Happy Valentine's Day

In honor of valentine's day, I thought I would share the story of how my husband (P) and I (A) met. :) It's quite cute (at least I think so!)

In August of 2002, I was working as a physical therapist, living with my parents. I was 31 years old and only had a small handful of serious relationships. I was living at home because in 1999, I decided to go back to graduate school for physical therapy, and I was trying to do it as affordable as possible. I graduated in May 2002, took my boards in July 2002, and began work right afterwards.

One day, my mom came home from church and said "There's a new youth minister at church. He's very tall and handsome!" (Can you see the *hint hint* in there, staring you in the face?)

"Oh, really? That's nice," I said.

And that was it. I didn't really think about it. I had recently decided that I was giving my personal life back to God, and I was going to stop hoping, praying, caring, wondering, trying so hard, in the relationship department.

A few months passed and it was December 2002. I was at church, and after the mass, I was walking out. In front of me was a fairly large group of high school kids, talking with a very tall and handsome man. He was standing right in front of me, and I was a little in awe. My heart rate went up, my breathing increased a little, and I was sweating. At the time I didn't know why, but there I was standing behind my future husband. Wow.

I went home and could not stop thinking about him. He was so cute and he was Catholic and he liked kids (high school kids at least). He attended my church, he was tall and handsome. So I did something I would not normally do. I called him. :) I asked him if I could volunteer with the high school youth group. OK, I know. It's horrible. It's terrible! How could I volunteer only in the hope of getting to know this person? Well, honestly, I really did want to volunteer. He was a bonus. Since 1994, I had usually volunteered at church in some capacity. Once I was in PT school, and afterwards, I just didn't have the time to commit to anything. But I was ready again to do that. Of course knowing that this very cute person was the leader of the youth group made my decision much easier.

I waited to call until early evening, thinking I would just leave a message. Well, he actually answered the phone. I was a little surprised, and taken aback. But maybe this was good. If he was at work in the evening, then he wasn't out to dinner, like with a girlfriend. Our first conversation, from my point of view, was wonderful. He was so easy to talk to, and he asked interesting questions. It was refreshing. He told me youth group had wrapped up for the holidays already, but that I could come to their first meeting in January.

So January came, and I went to the first meeting. I walked right up to him and introduced myself. We shook hands. I melted. I'm sure I was blushing and sweating. I was very nervous - about meeting him and the youth group. I could tell that everyone knew each other and felt comfortable with each other. I felt like the "new kid". P made me feel very welcome. So I went back week after week. I always hung around until everyone else had left just so I could get a few minutes alone with him. He was such an interesting person. He had such a kind and generous heart. I really had never met anyone like him before.

So sometime in February, right before Valentine's Day, he asked me after youth group if I wanted to go get something to eat. My heart skipped a beat. I was on cloud 9. This is it! I thought. He is asking me out. I answered breathless, "Of course!" So we went to Applebee's. We drove separately, and as I was getting out of the car, he was on the phone. I heard him ask about tickets. I thought, "Oh! He's trying to find us tickets to something. He's going to ask me out for Valentine's Day!" After he was done on the phone, we went inside and got a table. He then proceeded to tell me about his phone call. He was trying to get tickets to The Have Nots. That was cool. I love comedy. He then said he met someone recently and was taking her to the show...FOR VALENTINE'S DAY! The disappointment must have been so visible on my face. I tried to smile and seem interested, but all I could think of was how embarrassed I felt inside, and how could I get out of Applebee's the quickest.

Well, we did end up staying at Applebee's for FOUR hours. We had a great time, great conversation. I didn't really understand how things could seem so great, but he was going out on a date with another girl! All I could think of was, "Here we go again. I like someone who justs wants to be my friend." That's how it always was. When we left Applebee's that night, I just asked God to help me be a good friend to him since that's what P wanted...friendship. And I asked God to help me not get wrapped up in P. P and I started doing something after youth group each week, and we started talking on the phone. We started trying to learn how to play the guitar, and I taught him how to develop black and white photography. I even went out with P and the girl he was seeing. It was a bunch of people going out for P's roommate's birthday. Normally I wouldn't subject myself to that. Who wanted to see the guy you get weak in the knees for with his girlfriend? But I decided that maybe I was supposed to meet someone through P. Maybe that was why everything had happened the way it did so far.

Well, I met the girl. Of course I liked her. She was great. She was Catholic, and nice and cute and bubbly. It made it that much harder for me, but I just tried to trust God's plan, instead of trying to force something to happen.

Well, a little while after that night, P called me. He sounded kind of down, and when I asked him what was wrong, he said that sometimes he wished things worked out the way he wanted. Things didn't go well with the girl. I felt bad, but inside my heart skipped another beat. By now, we had become pretty good friends. We talked on the phone, went to eat together, hung out a little bit. Of course my feelings had only grown, even though he was seeing someone else.

Finally, the kids at youth group started asking questions and saying things to me about me liking P. I decided that I needed to talk to him about it, because I was afraid they were saying things to him too. When I told him what the kids were saying, he looked me in the eyes and said "Well, what do you think about that?" I really didn't know what he was asking me, and after some discussion, he asked me about us dating. Not just going on a date...but DATING! Again, heartbeat skipping. We talked a little more and decided to go on our "first date". We went to Locklear's in Mt. Pleasant. It was very nice. The food was outstanding. We shared a bottle of wine. When we got back to my car (I met him at his place because he lived close to Locklear's...I lived 30 minutes away. And yes, he did want to pick me up. I insisted I drive to Mt. Pleasant), it was misty rainy. We were saying our goodbyes, and I was looking down at the ground because I really didn't know what to do. Do I hug him? Do we kiss on the cheek? I didn't know. We had already hung out so much and I think we were hugging goodbye at that point. We were standing underneath an old tall tree. He touched my chin and lifted up my head and we kissed for the first time. And I knew. I knew we would fall in love. I knew we would get married. I knew we would have a family. I had already fallen in love with him while we were friends.

And now 6 years later (from our dinner at Applebee's), I am still head over heels in love with this man. This man is patient, kind, caring, sensitive, loving. He is an amazing father to our children. He is the love of my life. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

P - Happy Valentine's Day. I love you - forever.