Saturday, July 18, 2009

How I Met My Husband, Part 2

So, I left off with going to college, right? Well, I jumped into college life with both feet, determined that it would be all that I had hoped it would be. New start, new friends, new life - and for a few weeks it was great, but I unexpectedly missed home. On my first weekend home, I called one of my girlfriends, who bubbled over with excitement as she informed me that she was dating someone. And did I want to guess who she was dating? Him. She was dating him - MY best friend. For some reason, this information did not thrill me, not one little bit. I covered up my feelings though, and congratulated her, and listened as she gushed about him. Towards the end of the conversation, she asked what I was doing that weekend, and could the three of us get together sometime? Swallowing a "no", I answered that I thought that we could. Thus began a three month run of coming home every weekend and spending time with my two closest friends, who happened to be dating.
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Christmas break came at last, and the two were no longer seeing one another, but it was amicable and the three of us still went to movies occasionally. During the time the two were dating, I was forced to admit to myself that I had feelings other than friendship for him. It was all very 19 year old melodrama, and my thoughts were occupied by very little else from December to mid-January. Finally, the day before I returned to college, on a girls only trip to the mall, I spilled my guts to my friend (yep, that's right, the friend that had just broken up with him). I begged her to keep it a promise-not-to-tell secret. On the drive back to school the next morning, I played out all sorts of scenarios in my mind, deciding that I should probably wait until summer to talk to him about my feelings. To awkward to do it right then, I thought.
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I went home the next weekend anyway. Now, just so it is understood, I had to drive past his house to get to mine and he lived about ten minutes from me. No sooner did I set foot in my kitchen, than our phone started to ring. When I picked it up, a very familiar voice said, "So, I hear you like me." I lost all coherent speech at that point and as I sputtered and stuttered I accidentally hung up on him. Running to my bedroom, I immediately called him back and apologized. Turns out, my promise-not-to-tell secret had less than a 24 hour expiration date. Poor guy had to wait all week to hear from me. Long story short, our first date was that very evening. We went to see Aladdin at the movie theater. Dating him felt so right and he proposed right after school left out. I returned to finish school that fall, we ran up huge phone bills and we were married the next summer.
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My reason for writing all of this is this, our marriage has not always been easy. We have viewed life from the tops of mountains and from the depths of the valley. The two of us bicker and get exasperated with one another. There is no such thing as a perfect marriage, because there is no such thing as a perfect person. When I take the time to remember our history together, though, I can very clearly see God's hand in our lives - and that, I think is key.

1 comment:

Susannah said...

Wow, I'm glad I waited to stop by. You tell a gripping story! Isn't it ironic that your best friend dated your husband-to-be for awhile? Yes, married life has it's ups and downs, but you two were meant to be. Now I'm going to read your wedding post!