My husband and I don’t generally celebrate Valentines day. We’re not huge into celebrating fake holiday’s, but I’ve been wanting to write our love story for a while and figured this would be a good time to start it.

I find that it’s befitting to give you a bit of history about Hubs and my circumstances that led up to our meeting, falling in love and living this wonderful married life.

2004 found me in a rough state, literally and figuratively. It was my senior year and I was going thru some major transition. I started going to a school for Missionary Kids in Ecuador back in 5th grade, but as is typical for kids like me, I moved around a lot. And by a lot I mean went to 7 different grade schools and 5 different high schools across two different continents. My parents had decided to move back to the states for good after my junior year. So my first semester of my senior year was in Maine, at a very different type of high school than I had been used to. Not only that, I was there in the winter, blurg.

It was a hard season for me, to say the least. I lost some really close friendships in very hard ways and my soul was bitter. My parents decided that it would be best to send me back to Ecuador to finish up high school and then graduate with my class. I was so thankful! My parents sacrificed a lot to do this for me. I still don’t know the depths of what they gave up for me, but I know that it was divine providence!

I had heard a little bit about Naphtali because he had dated a friend of mine. He had been homeschooling for most of his high school career and both he and his mom were over it. They decided to send him up to Ecuador to finish his high school career in a normal school.

The school has a lot of students that board there because their parents live in secluded locations all around the continent. They built dorms for these students to live in and Naph and I both lived in one our senior year. The same one, actually.

By the time I got there, Naph had been there for a whole semester, started in with the soccer team, dated a good friend of mine and joined the music team on campus. I arrived, emotionally and physically tired but excited. I found out we would be living in the same dorm and thought it would be a good chance to find a new friend but didn’t have many other notions about it…oh wait… that’s a lie.

I definitely remember having him described to me by some girls and thinking “Hmm…I could marry him.” Hah. Sad.

What’s more sad is that I was dating someone else. Yeah, and I liked him. But more in a passionate way. Sorry mom, don’t blush.

We’ll call him Burt, because that is a fantastic name. Burt was a handsome devil who I had known for quite a while, as his family went to our church in the states for years. We would flirt off and on when we were in the states and when we moved back to the states for good, he and I became much closer. He had just joined the army and was having a hard time being away from family, and I was alone and hurting and was looking for a kindred spirit. That Christmas he came home and surprised me by showing up at my front door with a beautiful diamond necklace. The next couple days were a flurry of love and flirting, whispers and cuddles. Then I moved to Ecuador and our long distance fiasco began.

I had dated quite a bit before Burt. I knew that there were certain uncompromising things I wanted in someone I could potentially spent my life with. Unfortunately gushy words, Godiva Chocolate and diamond necklaces couldn’t make up for Burt’s lack of purpose after his stint with the military. Once I got back to Ecuador we’d e-mail back and forth and I’d try and figure out where his life was headed. I was obviously going to be done with high school soon so if I was going to consider going to college any where near him, I wanted to know there was a future.

I would get e-mail, after e-mail back from him about how we were under the same night sky, how he wanted to name a star after me, how the future didn’t matter as long as we had each other. My gag reflexes were on high alert to say the least.

So I got to Ecuador and that first day I met my future husband. It was one of the most awkward moments in my life.

I was going up the stairs, he was coming down the stairs and we met on the landing. I had just been in the states for 6 months and gotten used to shaking hands. (There is nothing more awkward than meeting people in the states and leaning in for a kiss while they look at you like you’re some wacko). He on the other hand was still used to the latin salutations of kissing on the cheeks. So I went in for the shake, he went in for the kiss and then we switched. It was awkward, we laughed nervously and then finally settled on an awkward wave. Match this up with him being MUCH cuter than I anticipated, thus confirming my previous thoughts of “I could marry this guy” and I knew I was in for heartache.

Yes, it’s true, Naph and I lived in the same dorm. Now before you get all bent out of shape, just know that we had to sign a covenant agreeing that everyone who lived in this house were considered brothers and sisters and for that reason couldn’t date each other.  So he lived on the top floor where all the boys were and I lived on the 2nd floor with all the girls…right across my our dorm parents. Again…divine providence

Mark and Carla, our dorm parents, were the most amazing people. They had lived in Chicago for several years as foster parents for kids in between juvey and school. They are beautiful people who made it always fun to live in the dorm.

That first night in the dorm set the tone for the rest of our friendship. I had major jet lag. They made spaghetti and Naph stayed with me during dinner to get to know me a little better. Lets just say me, slurping, spaghetti and pasta sauce don’t make a good combination. Luckily I didn’t scare that hottie away and we found we both had a great passion for sarcasm. Naph filled me in on the overwhelming lack of sarcastic people in our dorm and we quickly decided we enjoyed each other’s company.

We got incredibly close over the next couple months. We had a lot of classes together and both had a detached air about our senior year. He didn’t grow up with these students so he wasn’t too attached and I had already said my goodbyes a year before thinking I wasn’t going back so was trying to deal with a new attitude and environment.

Then the drama began. Because how can you have a high school romance, with out a little drama?

See you tomorrow….

Lovies