Our Love Story

Happy Anniversary to my hubby. 5 years. I love you Patrick, I love our life and our daughter and the one on the way.  Thanks for marrying me!

I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about how funny life is.  My darling dear never thought he would get married and have kids.  I, on the other hand, knew I would, I always wanted to be a Mom.  My ideas of wifehood and motherhood are very different now, but I always wanted a husband and children.  I have been thinking of our love story and how you just never know what the plan God has for you is, and how amazing it is to look back and see how he put the pieces of your life together....like a puzzle.  I think, on our 5th Wedding Anniversary, it is appropriate to share our own personal love story.......

Patrick and I met the summer of 1998.  I was 15, to turn 16 that September, and he was 18. We were attending the same week of youth camp at our beloved Camp Bethel, where we had both been going every summer since we were old enough to remember.  My brother Jamie and I were attending the same week that summer.  At our first "hillside meeting" (where all the campers gather at "hillside" after being dropped off, settled in by parents, and spent some time unpacking and getting aquainted with your cabin mates), I sat next to my big brother and some other friends from our church to sing, talk and hear about what the week had in store for us.  At some point, at hillside that evening, I noticed Patrick.  He was tall, cute and tan.  (qualities that he still posesses).  I had noticed Jamie talking to him on our way over to Hillside, so I asked Jamie who he was and what he knew about him.  Jamie, being my big brother, told me his name was Patrick, and asked me why I wanted to know.  I insisted that Jamie introduce us, but before he did, I gave him a whole lecture about being casual and nonchalant about it, and not saying anything embarrassing.  He rolled his eyes and a little later, when Patrick sat down next to Jamie, I made sure to sit on the other side of my brother and elbow him in the side until he followed through with the "casual, this is my sister" introduction.  He did well, other than adding that I was his "little sister"!  Which is how he always introduced me to anyone from about middle school on....even into college when he introduced me to his fraternity brothers.  He seems to have a special, maybe slightly protective and threatening, while still showing his annoyance with me, way of saying "little sister". 
Anyway, Patrick and I exchanged hellos and chatted a bit and at some point my brother excused himself.  I have no idea what we talked about or really how the rest of the week went, but we spent a lot of the week talking, spending our free time flirting and hanging out and kissing and holding hands here and there.   
A little later that summer we then went to Brethren National Youth Conference in Colorado with our youth groups and other Brethren youth groups from our area.  We were on the same Abbott bus that took us from Rocky Mount all the way to Colorado stopping to see the sights on the way.  A bus with a bunch of youth going half way across the country, stopping at tourist attractions and hotels at night, crazy!...we were gone for two weeks.  Patrick and I were together for two weeks straight.  When we came home, it was time for Patrick to leave for Bridgewater College for his freshman year and I was entering 10th grade.  We remained a couple, and talked on the phone, saw each other some weekends when he came home to mow grass ( a business he still owns and runs), and I even drove to Bridgewater a few times....which, at the time, my parents did not know about.  They would certainly have taken my car!  After a few months we realized that we were in very different places in our lives and while he broke things off with me, I knew it was only a matter of time.  He was in college, living away from home, figuring out adulthood and college life, while I was in high school, cheerleading at football games on friday nights and trying to convince my parents to extend my curfew by a half hour.  Very different places indeed. 
We still talked on the phone from time to time but eventually lost touch.  I was dating someone else and I heard from church friends that he was studying abroad.  He came back home that summer (1999) and called me out of the blue and said he'd like to hang out and catch up.  (he now says, he had seen the error of his ways and wanted to date me again, though, I knew nothing of this.  I thought he was just a friend, calling to hang out...as friends.)  He picked me up from my house in his silver truck wearing an Ecuadorian poncho (which cracked me up).  I don't even remember what we did or where we went, but it was nice.  It was casual and familiar and just being with him felt normal and natural.  We drove through Salem, and as we passed a store owned by my then boyfriends brother in law, I ducked a bit in the car, thinking someone might see me with this college guy tell my boyfriend.  Patrick still hasn't forgotten that and says he knew there was no chance of us getting back together then. 
College and lots of traveling out of the country went on for him, while high school and college went on for me.  We lost touch completely.  It wasn't until the late winter and early spring of 2005 that we saw each other again.  Patrick was living in Barcelona, Spain, working teaching English and I was in the end of my junior year of Radford, studying Art education.  My Mom called me one afternoon with sad news that Patrick's oldest brother had died in a plane crash in mid February and the family was having a memorial service at Oakeys in Roanoke.  She thought I would want to know and said she would go with me to the funeral home to visit with his family and pay our condolences.   I didn't even know for sure if Patrick would be there, seeing as how he had been living in Spain.  But I decided to go and at least hug his Mom and let them know how sorry I was.  Mom and I went, waded through the crowd and at some point I saw Patrick across the room speaking with people.  I immediatly got nervous and fidgitty.  I found a mirror, checked my hair and while waiting with Mom, continued to get more nervous and ask her if I looked ok.  I eventually walked over to Patrick and stood a few yards away from him, waiting my turn to hug him.  He looked up and saw me, while being clasped in a hug by an older woman and smiled at me.  Finally, it was just us and I swear, it's like time stood still for a minute and it really was just the two of us.  He took me in his arms and whispered with such pained sincerity "It is sooo good to see you".  That's about the time my knees turned mushy and I knew I would need to see him again.  We talked for a few minutes and were joined by some other Brethren youth friends that were there and tried our best to know the right things to say in such a sad situation.  Mom and I left and she commented on my slight love struck look and fidgitty reaction to seeing him. 
A week or so later, I had mom track down an email address for Patrick.  At least I think that's how it happened, I know I had Mom call someone to get me some info.!   I emailed Patrick and told him how nice it was to see him, that I had been thinking about his family, and that I was on spring break from school in a few weeks and would be in Salem if he'd like to hang out and catch up.  He emailed me back and gave me his number at his parents house and said he's love to hang out and to call him when I was home and free.  I did just that, and after exchanging messages to and from each other a few times, he finally called me and got me and asked me to go out to dinner with him that evening.  I was at the mall with my Mom right then, so after making dinner plans, I went and bought a new shirt.  He picked me up for dinner that night and we went to Applebee's by Valley View.  We had beers and dinner.  We talked about anything and everything going on in our lives and laughed a lot.  It was natural and normal....just like always.  It was like we were old friends catching up, which we were....but there was a definite spark.  I remember sitting across the table from him and thinking, "I'm so gonna marry this guy".  He took me home and came in so we could keep talking.  We kissed and talked on my parents couch for hours, and before leaving he said, "When can I see you again?", I immediatly answered with "I'm free tomorrow".  So we spent nearly every single day of my spring break together.  We did a lot more talking, and a lot more kissing.  When I went back to school, he drove up a few days that next week to see my apartment and see Radfords campus.  We had dinner at the local mexican restaurant a lot and enjoyed each others company.   It's crazy how we just never looked back.  We both knew we were good together and we both enjoyed being together so much.  Before I knew it, I was moving home for the summer and we were spending nearly all our free time together.  When we weren't working, we were together.  He talked about moving back to Spain, but eventually it was clear he wasn't going anywhere. 
While on the way back down the mountain from a hike up McAfee's Knob, we stopped to rest and he told me "I think I am falling in love with you".  I knew I loved him already.
I moved back to Radford for my Senior year.  He was still teaching English in Roanoke City Schools.  That same year we got our first apartment together and really found out what it was like to live together. 
I graduated in May of 2006 and got a job teaching Art in Roanoke County Schools.

Patrick proposed to me with a beautiful 3 stone emerald cut diamond ring (our past, our present, and our future...how appropriate) on May 19, 2006.  Our wedding day was May 12, 2007.  It was a beautiful warm day for our outdoor wedding.  It was the best day and the best party ever!
Our love story coninues as we grow our family. Our girls are a true symbol of our love for each other.


So there it is.  I find it so wild that those two kids that "liked" each other one summer back in '98, ended up here....married, having babies and spending our lives together.  We are not perfect.  We do not have a perfcect marriage and we are not perfect parents.  But we try and we are in this thing together.  And I am so happy I have him to be "in it" with.  I love him, he loves me and we love our girls. 
 
Here's to another 5, another 10, another 20 years!