Our Love Story

I am blessed with an amazing husband. Grace over at CAMP PATTON is doing a love story link-up. Well, I thought it would be fun to sit down and remind myself of how much I am in love with that man. So, here it goes.

I remember the exact day that we officially met. It was May 14, 2003. I showed up to school that morning and learned that Wayne, a young Sophomore, had been killed in a car accident. I had some classes with Wayne. I didn’t really know him. The last thing he had ever said to me was something about why I was wearing so much make-up. (I was in show choir, and we had JUST performed for the school.. no time to clean the clown make-up off before my next class). That is all I really remember of him. Anyway, that whole day just felt so.. unreal.. people in high school aren’t supposed to die. It just didn’t seem right. All I wanted to do was be with my closest friends. My best friend, Meredith, invited me to go to church with her. She went to the Methodist church in town. I went with her, and there was this guy.. in a navy blue t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. She introduced us, and we flirted by having a duct-tape fight. We kept sticking the tape to each other’s arms. Every time I would stick it to his, I would think, “Man, this guy has MUSCLES!” HAHA!

This was the days of AOL Instant Messenger. Skeeeweeeeeeeeeeeeargabaraghabhaha… “YOU’VE GOT MAIL!” We would talk on IM every. single. night. Cheesy, stupid things.. things that were so corny that I feel embarrassed even thinking about them. Now, I need to state this. My parents had given me a strict “no dating until you are 16” policy. I was 15.. At the time, I didn’t care. I was irritated at that rule, and did not respect it. Scott asked me to be his girlfriend on June 11, 2003.. over IM. 😉 We never actually went on dates or anything because I WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE A BOYFRIEND. I regret this with my whole heart. I hurt my relationship with my parents. I hurt my Jesus, who died to FREE ME from my sins.. YA’ll, doing something that you parents have adamantly told you not to do is SIN. I don’t care how you try to twist or turn it, it is sin. My dad told me that he could forgive me since he has two beautiful granddaughters now, but it still hurts my heart to know that I did wrong.. Anyway.. LISTEN TO YOUR PARENTS!

We went to homecoming in that year. Scott got saved that year! I’m going to fast forward to being 16, because that first year was not OK. I got my license, Yippee. We could FINALLY go out on a real date. You know where I picked? ARBY’S! Arby’s?!?!? I dunno, it was my favorite at the time. Now, if you know me, you know that I overflow any sandwich with condiments. I was a disgusting mess of melted cheese and Arby’s sauce.. but I did not care one bit. Thankfully, he pretended that he didn’t care either. 😉

We went to church camps, more homecomings, more proms.. I got saved at church camp July 12, 2005. It was awesome. Scott left for Baptist Bible College in August 2005. UP to that date, it was the hardest thing I had ever done. I cried like a baby for a looooooong time. My mom would roll her eyes if she was reading this, because she KNOWS how much I cried. I missed him.. But, the time apart was really good for us. It forced us to almost get to know each other all over again. We talked about our hopes, dreams, plans, etc. He came home for a weekend every month. It was rough, but again, the best thing for us.

In April (the 16th or 17th, I can’t remember right now..) I came home from work. My mom was the only one home. This was weird because my dad and sister should have been home.
“Mom, where are Dad and Amanda at?”
“The hospital. There’s been an accident. Kaitlin is probably not going to make it.”
I don’t remember my response, but I remember arguing with mom for a while. Then, the phone rang. My mom hung up, and said some words that I will never forget. So simple. So life changing.
“I’m sorry, she’s gone.”
Just recalling this causes tears to stream down my face. How is it that in the blink of an eye, a beautiful young woman was taken from this earth? Why is this part of our love story, you ask? Let me tell you. I called Scott and I sobbed on the phone to him. The next day I get a call from him in the evening, which was not unusual. In the middle of our conversation he tells me to go outside. What?! I look out the door, and there is my Scott standing in the driveway. I threw (!!) the phone and fell into his arms in a pile of messy tears and sobs. I needed his hugs more than anything that day.. The day that reality set in after attending her visitation and hugging Kaitlin’s strong mother. That week, I showed up at school to tear-soaked faces and grievance counselors to help people get through and understand. Like you can really understand it.. I still don’t.. but I do understand that GOD IS GOOD no matter what. He attended the funeral of someone he didn’t know by my side, just so that I could have someone to lean on. He was so exhausted that he had a hard time staying awake. He is amazing.

In May, Scott came home from college for the summer. I knew he had bought a ring for me. We talked about marriage and starting a family one day. I was so irritated with him, because he hadn’t proposed to me yet. I actually yelled at him the night before he proposed. He had planned on proposing THAT NIGHT, but had forgotten the ring. (oops, but I still didn’t know this) The next day (a Sunday) we decided to go for a walk by the lake after church. This wasn’t unusual for us. We loved going for walks in Spitler Park, going to the zoo, etc. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, so I didn’t really think anything of it. I was wearing a white cotton skirt, and light pink shirt. I don’t know what he was wearing.. apparently I am incredibly self-centered. I said something about the pretty flowers (thinking back, it was totally a weed…) and I turned back around and there is my handsome man dressed up, with his knee in the dirt. Holding a beautiful ring box. He asked me to marry him. I said YES, YES, YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! and he stood up and I hugged him and kissed him. There was a random boat that happened to see the whole thing, and they started cheering and “woop”ing. It was funny. He got upset because I didn’t even get to look at the ring before I excitedly said yes. Sorry, honey, the ring is beautiful. The diamond is from one of his grandmother’s rings, an he had the setting made special. 🙂 It’s beautiful.

We went of to BBC together that August, with plans to wait THREE YEARS before saying “I do.” We went on more nature walks, saw more silly sights in the area (Precious Moment’s Chapel), and had fun. We ate a lot of Chik-Fil-A and walked around the mall. We went to Walmart, the mall, and Target. We checked out Petland and played with puppies. We were boring and huge goobers, But, we had fun and were in love. (still do and are!) We decided we didn’t want to wait another two years to get married, so we talked to my parents about getting married the following year (2008). College years are honestly a blur to me. I took 18-21 credit hours and worked A LOT!!! I was exhausted. I ended up working at David’s Bridal and was able to get a beautiful dress much, much cheaper! YAY!

Fast forward to June 13, 2008. We had a beautiful wedding at my parents’ property. They worked their rear-ends off to get everything set up perfectly. It was beautiful, perfect.. everything I could have ever dreamed. We got married in the pole-barn. Mom and dad had white lights strung throughout the rafters. There were beautiful star lanterns hanging. Calla Lillies and red roses.. It was just.. perfect. Flawless. Thank you, mom and dad! It was one of the best days of my life!! We went to Pigeon Forge, TN for our honeymoon. We drove to Folly Beach, SC so that I could see the ocean for the first time ever. My goodness, it was PERFECT. A dream…

Scott finished his schooling at BBC. I had transferred to MSU. We spent our first year of marriage in a tiny apartment close to a lot of friends. It was a blast. Then, Scott graduated and we moved to Garden City, MI to work at a church with the youth department. It was a great experience, and we got to know some really wonderful people. Then, along comes Chloe.

Oh yeah, we also got Daisy..

This sums it alllllllllllll up with her…

Now, here is my sweet, beautiful Chloe!

Fast forward a LITTLE bit of time later, and SURPRISE!!! Along comes Addison! 😀

We moved while I was 9 months pregnant to a wonderful church further north. I am not going to say where, because.. I don’t like stalkers.. Let’s just say that we didn’t move to a whole lot safer place than Detroit.. ha!

Is our life not beautiful?!?! We serve an amazing group of teenagers now. We serve at an awesome church. We are blessed. I hope that our life is filled with many more days like this…

We just celebrated 5 years of marriage. 10 years together. A crazy dog, that has since had to be put down because of kidney failure. Two BEAUTIFUL kids!! An awesome ministry. A baby that is with Jesus (I will NEVER ignore that I have 3 children..) Hopefully a couple more children, and many, many, many years more of serving God in whatever way He asks of us.