14 Years

It is amazing how fast time goes. 14 years ago on this date, I married my soul mate. He truly was "the one". It seemed to take forever for him to come into my life. I was 26 years old and beginning to think I would never find my one and only. Looking back I was still young, but you couldn't tell me that then. I had dated some good guys and some not so good guys and I had pretty much given up.

It was a whirlwind romance for sure. Neither one of us expected anything to come of this. He was getting a divorce and intended to play the field. I was so used to being treated like crap or things not working out, that I figured he was just another one of those guys. Pretty funny how he turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Our paths crossed several times in our lives. He was nine years older than me and believe me, I rubbed that in as often as I could! haha When he was a kid, he played at a park that was near his aunt's house. It turns out, I used to play at that same park because it was close to my grandma's house and neither of us actually lived in the town where that park was, we would just visit there. When I was a senior in High School, I went to San Diego on my senior trip. While we were there we toured a naval cargo ship. He was in the Navy and stationed there. He was in port at the time and his son was born 1 month later. His youngest sister was 3 years older than me and I had no idea. I used to see one of his other sisters and his dad in the grocery store all the time when I worked there and had no idea who she was. Then I worked with his brother. We were definitely meant to meet, it just had to be at the right time. My mom always would tell me that the man I was meant to marry wasn't ready yet and that's why I hadn't met him. Turned out to be true. :)

When we got married, we were pretty broke. He had just lost his job and was taking whatever part time jobs he could until he found another full time job. I was working, but it was a small town so I wasn't making much money. We had decided we were going to just go to Vegas and forget the wedding. About 10 minutes after we made the decision my stepmom called and said they would pay for a good portion of the wedding. I couldn't believe it! I still had to cut costs big time though. We had the wedding in the church, which I hated, but it was free so....I borrowed a dress from a friend, my pictures were done by a guy I worked with that was just starting a photography business so we got a really big discount. the decorations were borrowed and homemade and my aunt made all of the favors and my stepdaughter's veil. My stepmom did the bouquets and made my veil and one of his sisters paid for a dj. It was a pretty inexpensive wedding, but very nice. Especially considering we were gonna run to Vegas.

I know a lot of couples have a song. We had one too, but we didn't decide on one until a couple years after we got married. We chose "At Last" by Etta James. Very fitting since we waited so long to find each other!

No marriage is perfect, ours included, but I was very happy with him. Things were pretty difficult in the end, but looking back I know why. I would never trade a day of it because there were a lot more good days than bad and the bad ones made me stronger.

I know that I will be with him again, but I also know that I have the desire to love someone else too. I hope I have the chance to have this kind of love again. The kind where no matter what, you are there for each other. You take care of each other, be honest with each other, love being with each other, but love having time apart too to make the times together all the more special. The kind of love that no matter what troubles come along, you are willing to work at it together to come out on the other side stronger and more in love. Also the kind where there is respect and devotion. I want to be able to have that for my kids too so they can see what that kind of love is and learn from it so they can find it for themselves one day.