Our Love Story part 2...

Also referred to as "You're Getting Married When?"

We left our young heroine as she was freaking out about meeting the Future Hubby and his girls the next weekend. So, I swallowed my panic and took the plunge. (I knew my friend would hunt me down and hurt me, literally, if I left her hanging.) His girls were absolutely adorable. The oldest was 8 and SOOO grown up. The youngest was 5 and had such big blue eyes....you just wanted to pinch her cheeks. The girls fell in love with my bundle of joy immediately.

We were inseperable from that night on. Either I was at his house or he was at mine. I said the big L word first. It was about a month or so into our relationship and it just slipped out. He said nothing. He still said nothing. Finally, I asked him if he heard me. He said yes, but he just wasn't sure, he'd been through so much already, this was a bit sudden. Instead of being the grown up mature woman that I am now, I cried. Yep, started bawling. Part of it was that I didn't intend to say it. Part of it was that I knew what he said was true. Part of it was, I don't know, things just didn't happen the way I had dreamed about.

Things continued the way they had for a couple more weeks. Things were good, but it seemed like the L word just hung between us like an unseen barrier. It was out there and I couldn't draw it back. One day, I was at work and it was a hectic day. Things weren't going right and I was a bit frazzled. He called me, the way he usually does, but I told him that things were crazy and I'd see him when I got off work. He said ok and hung up. A minute later the phone rings again and it's him. In my mind I was a bit put out with him. Didn't he hear me say that I was busy? He says I know I just hung up but I wanted to tell you that I love you. Time stood still. My heart stopped. My mouth hit the floor. He said I know you're busy, but I just thought you needed to hear that. I stammered something, not sure what exactly, and hung up the phone. It was incredible! He actually loved me!

Very shortly after that (less than 2 months into our relationship) I quit my job. He gave up the lease on his apartment and he moved in with me until our new house was ready. My friends (not the one who introduced us) thought I had lost my mind. His family was ready to commit him. Luckily, my family knew me well enough to know that when I make up my mind, that's it. I've thought everything through. When I say he's the one, he's the one.

Our new house was about 100 miles away from friends and family. This was big for me. I had never lived away from my family, but this felt so right. Again his family is ready to have him committed.

A month later, Thanksgiving weekend, he asks me to marry him. (Remember that I just met him 2 1/2 months earlier.) I said yes. He said ok, we'll go Monday and do it. I said wait a minute. Monday? He says yes, I don't want to wait another minute. My head was spinning. This wasn't going according to plan. (I'm a very plan oriented girl. You have to have a plan. The plan can change, but there still must be a plan.) I told him that I wanted a "real" wedding. My mom has had all of her girls get married at her house except me. I wanted to get married at her house. I wanted the dress and the flowers and the angels singing, the whole she-bang.

Remember that my friend wanted to wear red at the wedding? Remember she had suggested Christmas? Remember that I said Christmas was a bit rushed? Well, we actually considered Christmas. The only reason that we waited was that his girls were going to be with their mom at Christmas. We chose the first Saturday after the first of the year that he would have his girls. We were determined that they were going to be there too. In my mind, I wasn't just marrying him, I was marrying them too.

His family was ready to kidnap him and do an intervention. Looking back now, I can understand their point of view. What were we thinking? We got married barely 5 months after we met. We were living together after only 2 weeks, despite what the hubby said at the time. (His reasoning was that since we both still had our own houses, even though we didn't sleep in them regularly, we weren't living together.) I'd like to say that we just got lucky. Reality was that we were determined that this was going to work. We worked like the Dickens to keep everything together and all that hard work has paid off. We are more in love today than we were 12 years ago. He is my best friend, my soul mate, the love of my life.... I could go on and on forever and never be able to put the feelings into proper words.

Oh, and my friend, she didn't wear red. We chose blue instead. ;o)