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.
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.
Our wood grain Shaker cabinet fronts were designed for busy, high-traffic homes like ours. Clad with durable textured thermofoils, this line is compatible with Sektion, Akurum, Godmorgon, and Besta cabinets from IKEA. It's the perfect, practical way to add the warmth of wood to all the rooms of your home.
We have teamed up with Loloi to create a line of rugs that are as affordable as they are beautiful. This collection houses a great mix of traditional and modern rugs, in cottage-y colorways, as well as vintage-inspired beauties that you’ll want to roll out in every room.
We partnered with Stuga on a line of hardwood floors — The Ingrid is really livable, and the color is very neutral. It doesn’t lean warm or cool, it’s that just right in-between. We have really loved putting it everywhere in our house. It’s the best jumping-off point for design, no matter your interior style. In addition to being beautiful, Ingrid is really durable — we have three kids, and we always have a home construction project going on. Ingrid stands up to it all.
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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.
Haha. Yes, I love love. I think you have an incredible outlook, too. Good for you!
What a sweet idea to share it with your daughter down the road! She will, no doubt, benefit from those letters.
Oh my goodness! At first I thought he was going to be the person you got the bed from. Hahaha. Great, great story. Love it and the bed.
I love your love story! It must be unbelievably beautiful to have the beginning of your story documented through such personal letters to each other.
I will try to sum up our story, in my kind of Italian English. :-)
Our love story started 6/7 months after we met, and since the beginning we have sent to each other lots of funny and loving mails and sms, as laughing was an important part of our relationship too, and made me choose him again everyday and still now.
After 2 month since the beginning of our relationship, we discovered he has a cancer in his throat and writing got even more important, even funny things, because trying to laugh in a moment of despair was very helpful.
He had to go trough 2 throat surgeries in 1 year. And every day before the operation, during the operation itself and the following days, I’ve shared every thought and details with our friends and family in long emails…
Then he had to go trough chemo for 2 months, and writing again was important, to support him above all, and because I gave him a letter and a present for each day of chemo.
The cancer moved then into the lungs and he had to have 3 lungs surgeries.
Between them our relationship got deeper and harder, but we both tried to have really good moments, showing each other real love, and having fun every time we could. We wrote to each other, even though we were seeing each other almost every day, but it’s easier to write some time…and you can reach the feelings of someone easier..
During all the lungs surgeries I have also sent frequent emails to our friends and family. my emails were also kind of funny, full of love, and optimism.
During the last lung surgery, I also kept a diary of every moment, of every time we spoke with the doctors, for every important step, because I thought it will give him, and to me, to the strength to go ahead.. I’ve also tried to describe everything in a good light, in a funny way too, so he wouldn’t too be sad reading it once back home..Because he was so sad for all the pain he was giving to his mom and me, despite of himself..
But he never came back home, and never read this diary..he died 2 years and 7 month ago..
He is still with me anyway and I have the chance to read some of our emails, and sms. It helps me thinking he’s not that far away, and remembering every really good funny and loving moment..I can’t read the diary though.
So, this is our story..I know it’s sad but also full of love, emails, and.. fun, and love! :-)
Still writing mine… both figuratively and literally! I had just gotten out of a terrible, poisonous relationship. A new ward member (baptized after investigating the church entirely on his own!) was talking with my brother-in-law after church, so I went over to introduce myself and invite him to join our YSA group in going to the multi-stake YSA Valentine’s dance that coming weekend.
Fast-forward 18+ months – I’m almost done with school, he’s working as a flight instructor in Boston, hoping to become a commercial airline pilot when he gets enough flight hours in through his current job. We write hand written letters, skype a few times a week, and miss each other a lot. Through a lot of prayer and fasting though, we know we are both on the right track in this relationship. We are taking it slow. I don’t know how things will work out, but the Spirit tells me it will and I need not worry. I am so incredibly happy. (and I get to go see him soon and meet his parents!! :D)
Don’t you just love love?? :)
It may seem odd to some people, but I actually still have every hand written note and email from my first love/high school boyfriend. We have both gone on and married other people, but I love that I can still go back and remember that exhilarating feeling of falling in love for the first time. I also figure someday if I have a daughter and she has her heart broken and feels like her world will end, I can show her that I had a deep, deep love that I lost and I came out better for it and found my real true love. Yes, handwritten letters are an amazing memento and I so wish they were still in style!
#!!http://goo.gl/1HRhv
The way I met my boyfriend was a bit complicated but we wrote each other a letter before we ever met! Here’s how it all went down: http://annabelvita.com/2011/08/30/this-is-the-story-of-a-bed/ (we moved in together four months later)
What a treasure those letters of yours are! I’m sure Greta will love the book when she grows up.