Our Other Anniversary

Today Carey and I celebrate our other anniversary. We got married on July 11th, 1997, but we started "going together" on September 16th, 1992. I remember it was a chilly morning like this one. It was See You at the Pole day. My BF had told Carey's BF the day before that I had a bit of a crush on him. He was just so cute and funny and goofy and had hands down the BEST smile in the world (braces and all). We had gotten to know each other pretty well from that summer, working together at VBS and had hung out in the youth group together over that past year. He was just fun, not as serious as all the other guys at church or at school. Anyway, that day it was of course different around him because he now knew that I had a bit of a crush on him and I now knew that he had a bit of a crush on me. C'mon, you remember that feeling too, right ... it is the best.

That night at church, he officially asked me to "go with" him. We had our first date a few weeks later on Homecoming. We went out to dinner before the game to the Southside Diner in Weatherford. I was in drill team and he was in marching band, so we had to eat early to get back to school in time. Of course, I drove. You see the big scandal was that I was a Junior and he was a Freshman (but I am only 1 year and 3 months older than him). In fact, years later, a teacher of ours (who is now a good friend) told us that we were the talk of the teacher work room for a while ... Aledo was a bit smaller back then. I guess a Junior going with a Freshman was big news. I didn't much care what everyone else thought (which was huge for me to think that way back then). It didn't take long for me to realize that he was my dream man. He loved the Lord, he loved other people and was kind, considerate, sincere, funny ... all traits that I was totally attracted to. Not to mention that he was voted Most Friendly in his Senior class, thank you very much.

Little did we know that the Lord had brought us together at that time for a reason. Over the course of the next two years, many life changes would come our way. Carey's Dad moved back to Michigan, his BF moved to Oklahoma, his mom would remarry and my supposedly BFs would turn into the biggest back-stabbing you know what's in the world. Well, all of these can really shake up the world of a teenager. But the Lord brought us together so that we could be there for each other. All of these changes/trials turned out for the good. Carey's dad remarried in Michigan to a wonderful, sincere, loving Godly woman, who my kids call Grandma. Carey got a new BF Jason, who still fills that position today. And I dropped all my girlfriends (who were into drinking, partying and doing alot of other unmentionable things) for new friends that not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. It was such a blessing when I look back on it that we had each other to talk to every night on the phone and someone to look forward to seeing at school everyday.

Carey's Freshman Yearbook picture. See ... doesn't he just
look like he is so much fun to be around?!

Me on Drill Team my Junior year (fortunately, I could not
locate my yearbook picture ... wasn't a pretty one).
I wish I could get back all that long curly hair.

Not sure when this was, but he still looks the same to me!
Not a total band nerd ... he played football too,
but I couldn't find a picture of that.

This morning in my prayer time I just thanked God that he is so loving and involved in the our lives and is always looking out for us and preparing us for our trials ... even when we are 14 and 16 years old! He is an awesome God!