January 3rd

January 3rd, 2002

It was a very chilly morning in SouthWest Minnesota.  Handsome and I had spent the night at his parents home ~in seperate rooms~ and we were getting up fairly early to hit the road.  He was taking me back to Chicago for college and then continuing on to North Carolina, where he lived at the time.  We had already said good-bye to my family and so we were loading up his green Bonneville and then ate breakfast with his parents and got in the car.  As we pulled out of the driveway we turned left, not right like we were supposed to.  He said he wanted to say good-bye to our 'special spot' which is a beautiful bridge over a stream in the midst of a curvy gravel road.  The summer before we had sat there for hours talking about this and that and I do believe this is the place where we finally confessed our love towards eachother...though we already knew it was there!

As we get there he put the car in park and gave me a hand written note, it was lovely.  The way it ended was something about the picture God had painted for his (Handsome's) life and asked me if I would help to complete that picture and become his wife!  When I looked up he had the ring box open (it had its own light in it!) and of course I said YES! 

This explained why his mom was crying so much when we left, because though we were a mile away from their house we did not return, we drove all the way to Chicago from Minnesota and I wasn't allowed to tell anyone until I returned to college...sneaky guy!  Of course both our parents already knew it was going to happen because in the gentleman like way that he has always been he asked my Dad's permission to marry me. 

But how exciting it is to think that on January 3rd. 2012 I was promised and committed to my husband for 10 years!  We had an interesting relationship, maybe even weird by today's standards, in that once we started dating we really only saw eachother face to face 5 times before we dates, maybe six.  We also never kissed until we said 'I Do' on our wedding day!  Most of our dating relationship was over the phone while I was at college and he lived in the South.  We got to know eachother very well that way.

I pray often that God keeps my children's future spouses pure in the way he kept us pure.  What an amazing gift to be able to give to the person you just married and will spend the rest of your life with...but on the other side, think of all the baggage that each relationship brings into your life.  I was once told that as you give pieces of your heart to people you never get them back.  There are 'holes' in my heart where, unfortunately, I gave those pieces to two other guys.  And it was those holes that caused the most trouble between my handsome and I in the early years of marriage.  Now, of course, I don't give them second thoughts if I hear their names or see pictures of them....but I do believe that those pieces are gone forever, because if you truly love how do you intend to take it back?  If you can take love back it wasn't really love to begin with! 

January 3rd, 2002~ The day that I knew God had brought the man of my dreams into my life forever and for always!  Or as one of our favorite artists says, "Forever and Ever, Amen!"  I am still unsure why God thought I was so deserving to receive such an amazing, godly, man....but I am sure thankful EVERY single day that He saw fit to bring Handsome and myself together!  Here is to 10 more amazing years!