Love story, part 7

We were engaged! I could finally tell everyone and be openly excited. We did a lot of planning, and soon it was April 4th!

Husband and I saw each other before the ceremony. He was in the sanctuary, with his back turned and then I walked up behind him. He cried when he saw me. We had a few moments alone and then the whole family (both sides) rushed in for pictures.

I thought I would be fine for the ceremony...but as soon as it was time, I started crying and never stopped. He and I both cried, overjoyed that we were finally getting married. We had our first ever kiss at the end of the ceremony. The ceremony went well, the receiving line turned out to be fun (once I stopped crying!) and the reception was a blast. The whole day went by so quickly though! It was amazing to have so many loved ones around to celebrate our day.

We left, and headed to our apartment, and the next day, onto our honeymoon. We had an amazing honeymoon, where we traveled to Soldotna and Anchorage just to get away. We even both got sick, him just not feeling well and me with the flu, but it changed nothing. It was a great time for both of us.

Now we are living life, nearly 7 months later. We still love being married. :) Hard to believe it's almost been a year since we got engaged!

Me and my youngest niece.
All photos by Joshua Veldstra.

Thanks for reading our story! I hope it inspires you to tell your own!

Love story, part 6

We would go into jewelry stores and discuss what we did and didn't like, so in September, we made a trip to Soldotna. I can't remember if we were on our own or not. But we sneakily went to the Fred Meyer Jeweler and picked out a ring for me. A cute, 3 diamond ring. And I was so excited, but then we were still not able to make plans.

It became a waiting game of when I could gather up the courage to feel out what my parents were thinking about us. One Sunday afternoon, right before I started house sitting, I was sitting in the car with my parents. Dad was taking a nap, and Mom and I were talking, and I finally just brought it up. "We were thinking about getting married, this is why it will work, we have jobs, we have a plan, etc. What do you think?" And Mom was very receptive, even excited. And Dad was half awake, listening the whole time :) Their thought was basically, "it's about time!" which surprised me greatly.

In our eagerness, we wanted to get this show on the road. So Mom and I set up, without Husband, a time for him to ask my dad for my hand. The deal was, we would be at dinner together, all 4 of us. We made a dinner date for Tuesday, October 30, at Happy Face on the Spit.

Now that I look back on it, I don't know why Mom and I had to be there, but for whatever, we did. So we had dinner. Poor Husband was pretty nervous, of course. I should have gotten up to use the restroom but I felt stuck to my chair and didn't and so Husband had to ask for my hand with 3 witnesses. I feel so bad now, but you know, it went fine. My dad said that they would be honored and I got a big grin.

We left, in one car, with big smiles, and a HUGE relief and weight off our chests, and a giddy feeling. We had pumpkin pie at my house sitting place for dessert.

So of course, we didn't tell anyone of what had transpired, because we weren't engaged yet. But we were both very giddy, and I felt like I was on cloud nine, knowing that we could finally be married. Husband started conniving a plan, trying to do something that I would love and to also surprise me. And I became impatient, wondering when he would pop the question!

Meanwhile, the next day after asking for my hand, Husband went to his college class and talked to one of my best friends that he had a class with. He asked her for help and she was excited of course, but I had no clue that she knew what was happening.

Later that week, said friend and I were hanging out when something occurred that I spilled the beans. She surprised me by not being very surprised. I didn't think about it too hard, though.

The next Wednesday, November 7, I got out of my college class and called that friend. I figured that she was with Husband, and they would be waiting for me. They were, but I found it odd that they were at the beach. Immediately I became suspicious, but at the same time, I knew that because my friend was there that he wouldn't ask then.

I arrived at the beach, one where we have lots of memories, where we collect sea glass, and take many pictures in the gazebo. It was freezing and windy, and almost time for sunset. Husband and my friend were sitting in her car. I bundled up and got out of mine and they got out as well. They both kind of had funny looks on their faces, but I was slightly oblivious. We chit chatted for less than 2 minutes when Husband said, "Come with me, I have to show you something!"

In that moment, he grabbed my hand and I knew it was the moment I had always wanted. We ran to the gazebo and the floor was sprinkled with alstroemeria flowers. He led me to a glass jar that I had found at a garage sale. He had put beach sand, sea glass, rocks and shells in the bottom and a little treasure chest in the middle. It was on a railing, so I was turned away from Husband as I looked. He had me open the chest....to find a gum wrapper ring that he had made. I was slightly disappointed, but at the same time, knew it was to be cute and memorable (and it was!). (Husband made me countless gum wrapper rings through our dating)

I turned around to see Husband pulling the real ring from his pocket and getting down on one knee. He took my hands as I stood transfixed and excited. I honestly cannot remember what he said, but I do remember the, "will you give me the honor of being my wife?" and I grinned, and stood there with tears in my eyes, and just basked in the moment before excitedly saying "yes!"

After that, we hugged, I looked at my ring, and I don't know what else. Soon, our friend came to the gazebo, camera in hand. It dawned on me that she was there to take pictures, knowing that I would be eternally grateful. She took pictures of us after she walked up and shared in our excitement. It was awesome to have her there for the moment and I am so happy that she was able to photograph our moment!

After calling the family, the friends, and getting excited responses, including Laurel screaming, and Husband's mom wanting us to hurry the message along because she was in a meeting, we started planning. April 4th was soon decided to be the day, and it was less than 5 months away!

Stay tuned for Monday!

Love story, part 5

Our senior year went by fairly well. School was not that great for me that year, and I didn't enjoy it in the least. Husband was the bright spot for me. We worked through a lot of expectations for each other. Time went on, we had our first anniversary (had a nice picnic). We longingly dreamed of the day we would be able to get married, but knew we didn't have a way of supporting ourselves long term and knew at least my parents wouldn't go for it, quite yet. Husband's parents were just ready for us to get it over with!

Prom, though we didn't go to the dance, just dinner.
Getting started early! :P

We spent a lot of time discussing what "someday" would be like. How we wanted it to happen as soon as we could. How it just made so much sense. But we waited. We waited until we knew we both had jobs, and could get the parental approval. Neither of us knew what living on our own meant. Slowly, we understood, and still wanted it more. I started house sitting jobs, to get some independence. I'd been paying my own expenses since I got a job, and Husband did too. Once we had been together 2 and a half years, we finally decided to get the ball rolling. With both of us almost 20 years old, we knew we were young, but we felt we could make it and do fine....So it was time to talk to my parents...

That will be continued on Thursday!

Love Story, Part 4

The next few weeks are a blur to me now. I wrote extensively of it in my journal, though. Neither of us had our licenses, so we were dependent on friends and family to see each other. (we lived 15 miles apart.) 2 of my best friends were dating 2 of his best friends, so we ended up having group "dates" all the time. Usually those consisted of going to the beach or the parks. It was a convenient way to see Husband all the time, especially since one of those guys had no qualms about driving to my town nearly every day to see his girlfriend.

It was always so much fun and such a learning process for us. We were both scared teenagers who didn't know how to express their feelings. We were able to make physical boundaries pretty early on, though and we kept pretty close to them the whole time. We learned how to communicate, after many tears and misunderstandings. We had come into the relationship that we were serious about looking for "the one," and that if the other wasn't right, we wouldn't continue. So serious from the start! I look back now and shake my head, but it all worked out.

We went on a missions trip together in July. We weren't together much, and were very busy. I was home for 2 days from that trip, and then my parents took me on a family vacation for 2 weeks. That was the longest 2 weeks of my life! I missed Husband so much, and could not call him much due to roaming cell phone charges. There was little internet in any of the places I was. It was good for me to be away from him, but I still missed him like crazy.

Us on the fourth of July, about a month into it.

A few days later, we went to Happy Valley Falls with some friends.

Summer turned to the school year, and we kept getting to know each other. It didn't take long to decide that we were going to marry each other. I think we might have rushed things just a bit, but that's how it goes sometimes! However, we knew that we wouldn't be able to get married for sometime, and we knew that we wanted to wait a while to be sure and to know that we would be mature enough to make it work.

To be continued on Monday!

Love Story, part 3

It was a long but giddy couple of weeks for us. I had a computer class and Husband and I would email each other back and forth during that. He's always been a big romantic and would email compliments to me that made me smile the rest of the day. It was a fun time.

School ended and right after that, Husband went on a trip past Anchorage to see a friend. I was missing him like crazy. I couldn't talk to him much at all. He had told me he'd been praying about us before he left and wanted some confirmation from God that it was ok to date me. While he was on the trip, at church, he got what he was looking for. To this day, I cannot remember it. I'll have to ask him again. Anyway, so he got on MSN that afternoon and asked me out. (another thing he will never live down) Another instance of he couldn't wait. (Don't worry, that trend of not being able to wait ended there!)

They came home that night and somehow I made contact with them. At 1 in the morning they drove down my driveway and I snuck out of my house for the first time in my life and we drove to my dad's shop down the driveway. I know we sat there for at least an hour. There were 4 of us, just talking, but Husband and I just kept looking at each other. When it was time to go, he walked me home and we hugged all excitedly, but awkwardly. May 29 was a good day!

To be continued on Thursday!

Love story, part 2

In my newly found attraction for Husband, I soon started to agonize. I could not figure out what he was thinking, and I didn't want to change our friendship. I would start to think that he had feelings for me, but then something would set me back. We were both too shy to do anything about it. I think most of our friends that didn't already know could see what was happening.

Time went on, my mother went through treatment. (She's fine by the way!) It took 7 months of dilly dallying for Husband to make the first move. A friend had sent an email forward that talked about two friends who were in love with each other but did not know how the other felt. I still have the email.

2 days after my friend sent it, on May 16, 2005, I was talking to Husband on MSN, when he suddenly got really serious. (everyone teases him for doing this on MSN, but it worked :P) He brought up that email forward and I could suddenly see what was coming. I freaked out and could hardly breathe. Husband told me that he couldn't hold it in any longer and that he liked me. I was so excited/shocked that I didn't say anything for several minutes, which really scared him. Once I got over the shock, and replied that I liked him too, we kind of relaxed, but not really. We talked for hours, and he picked the worst time to bring it up, as I had a big paper due the next morning. I got a bad grade on it, but it was the best bad grade I ever got!

However, at this point, we still weren't "dating" and the next day we went for a walk from Husband's house to what we soon would call "the grassy spot," a little trail near his place. We had a long and awkward talk about what this all meant and how we didn't want our friendship to change, etc. But we still weren't dating officially!

That will be coming next Monday!

Our Love Story

I came across this really cute idea from Owlhaven.net for writing your love story. I will continue it on Thursday, hopefully. So here it is!

Husband and I met our freshman year of high school, at the Christian school. It was a very small school by some standards. We had a few classes together. He was homeschooled mostly, but took a few classes at the school. The way he tells it, fairly soon after school started, he looked around the room at all of the girls. He mused about which one he could see himself marrying. Oddly enough, he saw me towards the end and decided I was a good one. (Note, he wasn't just deciding right then and there, just musing) He didn't know my name or anything about me, but I was reading a book and was all quiet. And then a friend leaned over and said something to me and I laughed. And scared him to death.

I laugh a lot, and especially so when I was insecure as in high school. I laugh loudly and somewhat obnoxiously. So for whatever reason, I scared him. That's how he likes to tell it, anyway. After this, he kept that thought at the back of his mind and would come back to it time to time, but just went on with life.

I on the other hand, was completely clueless and oblivious to him. Being a small school, I should have gotten to know him pretty easily, but it just didn't happen. I was focused on other guys there, and he didn't seem interested to me, so I never gave him another thought.

The next year, I started to notice that every so often he would be looking at me. Husband claims he didn't, but I distinctly remember it and being surprised. Towards the end of that school year, we sort of got to know each other a little bit, through a friend.

School ended, and in early summer, I started talking to Husband via MSN messenger. Said friend continually would have constant chats with everyone in one window. After a couple of these, I added Husband to my list because he was "so funny and nice." So as the summer went on, I got to know him a bit and really enjoyed talking to him.

And then school started again. I switched to the public high school and he continued homeschooling. By this time I was pretty good friends with him from our online chats and was attending youth group regularly, so I saw him often.

Around this time, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, so I was majorly distracted and hurting. The day she was diagnosed, Husband was actually on a trip on the east coast. And I was surprised at myself for wanting him to know about it so he could pray for me and just be there. The same friend managed to get a hold of him to tell him about it.

He was not having a good semester that year. He was going through some stretching spiritually and with some friend drama, so he was not really focused on me at all. But the stuff with my mother made him even more wary of his feelings. I haven't ever been able to pin down with him when he actually started feeling for me, because he is so bad at dates. Somewhere around this time!

A month later, in October, towards the end, it suddenly occurred to me that I liked Husband. Which started a roller coaster of emotions and hope and disappointment.

To be continued!