I was just reflecting back on the past 15 years of my life. It has gone by so quickly and yet so many things has happened. I wonder what the next 15 years will have in store...
In January 2000, I was starting a brand new year, but it was also a brand new chapter in my life. One season of my life was ending; a bad relationship was ending and I was single, again. I had no idea what to do with myself since my world no longer revolved around someone else. I decided I was going to forget all about relationships and I was going to focus on myself. I made plans to travel with a friend of mine and I had so much fun thinking of all the places I could go.
In March 2000, a friend of mine that I was working with at the the time asked me if I was interested in meeting a friend of her boyfriend's. I had zero interest but she continued to ask if he could at least call me, so finally I relented. He seemed to be a nice guy but kind of immature for his age. He was really into video games and things like that but I wasn't looking for a relationship so we talked on the phone from time to time. Meanwhile, another friend/co-worker asked me if I would be interested in meeting a friend of her and her husband. I said I didn't know and she, too, was persistent.
I had gone out to eat with a friend of mine who had just recently broken up with his long-time girlfriend, too. It was great to have a Christian friend to "heal" with and he was a lot of fun to spend time with. I worked with his mother and loved her and his brother and my brother were great friends. We attended the same church together and it was like the healing salve my heart needed to mend.
It turns out that I had agreed to a double date with my friend and her boyfriend and the video gamer on a Saturday night. We were going out to eat and then ice skating. The night before that was to happen I agreed to meet the friend of my friend and her husband. I thought nothing would come of either one but I would at least get my friends to stop setting me up!
I met my friend at a motel near her house because she lives out in the country and she was just going to take me to her house instead of giving directions to this directionally challenged girl! She had picked up some pizza and we made our way to her house. The deal was supposed to be that I was hanging out with her to meet this guy but he wasn't supposed to know anything about it. Just see what happens...except he knew all about it and she tells me this on the way to her house!!! It was a Friday night and I had just came home from church, changed my clothes and went to meet everyone.
I was introduced to three guys in the living room, one was her husband, the other two were friends of theirs. They all said "hi" at the same time so I had no idea who any of them were. So when it was time to leave she asked her friend to take me back to my car and he kind of hesitated so I thought that meant he really wasn't that interested in me. It turns out he was just trying to clean his truck out because he didn't want me to see the mess! LOL
It was so odd because we just talked like we knew each other forever. We could finish each other's sentences. He was very good looking and I wasn't sure what to think. I knew I really liked him and when he took me to my car, he waited to make sure I was in and the car was started before pulling away. That was impressive to me, especially with the relationships I had been in....
The next night, my other friend, her boyfriend, and their friend came to my house to pick me up. I really didn't want to go on that double date but my mother said I had to because they came a really long way to get me. I couldn't stop thinking about the guy I had met the night before. The night seemed to last forever, but not in a good way. The guy barely spoke to me. He ran up ahead of us at the restaurant, skipping through parked cars and just being immature. My friend and her boyfriend even apologized for his rude behavior more than once. My friend's nephew helped me around the ice rink because I didn't know how to skate. That sweet little boy would help me a little bit and then go skate, come back to where I was holding on to the side rail for dear life, then would return to take me a little further. I didn't have much fun that night and it was definitely a one date only with that guy.
Back at work that next week, the phones were crazy with people asking questions about services we provided and it seemed like the conversations were always very time-consuming. I had spoken to one client repeatedly and it was always a very lengthy conversation. In fact, they would talk to my friend (who introduced me to the first guy) and she would have to forward the call to me, because we worked in different departments. So, when she came into my office laughing and telling me I had a phone call, I shot her a look! I was swamped with paper work, monthly reports due, clients dropping in, and the phone that just didn't stop ringing. She said, "You'll really want to take this one!" I was waiting for it to be the same person I had been talking to over and over that day but it turned out it wasn't. It was the same sweet guy who I had met a week earlier. I thought he didn't even like me because he had never called. He asked me to the movies and I said yes.
Fifteen years later we are celebrating our wedding anniversary and I love him more every single day! He has held me while I cried over the loss of my grandmother, some aunts and uncles, and cried with me when I lost my daddy! He has encouraged me to go to nursing school, nudged me to keep trying when I wasn't sure I could finish with my daddy gone, and celebrated with me when I passed my boards! He has been a wonderful father to our two children that God blessed us with in spite of being told we would never conceive. He has prayed for me. He has loved me when I was unlovable. He has talked to me all night until I fell asleep even when he had to get up early to go to work. He has been my rock, my safe place to land.
We have been through a lot more than most couples in these past fifteen years but we hold on to our faith and God has always helped us reconnect and cement the bond we have shared for so long. A cord of three strands is not easily broken, right?
I love my husband so much and I am really glad God gave him to me. Happy anniversary, Paul. I love you!!!
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