2nd Anniversary: Our Story

Today is our second anniversary! Woohoo! I'm feeling pretty mixed emotions. I'm obviously happy to be able to say we made it two years when so many these days don't even make it this far. I absolutely love my husband and I'm so thankful that God has blessed us with unfailing love and commitment to each other. The mixed part comes from that other guy in our marriage ruining our plans...AGAIN. Yes, I mean the Marine Corps. People say when you marry a military guy you're marrying the military. It's true. We had planned to use both weekends surrounding our anniversary. The first weekend to dress up and have some Halloween fun and the second to do something fun and out of the ordinary for our anniversary. I had told J that I didn't want to plan it. I wanted him to and I wanted to be totally surprised. But that other guy had other plans. This past weekend the powers that be sent my husband on a flight to Middle-of-nowhere, Nevada for the weekend. J had decided that to make up for being gone all weekend he would request Tuesday, today, our anniversary, off. Nope. He's flying FOUR flights this week. Seeing as typically he flies once a week or once every other week, that's A LOT. Oh and by the way, he's scheduled to fly Saturday as well. He NEVER works weekends....except for the one that we have special plans. To top it all off J came back from his weekend away sick and won't even be able to enjoy the delicious anniversary dinner I had planned. Needless to say, I'm beyond frustrated. It's times like this that I absolutely hate the Military life. We can't plan a vacation. We can't plan a romantic weekend for our anniversary. Asking for even one day off is a HUGE hassle. I can't even sign up to take the GRE because I don't know when we'll be moving again. *Grumble grumble* But anyway, on to the happier part of this day...

I'm not sure that I've ever shared our story before, so what better day to reminisce.

J and I met when we were 14. My cousin had met him one summer through a mutual friend and it was by pure random chance (ok, and maybe some Godly direction) that we met the following summer at a music festival that took place at a Six Flags in our area. He just happened to walk by and my cousin happened to see him and took my friends and me over to say hi. My cousin is older than me and had no intentions with J other than to try to hook me up with him, so of course I ended up with his AIM screen name.

This is the day we met! J's the one on the far left in the weird stance and I'm the  first girl on the left. Yeah, the one wishing she was a punk-rock skater chick.

He and I lived about three hours apart, and being so young neither of us were really supposed to be dating or talking on the phone to persons of the opposite sex. So for two years we chatted online. I went to a summer camp every year that was about 20 minutes from his house and he had several friends that worked there and attended there. So I did see him once over those years. It was clear that we both had feelings for each other, but it wasn't practical to say we were 'together'. Eventually J kind of started struggling with some personal things and began to pull away from me. Before too long he stopped talking to me completely. He was never online and never responded to my emails. I found out some time later that he had a girlfriend and obviously, being 16, I was heartbroken. But I soon resumed my normal life and made peace with it. I moved on. Every once in a while I'd wonder what he was up to these days, but I held no hard feelings or remnants of the huge crush I'd had on him.

When I was 17 I started dating this other guy. One of those guys you wish you didn't have to say you dated. One of those guys you wish you could erase from your memory. But I dated him for over a year. For what reason, I do not know.

So fast forward to August 2006. I was still dating the aforementioned ex, though I was about sick of him, just didn't have the heart to break up with him. I was 18, had just graduated from high school, and was once again at the same music festival I went to every summer, enjoying it with my best friends one last time. We had just arrived and made our way into the park and had just gotten in line for our very first ride when I noticed that the guy in front of me looked an awful lot like a certain blond haired guy I used to know. Obviously I whispered to my best friend, Kaity that I thought the guy standing directly in front of me was J. And obviously, as any teenage BFF would do she yelled out his name. He turned around and awkwardly stared at me, to which I replied "Do you know who I am?" and he uncomfortably answered "Yeah..." We chatted politely, because what else could you do when you're stuck in line for a ride next to a person you used to love, who now had a significant other, and hadn't talked to in two years? After that we saw each other a few times throughout the week, but never said much more than hello. I left thinking "Well, that was kind of cool to see him" and thankful for I guess some kind of closure and never really thought about him again. Other than to add him on MySpace of course, 'cause that's just what you did!

At the end of August I'd broken up with my horrible ex and was getting ready to start college. One day out of the blue J messaged me in AIM. I later found out that he had also broken up with his girlfriend and had noticed the ever so dramatic MySpace relationship status change to SINGLE on my page. He began apologizing for breaking my heart and I assured him I was absolutely not still hung up on that. We talked a lot and by the end of September had started driving a lot to see each other and by October we were 'official'.

Two months after we started dating.

Three long years later...

 

And a year after that...

And two years after that...

We've been together a total of six years. They definitely haven't been easy, we've had our share of bumps in the road and I know there will be more to come. But I thank God he has blessed me with someone who loves me so unconditionally, who supports my hopes and dreams, and who's as stubborn and determined as I am to make this work! Love you J!