A Love Story

Anybody who knows me well enough knows how absolutely and madly in love I am with my husband. I think I just recently started to get over the "honeymoon stage" after almost two years of being married.. Haha! He really is such an amazing, funny, sweet, compassionate, man- I can never get enough of him! Not only is he the love of my life but he's my best friends as well, I love him so much. 
(Ok Amy, we get it.. move along) 

Many 'til this day don't know our "lurrvv story", or how it all started. So, I'm here to share it with you all..

In The Beginning  
In the summer of 2011 I met Thomas' sister working at a summer camp. I remember telling her how I was a sucker for "white guys" so she showed me a picture of her "hot Marine brother" whom I might be interested in. I saw his picture and really thought nothing of him. If any of you have ever seen a Marine's official military picture you would know how serious and may I say, unattractive they can sometimes look. Lips pierced, chin up, looking like a real Devil Dog.. Thank you, but no thank you.

(See what I mean? Not the best picture, right!)

A few months later I randomly came across Thomas' Facebook page and noticed we had a mutual friend. I became curious to know how they knew each other and found out that they knew one another from high school. To my surprise, we went to the same high school but never met each other. As I scrolled through his "normal" everyday pictures I thought to myself- "Oh, I was wrong. He's a hunk!"

(Much, much better picture.. Maybe it's the puckered lips!)

Love At First Type?

We began messaging each other, two 20-year-olds, living on different ends of the country, just friends, not looking for love. I was living in California going to school and working. He was stationed in Virginia serving in the Marine Corps. In a short amount of time, our conversations became more intimate and our phone calls became more special. Somehow, we just clicked. As I mentioned, neither of us were looking for love at the time.. But, without realizing it, our relationship grew deeper and I quickly became smitten- the feeling was mutual.

The Best 3 Days of 2011
Thomas came home to California for Christmas, and after months of countless phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages, it was finally time to meet face to face. I probably spent half the day getting ready.. My palms were sweaty, my knees were week, and I had these little things called butterflies causing a ruckus in my stomach.. the day was finally here and I could hardly contain my excitement. To make the long story short, we spent a total of only 3 days together before he had to be back in Virginia, and those 3 days were nothing short of magical. I know, it sounds extremely corny. But for the first time in my life, I felt things I had never felt before, I was witnessing my very own fairy tale with my very own Prince Charming.. and I was in love.

(By the way, our first meeting almost didn't happen. I got upset because he wouldn't give me an exact date to meet so I told him to forget it and get lost. He felt bad so he finally set a time and place to meet. I was extremely late and he almost left.. Thank God he set a time and day and thank God he didn't leave!)

(The first picture we took together when he came home for Christmas. We look so different!)


Reunited & It Felt So Good
Three months later Thomas was sent to be in 29 Palms (next to Palm Springs) for a few weeks. It was a 6 hour commute there and back but I knew I had to take the drive to see him again. Just as before, the time we spent together that week was amazing and I was more sure than ever that he was the man of my dreams and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. By me making the trip (two trips to be exact) to go see him it gave him the reassurance he needed that I ,too, was the one for him. 

(Once again, this trip almost didn't happen. I was going through so many inward doubts and issues about us and our relationship that at the last minute I had decided I wouldn't go see him and call it quits. But Thomas used his sweet persuasive words and assured me that everything would be ok, and it was. Thank God he didn't give up as easily as I did!)

I Said Yes
Thomas returned to California in June for another visit. While he was there he took the opportunity to take me to one of his favorite places, Laguna Beach. He took me to a cliff over looking the ocean, got down on one knee and proposed. And I said "YES!" 

Cut To The Chase 

Originally, we wanted to wait before saying our "I Do's". We knew we were young and should probably wait, and on top of that we wanted to plan the fairy tale wedding I always dreamed of .. But when love hits you, it hits you and you don't expect it. Eventually we grew tired of the late night phone calls and miles spread between us and we decided that we didn't want to be apart from each other anymore.. so we said, "Let's just get married. Let's get it over with". 

I flew to Virginia on 4th of July and got married to the man of my dreams on July 5th, 2011. Our wedding was short, sweet and private- it was just me, him, and the officiant. We spent our honeymoon in the airport and less than 6 hours later were saying our goodbyes (so romantic). A month later I made the move to Virginia to be with Thomas for good and finally start our lives together. 

(This almost didn't happen as well. There's a little funny store about me missing my flight, or getting off at the wrong stop or something like that, and I think there was some frantic crying and several extra hundreds spent for another plane ticket.. But we'll just leave that out)

The End

And that's the short version of our story. Being young, in a long distant relationship was hard, and it became even harder when we had to deal with unique challenges that the military threw at us. But we stuck to it and we didn't give up despite all the odds against us. We're still sticking to it, everyday is a challenge to keep our love and marriage as alive and exciting as it was in the very beginning  But we're doing it, and I can truly say that I am happier now than I have ever been and there is not one day that goes by that I'm not thankful to God for putting Thomas in my life. I love him more than any words could ever express and I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with him.

"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible"