Check out Erin’s singleness story!

About Us

Erin's Background
Jason's Background
Erin (Through Jason's Eyes)
Jason (Through Erin's Eyes)
Our Story
From the Archives

Meet the Salmans

We are old parents of young children, trying to make as few mistakes in raising them as possible. But that’s not who we’ve always been. 

Most of our adult lives, we were single. Erin was living in DC and Jason in Minnesota, when his sister-in-law introduced us. After a grueling (but fun) interview-type courtship, we had peace that we could marry each other, though we still had so much to learn.

We got married in 2020, just as the Covid pandemic was ramping up, at ages 39 and 43, respectively. We didn’t know what our future held, but we knew that God had brought us together and that he had a plan. 

We are still waiting to see more of that plan. But in the meantime, we live in two places (DC and rural Kansas); raise three small children; meet with singles, encouraging them in their journey; and strive to honor God with our lives.

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Erin’s Background

  • Hometown: Black Mountain, NC
  • Other Places Lived:
  • Harrodsburg, KY
  • Greensboro, NC
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Florence, Italy
  • Mexico City
  • South Bend, IN
  • Fort Worth, TX
  • Waco, TX
  • Springfield, VA
  • Hanston, KS
  • Family:
  • Middle child
  • Two siblings
  • Father: Pastor
  • Mother: Teacher
  • Education:
  • UNC Greensboro (BA)
  • Temple University (MEd)
  • Baylor Law School (JD)
  • Favorite Pastime:
  • Reading
  • Past Jobs:
  • Paralegal
  • Missionary
  • Retail Buyer (Books & Bibles)
  • Spanish Teacher
  • Executive Assistant
  • Attorney

What doesn’t come across in the above bullet points is that, through all these jobs, degrees, and moves, Erin experienced a lot of waiting, heartache, and healing. God transformed her into a new creation as beautifully as a butterfly emerges from its cocoon.

He was working faithfully and diligently—even when she couldn’t see it—to increase her faith, bind up her wounds, and prepare her for what lay ahead. God has done more in her life than she could have ever asked or imagined.

Jason’s Background

  • Hometown: Hanston, KS
  • Other Places Lived:
  • Waco, TX
  • Dallas, TX
  • Estes Park, CO
  • Phoenix, AZ
  • Minneapolis, MN
  • Springfield, VA
  • Family:
  • Youngest child
  • Four siblings
  • Father: Air Force Pilot, Farmer, Banker, Senator, Counselor
  • Mother: Homemaker
  • Education:
  • Baylor University (BA)
  • Favorite Pastime:
  • Fly fishing
  • Past Jobs:
  • Realtor
  • Marketing & Sales
  • Ministry Director/Lay Counselor

Jason’s rural upbringing instilled in him an appreciation for hard work, sportsmanship, community, and Midwest values. He is a light-hearted, fun-loving guy that everybody loves to be around—the guy you want with you in the foxhole. A modern-day renaissance man, he is mechanical, cerebral, creative, and relational, all rolled into one.

Single until 43, he is now a happy husband and the father of three young children, with whom he is very hands-on. (He literally caught all three babies at their births.) Now, he’s savoring God’s goodness in the deferred blessing of having a family later in life and learning to do ministry with Erin, moving from “me” to “we.”

Meet Erin
(from Jason’s perspective)

Erin is a work in progress. Which is one of the things that I love most about her. (And, fortunately, she appreciates my humor.)

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Meet Jason
(from Erin’s perspective)

Before I married Jason, I didn’t know that men like him existed…

Read More

Our Story

The “cross” the Lord selected for Erin through most of her adult life was unwanted singleness. She dreamed of having a family right out of college like her siblings did, but to no avail. After 20 years of learning lots of lessons, mostly the hard way, her dreams of marriage materialized quickly and unexpectedly.

While living in the DC suburbs, she met Jason’s sister-in-law, Susan, at a church event. They ended up chatting and, on a journey of learning to be bolder about her desire for marriage, Erin said she was “looking for a husband.” “You should meet my brother-in-law,” Susan answered.

Erin had just started dating someone else at the time. Plus, Jason lived far away in Minnesota. As nice as the sentiment was, it seemed very unlikely that anything would come of it.

Later that year, Jason went to DC to visit his brother and sister-in-law. He took the opportunity to meet and spend a little time with Erin. But, while her prior relationship had ended, she was now talking to someone else, a significant departure from the datelessness to which she was accustomed! She didn’t know what to do. She liked both men, although both were long distance.

Eventually, Erin felt like she had to make a decision and, after lots of prayer, advice-seeking, and pros and cons lists, she picked the other guy.

Read More

From the Archives

If you have a hard time envisioning what an impromptu engagement and wedding in a tiny, rural town during Covid looked like, here you go.

Our Wedding Website

Meet Erin (from Jason’s perspective)

She’s always humble and willing to change in a desire to be pleasing to God. There’s a verse in the Bible about others noting that Peter and John “had been with Jesus.” Likewise, when people interact with Erin, they tend to come away sensing that she bears the aroma of Christ. Even though they can’t quite put their finger on it, unbelievers, too, note that there is something different about her.

Erin has a deep appreciation for God’s work in the spiritual giants. Her study of their lives and attempts to follow in their footsteps have given her a faith in God and love for him that are contagious. She lights up with childlike awe when talking about God’s faithfulness in seemingly impossible circumstances, often at the eleventh hour. Her experiences with God have given her a testimony that allows her to be bold and confident, not because of her own capabilities but because of God’s.

Erin is an exceptional student, first and foremost of God’s Word. To see her Bible is to know that she loves it. The first place she turns for direction is to God, through prayer and the Word. She seeks to know his will from the most significant questions down to seemingly unimportant details.

Erin also excels as a student in the classroom and in life. She is a hearer and doer, not just learning for learning’s sake, but applying what she has learned. She is one of the best “appliers” of anyone I’ve ever known. As a single, she used these skills to allow God to transform her and now she continues to use them as a wife and mother.

She’s literally the smartest person in almost every room. However, her wisdom wins out. She doesn’t dominate the conversation or seek to impress others. Rather, she is an exceptional listener and ensures that all questions are asked and addressed before drawing conclusions.

You can take the questions Erin asks you at face value. She is a very literal person, meaning she has no ulterior motives or things she’s implying but not saying. If she has an underlying question, she’ll ask it. You never have to guess what she’s thinking or feeling, which makes my job as a husband much easier!

God has gifted Erin with the ability to think critically, investigate, and dig deep to solve problems. An Enneagram 5, if that means anything to you. Most of the time, her skills greatly benefit us and anyone she offers to help. Only occasionally, when she audits my grocery store receipts and sees that I got nine packages of chicken on a buy-one, get-one deal do I wish she weren’t quite so thorough in her attention to details.

There’s no one I’d rather have in my corner than Erin. As my dad said during our short courtship, “To know her is to love her.” He quickly saw her sincerity and the radiance that comes from closeness to God. Just like diamonds are forged through heat and pressure, Erin shines because she has allowed God to shape her through broken relationships, unfulfilled dreams, and long waiting seasons.

In Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about a man finding a treasure buried in a field and, in his joy, going out and selling all he has to buy that field. Unbeknownst to me, although the passage is about the kingdom of God, we were both inspired by it before we met in thinking about the concept of marriage. Erin hoped to find a man who considered her a treasure, and I hoped to find a woman for whom I could gladly sacrifice. Erin is that treasure to me.

Meet Jason (from Erin’s perspective)

…men “in whom there is no guile.” Not that he was born that way. I doubt anyone is. But, by the time we met, he had so allowed God, through the difficult circumstances of his life, to transform and redeem him that he has been nothing but a treasure to be married to and parent with.

One of Jason’s greatest distinctives is his self-confidence. He has no ego, nothing to prove, no insecurities (at least none that I’ve detected so far in six years of marriage). This makes him so easy to be in relationship with. I don’t have to walk on eggshells around him, treat him gingerly, or worry about wounding his pride. None of the men I dated were like that, and I did not know it was possible.

Jason has good instincts around people and situations. Very quickly, he seems to understand matters just by observation, which enables him to get straight to the heart of most issues. He honed this skill through his extensive work with men in recovery, where honesty was critical. As he learned to cut through self-protection, both in himself and others, change became possible.

Jason’s gift of discernment coupled with his wisdom makes him a dynamo teammate. Once I called him on speaker phone at 10:00 p.m. from a women’s retreat with three single women I’d just met. One of them needed to explain to her fence-riding boyfriend why they weren’t compatible spiritually. All her past attempts to broach the subject had just offended him. We struggled to find the right words, but Jason knew instantly what to say.

Jason attributes much of his preparation for marriage and fatherhood to his time in ministry in Minnesota. There, he learned to love and help others sacrificially out of obedience to God, putting his own interests second, just like God did in sending his Son. I almost feel like God took him there out of exclusive kindness to me and our children! What valuable lessons he learned. If I had known during those years of singleness what God was doing, I would have fallen prostrate and blessed his name, saying, “Take your time! Take your time!”

I am sensitive about writing this next part because I don’t want to hurt my single friends, as I know you probably long for what I have. But I say it to encourage you that good, godly men do exist and you don’t have to settle!

Jason treats me like a queen. That’s the best phrase I’ve been able to come up with to describe his consistent kindness and respect towards me. He has never put me down, harmed me, or neglected me. Even when I don’t deserve it, he is patient and affirming. That doesn’t mean he never speaks truth to me or sets me straight when I need it. He does! Usually with a bit of humor thrown in. But his corrections are never mean or out of frustration.

I suspect he’s one of the best dads out there, too. I regularly get comments from people who’ve seen his caretaking, “What man does that!?” Changing dirty diapers, cleaning up messes, and feeding them are just as much his responsibility as mine. It’s not that he’s a natural nurturer. He’s actually a “man’s man” – hunting, fishing, and working with his hands are where he’s most comfortable. But because sacrifice is his priority, he does what does not come naturally to him in order to serve God, me, and our kids. He is motivated to pour in to me and shepherd our children because he wants to honor God in his treatment of his family.

I mentioned humor. If you ever read anything funny from us, Jason likely authored it. He once aspired to write comedy if that gives you any indication. I bet few things could make you laugh harder than watching Jason improv with his brothers or cousins. Their jabs are dry, mostly clean, and non-stop, feeding off of one another until your side aches from belly laughing. Just be sure and pee before you hang out with them!

I used to want to marry a “spiritual giant”—a Hudson Taylor or a George Muller—a man who had left behind the attractions of this world to follow Jesus, one who accomplished great things for him. But where are the spiritual giants today? Does he have to be famous? Does he have to be in ministry?

I probably could not have articulated this before I got married, but Jason is that spiritual giant. He is willing to take risks at God’s command. He cares more about God’s opinion than his own or others’. He is willing to rely on God’s unseen arm rather than the arm of flesh. He knows where true strength comes from. The world holds no sway over him. His old man has died and his new man is at the helm. This is the man God can lead and use and trust. This is Jason, my spiritual giant.

Our Story

A few months later, just before she was about to go visit that guy for 3 weeks, he called and said he wasn’t interested in continuing the relationship. Erin was surprised but at peace. She quickly thought of Jason but waited a couple weeks before contacting him. After searching her heart to make sure her motives were pure, she reached out and told him what had happened. The other guy cut things off, and she was interested in Jason. Was he still interested in her?

They started dating that day, February 15, 2020. Jason flew back to Virginia to visit a few weeks later and then Covid hit. While talking on the phone one night, he asked Erin if she would be interested in “quarantining” with his parents in his remote Kansas hometown. That way, she’d at least be within a day’s drive from him if flights stopped or lawmakers prohibited travel.

His parents were game, as was Erin, so she took a day to get ready and then left to start her 20-hour drive to Kansas, a state she’d never been to. She packed enough clothes for a couple weeks, thinking that’s all she would need. But, pretty quickly, Erin and Jason realized that they either needed to go ahead and get married or wait indefinitely. Each had upcoming career and geographical decisions to make. Covid, too, presented challenges for traveling and getting to know each other. Having focused much of their time together on assessing each other’s character and spiritual compatibility, they felt peace about moving forward swiftly.

So, although they’d only spent seven days together in person at that point, Jason gave his two weeks’ notice at work and they started to plan a wedding. This was tricky, because most people didn’t even know they were dating someone, much less getting married.

A few family members came to Kansas for the wedding, but most people watched it online. The YouTube Live stats indicate that over 1,000 people likely “attended” virtually—something that would have been impossible in that part of the country for a normal wedding. Jason was 43 and Erin was 39.

Having no time or employment constraints, the couple took a four-month honeymoon all over the western US, getting to know each other and basking in the Lord’s goodness to them. Six months later, Erin returned home to Virginia, this time with a husband, second car, and all of his belongings in tow. She never could have guessed God’s plan.

Six years later, the couple has four children, Hudson, Lady, Lewis, and one in heaven. They split their time between Kansas and Virginia.

We value others’ input and are always looking for test readers. If you want to be part of our review team by providing kind but thoughtful and honest feedback on our materials, please send us an email at info@meetthsalmans.com.

We’re always open to new ideas. If you have a topic you’d like to read about that you think might also benefit other Christian singles, please send your proposal to us at info@meetthesalmans.com.

We’re always open to new ideas. If you have a topic you’d like to read about that you think might also benefit other Christian singles, please send your proposal to us at info@meetthesalmans.com.