In 2020, my husband and I got married on Zoom. With prayer and guidance, we went through with our ceremony even though the state of California was not issuing any marriage licenses to prevent encouraging gatherings.

In 2021, they opened the office for marriage licenses again, but the wait list was long, and we didn’t get to do it until close to our 1st anniversary.

Two of our friends went with us as our witnesses and we had the whole day planned: Marriage, lunch, then at work by 3 pm.

We waited a while as we all sat outside with the other couples, our appt time came and went. After a while, we were able to go inside to the next waiting room. We were waiting patiently and enjoying the time with our friends. Finally, we were called and at this time it was a couple of hours past our appt time.

As we were answering the questions, paying the fees etc. the internet and the systems went completely down!
We wait patiently and get to know the woman helping us, her name is JulieAnn, but she’s an angel to us! While waiting, we got an opportunity to get to know each other and when we mentioned church, she mentioned where she is in her faith and that she was church-hopping a bit and wanting to know more about God.

Then a man comes out to announce that the servers will not be coming up and that we have two options “We can reschedule and wait another couple months, or head over to El Cajon in hopes that they will fit us in with their appointments.” I heard what he said and thought, I don’t like either one of those options…. there is one more! We can pray and believe that it will all come back on! I told my husband and he agreed. Then we asked our friends if they were down to stay, pray and believe with us! They said yes! Sidenote – Get friends who will stand in prayer and belief with you!

We sat in the waiting room all silently praying, and then someone came in and asked what we were doing. I said, “We are going to wait a little bit to see if it comes back on”. Then a second person came in with her coat on and ready to leave and said “It’s not going to come back on, you should head over to El Cajon soon if you want to get married today”. My husband said just ten more minutes. We all agreed, ten more minutes. Then JulieAnn came in and asked what we were doing in a kind and curious way. We were honest and told her that we were praying and believing that it would all come back on, and if it didn’t by the 10 minutes, we would leave.

She said “Oh, okay” with kindness and understanding in her voice.

We prayed silently, out loud, together and in tongues.

JulieAnn popped in “Ya’ll are not going to believe this, but I think the power is back on. I am not fully sure but I will double check.”

We smiled and went right back to prayer.

“The power of prayer is real you’ll! Let’s do this!” she said with genuine excitement. We all just witnessed the Power of God!

As we continued the process, there were some naysayers in earshot saying “It’s just gonna go down again and that will all be wasted”. With a smile and a sweet voice, I looked at them and said “No it’s not.”

We finished and she said, “I don’t know if anyone is here to officiate, it might be me.”

And it was when we said vows that hit hard because, after a year of marriage, we knew more of what these vows meant, we teared up and then I shared with JulieAnn the word I heard for her, and lots of tears were shed that day but all happy, joyful and thankful.

We sat and enjoyed the goodness of God, our friends treated us to a good meal and we even made it to work just in time!