Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Our Story

Twenty odd years ago I did a favor for a friend of mine. I'm really glad I did. It was an odd request, but we were in high school, so I guess it wasn't all that odd. She wanted me to dance with this guy and quiz him to find out the answer to the big question. Does he like me?

We were lowly underclassmen and he was a junior, way back when. He drove and had a car. He was good at everything. Good grades, good in music, done with sports but had been good at it, good in theater, debate and on and on and on. Once I got to know him better, I told him he had a golden lucky streak. But I'm ahead of myself.

We were all marching band geeks and way back then after the football games the school held dances with dj's and everyone stayed. That was the thing to do, go to the game, stay for the dance. I wasn't a very good follower though, and that night, I planned to stay for the game and go home. I wasn't hanging around for the dance, but my friend had other plans for me.

She begged and bugged and talked until I just gave in. She even lent me some clothes so that I could stay and complete her mission. Ask the boy.

So after much fluffing, you remember the 80's, break out the hair spray and gain a few inches, we went out to the gym. It took a while again to convince me to go talk to a guy I didn't know, let alone an upperclassmen. But time was ticking and she was waiting so off I went to ask this guy to dance with me.

In the end it was easy, he just said sure and off we went. The song was Amanda by Boston. And we danced. We danced like a fairy tale chick flick romance. We fit together, he could dance and we looked into each others eyes.

I'll never forget it, he said to me, "Don't look at me like that."

It's been one of our catch phrases for 20 years now.

How did it all turn out that night? Well, I never managed to ask him if he liked her, somehow with him being such a great dancer and all that eye gazing, I just never got around to asking the question. She, of course, was not too happy about it and claimed that I liked him and was only interested in him because he was older and had a car.

I knew, way back then, I just knew. He was the one. The one I would marry.

Now, it wasn't like it all went smoothly and we got married right away and lived happily ever after. No, in fact, it was a lot more like real life. There were families and friends to convince. We had break ups and fights and all sorts of crazy episodes. Even after we were married, we had some really rocky times, but then we became believers and everything changed.

We can easily look back now and see that God had a plan for us, even when we didn't know Him. He was watching out for us. Even when we were putting everything in jeopardy He kept it all under His control. He did indeed provide a way out, just as He promises.

What else can I tell you, as our anniversary approaches again, I'm still as crazy in love with this man as I was 21 years ago. He's still the best dancer I know and I'd slow dance with him any old time. His golden lucky streak? Well, it basically still stands. I've never known another person who just seems to always be in the right place at the right time, or have the right answer, or be able to create an unbelievable good outcome out of thin air. Deep down, he is a spectacular romantic.

Our lives are wildly different than we ever imagined. Long ago and far away we were going to be a dual income no kid family just living the high life. Some how God changed us and everything. I never would have pictured us living this life, but just the same, I love this life and could not picture us living anything else.

And my girl friend? Well, we stayed great friends though all of high school, even though I ended up with the boy. College saw us part ways and go in different directions, but today we're still in touch. And just in case you're wondering, she has a heart of gold, she was my maid of honor when I married "her" man all those years ago.

Our anniversary isn't until Friday, so odds are good you'll get some more memories, but just in case I get buried under mounds of laundry and snot and diapers and vomit, I thought I'd take this relatively quiet morning of fevers and ear aches to share part of our story with you.

It's been a 20+ year romance like no other.

**********************UPDATE************************

Can I just tell you that The Mr. can still surprise me like no other. Our door bell just rang and we answered it to find the pizza man delivering dinner from New York. Thanks Mr.

*****************MORE UPDATES*************************
So let the games begin, turns out it wasn't The Mr. who sent our dinner after all, even though the delivery man said it was him. I have my suspects all lined up. Any which way, thank you, thank you, thank you, we have been blessed and you can bet I won't have to cook for the rest of this week.

1 comment:

Karies place said...

That is wonderful Jen! You're one more than me. We just had our 20th last June.

I think God gives us these events in our lives so we have to work at what we want and not just have things thrown in our laps. We'll never learn that way.

Karie