Here's to my baby novel about us, even if you don't make it to the end :)
They always say you find things when you aren't looking for them. Well I always felt that you don't find love, love finds you. I never would have thought that a random day fishing with some of my guy friends would have changed my life, but it did. I was sitting there, watching them fish, and up walked "fate" from the road in the distance. I didn't know it then but one day he would be the one who gave me the little missing piece of my heart that every girl looks for.
We started keeping in touch. The road we took to what we became was a very slow one. I am so thankful for that. I believe that was exactly where we went right in making us as strong as we are. Looking back on us and how we made the relationship we did, I have always loved the saying that "you can't build a castle upon the sand." It is so true. To build a castle you need a strong, sturdy foundation. Well we built a strong friendship before anything else and we will have that foundation the rest of our lives.
We started out simply talking and getting to know each other as friends. Nothing more, just friends. It was clear that we got along great and it was inevitable that we would want to talk and hang out all the time. We became good friends and soon we really did become best friends. Of course I had my girl "best friend" but he had my attention more and I had his. We talked all day when we weren't together and whenever we could be together we were. We would take random drives to the mountains, just to drive around and talk. We drove around and talked a lot and never got bored because we were together.
We got along great but don't get me wrong, the minute I saw him I was attracted to him. I think when people say "love at first sight," it is definitely more like "lust at first sight." Because that is what I felt towards him. I don't think I can ever remember feeling such a magnetic attraction to anyone else. Anyway, what I was getting at is that I never truly looked at him as just a friend. Neither did he...come to find out. :-P But we never let any of that show. We never let things happen, or feelings show, when the timing was just too soon.
Of course somewhere along the way, feelings got too deep not to acknowledge, or to keep hidden. He asked me out on our first date and I remember how ecstatic I was. It was on Valentine's Day 2009 and the best Vday I had ever had. I spent that day getting my nails done with an old friend Lucy and getting pampered. :) He took me to Caesar's Head mountain that night to look over the city lights. It was so cold but what I remember is how complete and perfectly comfortable I felt there. I felt more 'whole' than I ever did my entire life, sitting with a boy, who I was just getting to know, in the freezing cold. It is one of my favorite memories to this day.
We still took it slow after our first date and didn't officially put a label on ourselves until 2 months after when he told me that's what he wanted. I fell in love completely and wholeheartedly with him and everything he was, little did I know he felt the same way. Like a typical drunk girl one night I spilt all my feelings while sobbing and I told him I LOVED HIM??! I never even had the thought of being "in love" in my sober mind..but I guess my heart knew I was. That was the one thing I could recollect the next morning, and I was so embarassed when I saw him that day. I remember his words.. "The worst part is I didn't remember what I said back." And he told me another "I love you," that I would actually remember.
There are so many things I fell in love with about him. I fell in love with who we were together. How incredibly happy he made me. I fell in love with how we made each other laugh. How he waited for me until I was ready for everything that came along with love. He waited a very long time for me and for that I fell in love with him even more. Everything between us felt so right and was so beautiful that I knew he was the one.
We both decided on him going into the Air Force for our future together. Not just our own future, but the family we hoped to one day have. I knew I would miss him and at times it would be hard but I had no doubt he would make it through. Today I still have all the confidence in the world that we can make it through anything. I know that no matter how long we have to spend apart, we will always run back to each other..because nothing else feels right.
I got to visit him during tech school and after a year and a half he proposed to me in our hotel room after dinner. I left Texas three nights later on an airplane with a ring on my finger. Going through airports and hopping on planes throughout the night, all alone, I was so incredibly happy and content. I did not want anything more than to share every moment of my future with him by my side. :)
When we started this journey we realized how many goodbyes we would have to say. So many tears were shed between him and I and I can still remember him holding me everytime he had to leave. But through it all, the thought of being together "tomorrow" gave us the strength to make it through the "todays."
Goodbye, 2 months at Basic Training. Goodbye, 4 months at tech school. Goodbye, yet again, 4 months until I can be with you in Washington. Hello, finally, to military life and my husband who I will have through anything
