We recently decided to dedicate some Tuesdays (when I remember) to the idea of exposing our home and of our lives in a truer light.
Chris and I didn’t have one of those whirlwind romances that resulted in an engagement 4 months later. We were friends for a long time. Friends that went on a few dates in between our relationships with other people for over two years. Often times we reflect back on those years and wonder why we never actually got together. Made it official. I mean, we are perfect for each other. But then we realize, timing is everything and the timing was never quite right. Also, Chris insists he had to “mature.” Which I think means, had to get all the noncommittal make-out sessions out of his system. We always had fun together (not that kind of fun) but we kept things casual and easy.
At the beginning of 2007, I decided to leave the world behind–including family, friends, school, my full-ride scholarship and started serving an eighteen month mission for my church. It was a personal choice to dedicate all of my time during those months to serving God and helping others. Meanwhile, Chris, whom I had also left behind, was knee-deep in college life. I was pretty certain that he would be moved on and married by the time I returned home, but I still decided to write to him occasionally while I was serving.
We’re talking hand-written, snail mail letters. Luckily, he was just as happy to write me back. Our letters were very similar to our relationship I had left behind–easy, casual and laced with lots of humor. And then, this September day 5 years ago, when I was a missionary for just 4 months, I got a letter from Chris. In the midst of one his always-hilarious letters, there was this paragraph:
I’m not sure how appropriate this next paragraph is, but I’m gonna write it anyway. I was dating a girl for while. We were headed toward becoming somewhat serious. Then I got that last letter from you. I couldn’t stop comparing her to you. I hope this isn’t awkward, I know you’re a missionary and boy/girl relationships are the farthest thing from your mind. But I finally realized that as great as she was, she didn’t make me laugh like you do. So I broke up with her a couple days ago. I think you’ve cursed me. I’ll never get serious with a girl if I keep comparing them with you.
My heart definitely skipped a few beats as I read and re-read that paragraph. We went on to write each other hundreds of more letters over the course of my mission (you can read the one where he
told wrote me he loved me
here) that now tell our story–we shared our testimonies, stories and thoughts with each other and fell in love through letters. Fortunately, we both held on to every letter and were able to compile them into a book (I scanned all of the letters and made the book through Blurb.com) to read through. Fall is always our favorite time to break out our book because of excerpts like the one above. We can read exactly what we were reading on the same day we read it X amount of years ago. And those exciting feelings all come back. Not everyone’s love story is documented so well, so honestly, we feel blessed–in all accounts.
How did your love story play out? Or maybe you’re still writing that story. Can we all agree that writing handwritten letters should make a serious come-back?
Wow, I just got a lump in my throat reading that. So sweet.
Thank you for sharing your story. :-) God blessed you with quite a romance!
Awww! I love this! We met as kids in our church youth group and started our friendship there. We slowly became the best of friends and fell in love, then started dating a few years after that and got married after dating for 4 years. Being married really is the best thing ever :)
I love you crazy love birds!!!
You know our story. But I think stands out most about our love story is when I met Ryan, even though I dragged my feet for like 6 months before finally getting engaged, I knew that he was different from all the other boys I dated. I had that feeling like, I can’t imagine my life without you and I don’t know how I survived before knowing you. We met under circumstances where you couldn’t just brush off. I was leaving on a mission. and he had just returned. Pretty sure I was the only girl in the singles ward anxiously waiting for the next missionary story to be told :-) We connected right away. It was pretty amazing.
We were a part for 3-4 months of our engaged courtship and it was so much fun to keep in touch through emails, facebook messages, and phone calls. I don’t even think he had texting! and forget about skype. we didn’t have that either!! AND I was 2 hours ahead of schedule. So, he knows I fell asleep a lot on the phone at night.
I love thinking about that time in our lives because we were such giggly love birds and I couldn’t imagine my life without him. Now, I wish we could just go back in that time, with a sure knowledge that we WOULD actually in fact get married, and relive it. I was stressed, and too afraid to commit half the time.
Anyways, you guys rock. :-)
Oh Melissa. This brought tears to my eyes. What a moving story. I am so glad you have those letters to look back on and bring you joy.