Adrienne: A Whole Lotta Love
On a cold and snowy New England January morning ten years ago I woke up with the strangest feeling that I would be meeting my future husband that day (weird, I know). It was a Sunday, which means that all of my family usually goes off to church, as they were all extremely involved. But for some reason or another, none of them were going - they were either sick or tired or it was too snowy. Normally, this would have given me a great excuse to curl back under the covers for a few extra hours of sleep - but I just couldn't. This feeling was too strong and I just had to go (I realize that this is not the reason we are supposed to go to church... but the Lord works in mysterious ways). And after the service was over, my friend introduced me to him. He was there!
He had been attending the church for a little while, but I had been away at college and then abroad and doing other things for a year. I had returned to finish the last semester of my Sr. year (which I had previously been so upset about because I could have graduated early if I had just planned my courses out a little better - little did I know what great things were in store for me that semester). So it was love at first sight and we were married the next week and lived happily ever after. Sorry... just kidding. It's never quite that simple, is it?
The next day we were both at some mutual friends of ours and talked quite a bit and discovered we had a lot in common. As I was leaving, he came up to my car and helped me brush off the snow and asked if we could perhaps go out some time. I was a little unsure of going on a single date with someone I just met, so I told him that a bunch of us were going to a basketball game later that week and asked him if he wanted to go to that. He did come to the game and afterwards he asked me for my number and wanted to go out again. I told him that our mutual friend had my number if he wanted to call and 'maybe'.
Let me give a little reason here for my hesitation. Its not that I was playing hard-to-get. Believe it or not, I had just made a commitment not to date anyone for the next six months! I was still kind of getting over someone else and I felt the desire to be more complete in myself and in my relationship with God, my girlfriends, my studies, and trying to figure out those hard questions of 'what was I going to do after I graduated?' Also, I just looked in my diary of that week and I wrote 'This guy just seems to good to be true'.
But I did end up going on the date (my commitment was not that I couldn't go on a 'date', but just that I wouldn't 'date' someone, as I wanted the next person I 'dated' to hopefully be the person I would marry). We had the best time on our date. We talked about everything and there wasn't a moment of awkwardness or silence. He was a true gentleman and opened the car doors for me and, obviously, payed for the meal. I did tell him as well about my commitment and he was fine with that. We got to know each other as friends over the course of the semester. And then after six months to the day, we started dating.
The story, however, is still not simple because I moved to Vermont for the summer and in April of that year I had decided to take a job in California (as I still wasn't completely sure about what would happen with us and I wasn't going to base my decision on a guy... and I knew if it was meant to be, it would somehow work out). So, during the summer we saw each other every weekend and then when I moved to California in September, we had a lot of phone bills and he came to visit me. I also had a few months free in the winter, so we were together for quite a while during that time. Anyway, even though it was sometimes hard doing that the first year, we really got to know each other well - our inner selves, without the distraction of the physical. We didn't even kiss until January '02 - over a year after we met.
So, to shorten this up a bit, I came back to New England and he proposed in December of '02 and we were married in July of '03 - on my grandparent's anniversary and in the church were both my parents and grandparents were married. It's been over 7 years now of marriage and I love him much more than I did on our wedding day. We've traveled together to at least 40 countries, we work together, laugh together, and play together. I can't imagine my life without him.
He had been attending the church for a little while, but I had been away at college and then abroad and doing other things for a year. I had returned to finish the last semester of my Sr. year (which I had previously been so upset about because I could have graduated early if I had just planned my courses out a little better - little did I know what great things were in store for me that semester). So it was love at first sight and we were married the next week and lived happily ever after. Sorry... just kidding. It's never quite that simple, is it?
The next day we were both at some mutual friends of ours and talked quite a bit and discovered we had a lot in common. As I was leaving, he came up to my car and helped me brush off the snow and asked if we could perhaps go out some time. I was a little unsure of going on a single date with someone I just met, so I told him that a bunch of us were going to a basketball game later that week and asked him if he wanted to go to that. He did come to the game and afterwards he asked me for my number and wanted to go out again. I told him that our mutual friend had my number if he wanted to call and 'maybe'.
Let me give a little reason here for my hesitation. Its not that I was playing hard-to-get. Believe it or not, I had just made a commitment not to date anyone for the next six months! I was still kind of getting over someone else and I felt the desire to be more complete in myself and in my relationship with God, my girlfriends, my studies, and trying to figure out those hard questions of 'what was I going to do after I graduated?' Also, I just looked in my diary of that week and I wrote 'This guy just seems to good to be true'.
But I did end up going on the date (my commitment was not that I couldn't go on a 'date', but just that I wouldn't 'date' someone, as I wanted the next person I 'dated' to hopefully be the person I would marry). We had the best time on our date. We talked about everything and there wasn't a moment of awkwardness or silence. He was a true gentleman and opened the car doors for me and, obviously, payed for the meal. I did tell him as well about my commitment and he was fine with that. We got to know each other as friends over the course of the semester. And then after six months to the day, we started dating.
The story, however, is still not simple because I moved to Vermont for the summer and in April of that year I had decided to take a job in California (as I still wasn't completely sure about what would happen with us and I wasn't going to base my decision on a guy... and I knew if it was meant to be, it would somehow work out). So, during the summer we saw each other every weekend and then when I moved to California in September, we had a lot of phone bills and he came to visit me. I also had a few months free in the winter, so we were together for quite a while during that time. Anyway, even though it was sometimes hard doing that the first year, we really got to know each other well - our inner selves, without the distraction of the physical. We didn't even kiss until January '02 - over a year after we met.
So, to shorten this up a bit, I came back to New England and he proposed in December of '02 and we were married in July of '03 - on my grandparent's anniversary and in the church were both my parents and grandparents were married. It's been over 7 years now of marriage and I love him much more than I did on our wedding day. We've traveled together to at least 40 countries, we work together, laugh together, and play together. I can't imagine my life without him.
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Love,
Katie
