what we had been going through with my mom and how she had just been diagnosed with cancer. When we had split up to talk with our friends, I made sure Alex didn't leave without saying goodbye to me. We were both invited to Kurt (groomsmen) and his sister Hannah's house to hang out afterward, but Alex had to work in the morning so he said, "I might stop by for 10 minutes." Eventually that "10 minutes" was lengthened and turned into 2 AM! At the Gravenstreter's house, Alex and I were randomly partnered up playing the Newlywed Game. Even though Alex cheated & we lost, we had a great time! 

Afterward, we continued to text all weekend long until FINALLY , on Sunday night (June 13th), Alex asked me to go out to breakfast with him!

Since we had only hung out in groups, I wasn't sure if he meant it as a "date" or with some other friends and I asked "Who else is going". Den Alex replied "Just you and me so far, I just thought of it" (trying to play it off. After a few more texts Alex said "So would you care to join me for breakfast, I don't recall an answer." Nervously and excitedly, I SAID YES! :)

The next morning we planned on eating at a diner called Tina's, until we found out it was closed on Mondays! I then chose to go to Leo's Coney Island instead & had Alex follow me there... and he followed until he realized that he knew where we were going & then CUT in front of me to be the leader! That's when I knew he was the one. (just playing ;p). After eating and talking for a lonng time we walked *Alex's idea* all the way across the lonnnnnnng parking lot to the Starbucks that Bekah works at to visit her! (sorry Bekie for accidentally forgetting to bring the food we packed up for you AT Leo's.. I was a bit distracted by a cute boy).  At Starbucks we played random card games (of which I won the majority). Afterwards we went to Midway Golf to play a round of mini golf. Alex FINALLY won.. by one! ;p

TUESDAY: The next day me and my friend Kayla went to Joe Dunne's church to play sand volleyball with him, Alex and some other people. We hung out at the park for a while after deciding what to do next. And we may have flirted with each other by throwing wood chips... second graders, I know.

Knowing that The Last Song was playing at the Allen Park Dollar Theater, Kayla and I tried convincing Joe & Alex to come with us. Alex really wanted to hang out with me, so he decided to come along. We stopped at Subway before we split up to get ready for the evening. At the theater, I sat next to Alex. As I was crying thinking of my mom during the movie since she had just been diagnosed with cancer, Alex looked at me and smiled so I thought he was laughing at me! He offered me his hand, but I said "No thanks, I'm fine." (Little did I know that Alex was trying to muster up the courage to hold my hand the entire movie) Since I had rejected what I had thought of as a "pitty hand hold offer" I felt bad the entirrrrre rest of the movie and knew I had to explain things, so we took Kayla home and went for a walk. I honestly wasn't over my ex-boyfriend and up until Alex came along, I had been expecting to get back together with him and one day marry him. I was NOT expecting someone else to come along and ruin those plans and was scared that if I allowed someone else to pursue me & then if it didn't work out, my ex wouldn't take me back and I'd have ruined my future! I'm not one for ruining futures.. especially my own! But God had other plans.. not to ruin it but to make it a billion times greater than I had planned on it being!

Sooo during our walk & talk that night we stopped at Sudman Park. Alex ran around trying to catch a lightning bug for me; we swung & had jumping contests and sat on top of a slide talking for a long time. I honestly don't remember what we talked about (other than God because ALL of our conversations included the subject of our wonderful God at some point..). All I remember is being super nervous the entire time because I did not want to tell Alex about the situation with my ex boyfriend.

 I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't even know where to start... I didn't know how it would all work out. Who would I end up with? Does this boy even like me? Oh yeah, he sat through a sappy movie for me. Oh yeah, he tried to hold my hand at the movie theater. hmpfffff.

To interupt my nervousness and rush me a bit, it began to rain. Alex and I walked back to our cars a couple of blocks away, but when we got to them we decided to sit on the curb under a tree and keep talking. At some point, I ended up putting my head on his shoulder. (I was so distressed about the explanation coming up!) Alex made a cute noise and then wrapped his arm around me. Alex: "So I think it's pretty obvious that I like you and it seems like you like me too.. I just wanna know what your intentions are with us." So I told him that I liked him as well and I really needed to tell him about something, but I didn't know how to word it. We agreed to hang out the next day and discuss it.

WEDNESDAY: So the next day  we went to Elizabeth Park and walked around. I told Alex I couldn't tell him about what I needed to tell him unless we were sitting down. (Not a good multi-tasker) So finally we sat down under a tree & I told Al all about my ex-boyfriend situation and how I had been playing the waiting game seeing if we were going to get back together and how I was supposed to be in Pennsylvania less than 2 weeks ago visiting him. I was so nervous for no reason! Alex was sooo understanding. He said he would give me time to figure things out and would wait. And then our first hand-hold happened. :) We decided to get lunch at Joe Renaud's Mancino's and ended up stopping at Bishop Park (I know; I'm thinking the same thing.. we must really like parks) before I left to pick up my best friend Angela to come to the Unite Softball game with us that evening. I had been telling her allll about Alex & couldn't wait for her to meet him! At the game Alex & I held hands under a blanket. No one really knew what was going on with me and Alex except for Angela. Heck, I wasn't even sure what was happening.

The next day passed and Alex & I continued to text. When Friday night's Unite came, Chris spoke a message that included a verse about that which is hidden in the dark will be brought to light. After the message was over, Alex came over and told me he needed to talk to me, and that I should be scared. Even though he was joking about the last part, I became very nervous. I had to wait for him to return from driving a friend home, so when he came back, he took me outside & we talked on huge cement block. He started out the conversation relating back to Chris's message and said, "If you're gonna be mine, then I want you to be all mine." Since I had been worrying & praying about the whole situation, God comforted me through a CLOUD in smiley face formation that everything was going to work out according to His great plan and revealed to me that I should give Alex a chance, I responded with "I wanna be yours too!"   Alex was SHOCKED and said "REALLY?" He was expecting a plea from me for more time to figure things out and was going to tell me that he would wait until I made up my mind, but that we shouldn't be acting like anything more than friends if we weren't dating. He had been ready to lay down the law, until I blew his mind. :)

Alex: "I think I just inadvertently asked you out."

Rosa: "Well if you did, then the answer is yes!"

So that was the night we officially started dating. The next morning I was heading up north for the Unite Camping trip. Alex had to work and wasn't going with us, which was going to separate us for the first week of our relationship! I had accidentally left my rollerblades in Alex's car from Wednesday and after I got home from Unite, Alex brought them to me even though he had to wake up at 530 the next morning! We sat in his car for hours talking. Since he knew I had really wanted to kiss him since Wednesday, he teased me for hoursssssss, until finally he gave in and we had our first kiss. :)

Alex ended up calling off work a day and drove 5 hours up north with Joe Dunne to surprise me on the camping trip! HOW AWESOME! They stayed for a few days & Alex and I took a few hikes and got to know one another better. Oh yeah, we also became "Facebook official" on his phone the night he came up north!

CHECK OUT THE COOLEST PART OF OUR RELATIONSHIP ON THE "GOD WROTE IT" PAGE! :D