April 25, 1994

I don't talk much about my family life....that is....my life with family, outside of Carl and Faith. As a child, I had a rough childhood, to say the least. When I was sixteen, my younger sister and I were forced to escape/run from our home, for our lives. We both almost lost our lives in April of 1994. It was a traumatic event and a marker, in my life, that is not easy to forget and too painful to discuss in detail, here. When we ran, we had to leave the state to avoid being "arrested" as runaways and ended up in Idaho with some relatives. Eventually we made our way to S.C. where my grandmother lived, to try to restart our lives. When we finally were able to enroll in school, I was in my last four weeks of 10th grade. We were sent to a tiny school about half an hour away that was actually a middle and high school combined. On our first day, I was shown around the school by the Principal's daughter, so I could find my classes. I finally began school in the last period of the day....

Biology.

I was given a seat in the back, near a cute boy wearing a Pearl Jam t shirt and Nike flip flops. During the class, someone passed me a note (insert cute boy here) that read...

"Hi, my name is Carl. Where are you from? Can I have your phone number?"
He sure was cute and very precocious!

After class, he carried my books and let me store them in his locker since I hadn't been assigned one yet. (Bonus Points for cute boy)
He called me that evening and that day began....

Our story.
From that day, we were inseparable. We went everywhere together...ball games, concerts, school events, social events and fundraisers. We just clicked from day one! Our birthdays were just six days apart and he even knew my grandmother (who taught at his elementary school)! We went to our junior and senior prom..
(Yes, we were even prom king and queen!) and eventually graduation!

The summer before we met, Carl's mom had passed away from lung cancer, when he was just 15. So we both felt like God had just lined up all these weird events to bring us together, at the right time.

A few months after we met, a friend of Carl's told me that on the first day of school, Carl had seen me and told his friend that he had seen the girl he was going to marry!
TRUE STORY!
Our story had all the classic love story trademarks. It was like we both just knew that we were supposed to be together. We were young but there was just that knowledge from the beginning!I had friends but I really just wanted to be with him, all the time. We like (most) of the same things, we loved to travel, we liked the same kind of music and even the same kind of food!

We weren't wild and crazy kids...we didn't get in trouble. We did things like working at the animal shelter, volunteering for environmental club trash pick up and the like. We just had fun being together.

I always dreamed of having my "prince charming"....the kind of love that people imagine but rarely have...my grandparent's kind of love. I wanted the love where you just knew that your partner was made for you and you for them. After seeing my parent's marriage break up in a nasty divorce, I was NOT going to have that!
I wanted a best friend as well as a husband.
And I got it!

This man was made for me! We still spend all our free time together, enjoy each other's company and know that we have each other.

Sunday was...

Sixteen years since we met...

Half our lives.

We met at sixteen and this year we are thirty two.

I can hardly believe it! I remember when we used to imagine what that would be like. And I pray for 50 more!

This love was meant to be...Thank you, Lord, for this man!

There is no other person, I could ever invent who would match me more!

Happy Anniversary, Babe, I love you just as much as the year we met! I still feel that exciting love in my heart for you!