Tuesday, May 1, 2012

His side of the {love} story







I'm so excited to have my husband here today to tell you all our love story! But you have to be warned, this is a long story, and today's post is only the beginning. I have wanted to write it for so long but it was such a daunting story to tell. You see, as you will find out, we actually waited a year and a half before we officially started dating. As in, we started liking each other almost immediately, but we chose to wait until we were ready for a relationship to actually start ours.

It was such an exciting time in our life, and I am so happy that we chose to wait. However, it was probably one of the most challenging decisions of my life.


Also, you should appreciate this post, because I am awkwardly sitting in the hallway of my school, searching for pictures of us... I can only imagine what people walking by are thinking. (Or even the random stranger that decided to sit right next to me!)
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Hello Everyone, I finally get a chance to post something on my wife’s blog and I am very nervous. I am not typically the kind of guy to spill all my feelings and thoughts to the world. This is my first foray into the blogging world, so please, be kind! I wanted to tell everyone the story of how my wife and I got together. It’s a long one so keep your eyes open for a few posts. 


My senior year of high school was winding down and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I only knew I didn’t want to waste money going to college without a clear idea of what I wanted to study. 


The church that I had been going to my whole life had a discipleship school that had just started the year before. With a little prayer and thought, I decided that it would be a good option for me. I could learn more about myself and maybe after a year I would know what I wanted to go to school for. 


Now before I get into when I first met my future wife, there is something you need to know about me. I had a horrible history in the dating world. I was a high school boy, so of course I dated for the wrong reasons. I was sick and tired of that, and wanted something better. Before the school year started I decided to swear off dating for a whole year. I was not, in any way, going to let myself not follow through on this commitment. 


The School year began with something called Launch Week. It was a grueling week of excessive (only because I was horribly out of shape) physical activity, and learning all about our classmates. The first day we all met out in the parking lot of my church in order to board the bus. Most everyone there I knew, because they had been going to the church for a while, but there were a couple new faces. 


One in particular. 


She was a short, very cute, dark haired little beauty wearing her Western Oregon University (the school she had attended prior) sweatshirt. I was immediately intrigued. And intimidated. This girl was WAY out of my league! There was no way she would go for me....


Wait. Hold on there turbo. You’re not supposed to date anyone for a year, remember? Right. 


So I calmed down. Then through out the rest of the week I found my thoughts always drifting back to her. Waiting with baited breath when she spoke. Always noticing who she was talking to. Constantly thinking about how much cooler she was than me. 


This kind of thinking pretty much continued for the next several weeks. I had to keep reminding myself that I need to not care. I’m not going to date anyone for a year. Yes, right. I was really, really good at not caring. So good in fact that when one of my roommates started hanging out with her, and talked about dating her, I was naturally insanely jealous. Yep, didn’t care at all. 


Thankfully he became distracted (and Tanya wasn’t at all interested in him) with other things and she remained free for me to not date. I began to try and spend as much time with her as possible. To the point where, during a halloween party at my house, full of guests and friends, I did nothing but sit and talk to her and very, very lamely tried to flirt. 

It was about this time that I finally admitted to myself that I was falling for this girl. 


Over the next couple of months I became a hopeless case. I liked her. There was nothing I could do about it. Nothing I could tell myself to stop. When I heard about a christmas party some mutual friends were throwing, I jumped at the chance to go with her. I remember walking over to her house (we lived very close) and picking up her and her friend Nikki, being insanely excited. Even if it wasn’t just the two of us. She opened the door and my heart stopped beating. Her hair was formed into perfect ringlets that cascaded down to her shoulders and flowed into a beautiful electric blue dress that fitted her personality perfectly. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. 


By this time in our friendship I was starting to suspect that she might like me, but I was still a little doubtful. Beautiful, smart, older (by two years) girl. Nerdy, skinny, awkward guy. I’m sure you can see why I didn’t think I had much of a chance. 
At the party I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to not spend every moment next to her. When it came time for the white elephant game (a christmas game where everyone brings something and you take turns either opening a new present, or stealing a present that someone has already opened) I sat down right next to her. My turned rolled around and I picked an innocent looking gift. I opened it to find a small teddy bear clothed in a top hat, black vest, and a tie. I didn’t think much of it other than it was a little lame. 

Tanya’s turn happened to be right after mine, and she decided to chance a new gift as well. At the time I had no idea the most awkward moment of my life was soon to follow. To give a little context, EVERYONE knew how much I liked Tanya at that point, including I believe, Tanya herself. 
She reached into the gift bag and pulled out another small white teddy bear, clothed in nothing but a bridal veil and clutching a bouquet of flowers. It didn’t take long to realized my lame little bear was the matching groom. The room exploded with laughter and both tanya’s and I’s faces became bright, fire-engine red. Just when I thought that I could not be more embarrassed, my friend leans over and whispers, “congratulations” in my ear. Shoot. Me. Now. 

I'm sorry for the poor quality of this picture, it was the only one I could find!


In the midst of all of this embarrassment, I managed to have a little thought. Is this a prophecy??? Is she my future wife?? No. No, I can’t think like that, it was just a game. A coincidence. So what did I do from then on? I was dead sure that it was a prophecy. 

After a while I became consumed with the possibility of Tanya becoming my future wife. I was also thoroughly confused as to how this was going to happen. After not too long I had to talk to her about my feelings (not necessarily that I thought she was my future wife, I didn’t want to creep her out). 

So we decided to meet for coffee. I was so incredibly nervous its not even funny. I awkwardly asked her how she felt about me. Awkward as in, hands in my face, fingers poking into my eyes, fidgeting like crazy, awkward. (I was a real charmer, huh?)

She told me that she thought I was cool (what?) and she loved hanging out with me (holy cow), but she wasn’t ready to be in a relationship. 

She returned the question and of course I said that I felt the exact same way! (Even though I didn't. Are you kidding me?? All I wanted to do was date her!) 

After that things pretty much stayed the same, we were still friends. But now we had the added pressure of all of our classmates relentlessly teasing us about liking each other. It took a few more months before our feelings for each other came to head. 




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Thanks babe for sharing our story!!
 Don't worry, he will be back again to finish the rest for you guys! :)


See you all tomorrow!




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