eleven years ~ our love story

tomorrow is our eleventh anniversary.
having an anniversary right before christmas is a little bit of a bummer because it's often overshadowed by the holidays.
one year we even forgot our anniversary entirely.
we don't ever get each other gifts....we are lucky to go out...usually we end up celebrating after the new year.
this year i will probably be scrambling to get everything done because we are celebrating christmas on saturday.

in thinking about our anniversary, i realized that i have never written out our love story.
at least how it began . . .

AJ and i met at john brown university.
my sophomore year, his freshman year, he coached my powderpuff football team.
if you know me, you know i possess zero athletic ability.
i was on that team because all of my friends were on it and they talked me into it.
honestly i was mostly concerned about looking cute with my pigtails and eye black.
i didn't really notice AJ and he wasn't impressed with me.

fast forward to the next year {my junior year, his sophomore}.
we were young life leaders together and started sloooowly getting to know each other.
i was busying myself dating this guy and that guy and again not really being aware of AJ {sigh....hindsight}.
we were talking more and more at young life and started hanging out with mutual friends.
i remember thinking he was a really great guy but that i could never date him.
he was just tooo nice. {clearly i had some issues}.
little did i know, he liked me and thought i was flirting with him....which frustrated him because he knew i was dating someone.
i had no idea.
at the time, he had a broken foot from rugby and had a big ol' cast on it.
college guys thought it was funny to act like they were going to kick his foot or step on it, etc.
my motherly instincts would kick in and i would always shield his foot.
he liked that and that's when he really started to notice me.

one night, four of us went out to a midnight movie.
we walked into the theatre together and it was nearly full.
i headed off towards the front where there were two seats available...expecting my girlfriend to follow and sit with me.
i look up and there comes AJ, hobbling along on his crutches and sits in the seat next to me.
i'm thinking, what the heck.
the movie was enemy of the state.
whenever there was an especially violent or scary part AJ would reach up to shield my eyes.
ha ha! now that makes me laugh.
however, at the time, i loved it.  that felt so protective and sweet.
that was the first time i really took notice of him.
but, i was still completely clueless that he liked me.
some time later, my best friend came into my dorm room late at night and told me that there was someone that liked me but she wasn't supposed to tell me.
of course she did. obviously.
i. was. shocked.
shocked. shocked. shocked.
this was honestly a life changing moment for me.
i knew that the guy i was dating was not God's best for me.
i knew that i was settling and just filling my time.
that night i cried and cried.

i immediately ended the relationship i was in.

i told the Lord, if someone like AJ would like someone like me, i would never settle again.

i never dreamed that AJ would think of me in that way.
he seemed too good for me.
that night i felt the Lord so close...saying this is what I have for you.
it was good and painful at the same time.
God didn't wait for me to have my act together to give me such a gift.
He gave me the gift and that brought me to the right place.


soooo... a few days later AJ drove me home from young life.
right as i was getting out of the car, he asked me out.
later he told me he watched me walk all the way into my dorm.
he was acting like he was making sure that i got in safely, but really he was watching me shake it.  ha!

first we went on a double date and he acted really weird.
he was telling jokes and generally not being himself.
i kept telling myself, he's not usually like this.
by the end of the night he pulled himself together and it was good.
he just needed to chill out a bit. ;)
he walked me back to my dorm and as we said goodbye, he said, "we'll do this again, yes?"
i liked that.

a few days later we had ice cream in the park and then hung out outside my dorm talking.

he said hi to every single person that walked by and was so friendly.
i kept thinking, i can't believe i'm with him.

that weekend we went out on what we call our first real date {a week after our double date}.
he planned the whole night out with all of my favorite things.
we ate at this little hole in the wall italian restaurant.

and that was the night it happened. . . magic.
we were sitting across the table from each other,  eating these weird, twisty breadsticks, talking and looking right into each other's eyes, and we just knew.

we both remember that moment.
i knew that he was the one i would spend the rest of my life with.

later that night we watched breakfast at tiffany's and he asked me if he could hold my hand.
and that was it.
i was his.

and they lived happily ever after . . .

Pin It