A Love Story

Since my husband and I celebrate our anniversary this month, I will be focusing on topics regarding marriage.  I thought the best way to start would be to share our love story…

“You really shouldn't be talking to people like that,” I remarked as I breezed past the park bench.

I was talking to a staff member's little boy at the Bible college I attended.  It was the beginning of the school year, and there was this {extremely cute} freshman guy sitting on a bench talking to this little boy.

Saying that to the boy was my (very immature) way of saying to this new guy, “Well, hi there, handsome!  If you haven't noticed me…well…please notice me.”

He did.

(He tells me now that he noticed me, but could tell that I had a little maturing to do, so he was not going to pursue any relationship until he knew I was ready.)

Since we ended up with a very similar class schedule, we had plenty of informal opportunities to get to know one another as friends.

I continued my immature antics before every class by ensuring that there was always magically a seat that just happened to be empty when he walked into the room – and it was always right beside me.  Amazing how he never caught on to that. 😉 (Yeah, right.)

As the school year went on we realized more and more how attracted we were to one another.  We got to know one another in group settings and just as friends – chatting before and after classes, eating lunch together with a group of friends, going to college activities within the same group of friends, etc.

My {then future} husband (wise man that he was) did not pursue any further relationship at all that year other than just being friends.  He wanted to see how we felt during the summer when we parted ways and did not have any contact with one another.

However, our first “date” was on the last night of school.  We went out to Dairy Queen with some of our friends, and didn't stay nearly as long as I would have liked.  He was paranoid that he would keep me out too late and get on my dad's bad side.  When we got back from Dairy Queen, we said goodbyes and parted ways for the entire summer.

Us at a banquet at the end of the school year

That was hard for me, but good at the same time.

I was already planning on marrying the guy, and I started getting into the habit of squeezing the toothpaste tube from the bottom because I thought he seemed like the type of person to do that.  After we got married we both squeezed the toothpaste tube from the bottom, but he told me that he had trained himself to do it that first summer we were apart because he thought I seemed like the type of person to do that! (Guess he was already planning on marrying me too!)

After the summer was over, I stalked the college campus on the day I knew he was supposed to come back.  I waited around as long as I could without looking like a complete dork, and finally went home without seeing him return.  Later that evening my parents decided to go take a walk around the college campus (we lived on a main road and there was no good place at home to walk).  I suddenly  became extremely interested in my cardiovascular health!

Would I see him?  Would he still be interested in me?  I hadn't seen him or had any communication with him for the entire summer, and these were the questions I was nervously asking myself as I put on my exercise  cutest clothes and threw my hair in a ponytail meticulously did my hair and makeup.

To be continued…

You can read the rest of the story here: