I had a friend who told me about this great guy she wanted me to meet. He was an engineer, graduated from Poteet (my alma mater too!), and from what she could remember- he always had impeccable taste and always matched his socks to his shirts. I didn't want to go meet him, to be honest. I was ready to just take a break from dating anyone. I agreed upon her insistence.
And, there it happened. I walked into his apartment and I knew that we were either going to spend the rest of our lives together OR never see each other again. The rest of the evening (was spent on a double date with another couple) went well. So I thought. I noticed that Brian stayed within close proximity but looked at me as if I were from a whole 'nother planet. He didn't ask for my number at the end of the evening so I figured the latter of the two ideas about "us" would be the one to come to fruition.
Two weeks after that date, I got a phone call from the girl who happened to be on the double date with Brian and me. She said he was definitely interested and she hoped it was okay but, she went ahead and gave him my number. (yes!) Later that evening, he called.
I won't go through the next few years we dated. It would be too long to recall and write down every single date we went on. All I know is I knew after the first few dates that I wanted to marry this man. The end of our dates were the hardest. He would take me home and drive back to Richardson. About a year after we started dating, we began to discuss the possibility of marriage. He once told me, after the fact, that one of his aunts pulled him aside in his grandmother's kitchen and asked if he was planning on asking me to marry him. I imagine he turned purple from embarrassment and mumbled something similar to, "Uh...yeah, um, yes. I mean...I think." haha!
So, this next part, I come off not looking so great in so let's just go with it, shall we? We discussed setting a date and we wanted to get married in our church. The only date that was close to what we had initially wanted was August 11th. So, I went ahead and put the deposit down on the church before Brian formally asked me. Don't misunderstand. I totally asked him if he was comfortable with me doing this. He was. Obviously. We went through the church's premarital counseling sessions for the next six weeks. We met with an older couple who were our counseling and prayer partners. They gave us a compatibility test and after they looked at the results, told us that in their 20+ years of doing premarital counseling, we were the most compatible couple they had ever seen.
The proposal was a surprise...but not. On Valentine's Day, he made me this amazing dinner at his apartment and watched an I Love Lucy marathon with me. Here's the deal: There were these dishes I had been eyeballing. They were square and unique and I loved them. Well, in the living room, he had two huge boxes wrapped addressed to me. I opened them and thought, "Um, dishes for Valentine's Day? Ok. Where would I keep these?" As I was opening the second box, he said, "Please turn around." And there he presented me with a ring and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him.
And I intend to do just that.
I knew I wanted to marry him. I didn't care how, when, or where. I wanted to be his wife. I think about that feeling sometimes when we're caught up in the stress of every day life, work, and our precious and precocious little boys.
We have been through everything together: loss of family members, jobs, school, new jobs, loss of a child, and my whole near-death thing. It is by the grace of God that we are where we are and we don't forget that. Eleven years and I still wake up excited about what new adventure we're going to take our family on.
Happy Anniversary, B!
1 Universe, 8 planets (9 really), 204 countries, 809 islands, 7 Seas, and I had the privilege to meet you.
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