The Story of a Marriage

For this Thankful Thursday, I have decided to tell you how thankful I am for my sweet husband.

And why, you might say?

Because….

Today is His Birthday!!!!

So, in honor of my husband’s birthday. I thought I would tell you how it all began. This is the next part in the story of my life that I have been telling over the last few weeks. If you are new and are interested, you can read The Story of a Snowflake Part One, here, and Part Two, here. Please be patient with me. This is another long post. Did I tell you I like to talk alot IRL, too?

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It was a dark and stormy night. Well, not exactly. I just thought that sounded really cool.

It was dark, and it had rained. It just wasn’t exactly stormy. But little did I know how drastically my life was about to change that dark and stormy rainy night.

I had only been at college a month. I had gone away with the desire to find myself. I was saved. I had a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father. But with all I had been through, I needed some time to be me. I needed to find my own identity. God had the same thought. But His plan was much different than the career track I had planned out.

On this particular dark and stormy wet night, there was a party on campus. I had gone to the party just to hang out. It was so boring that I actually left at one point. But friends talked me into going back. I am so glad they did!

After the party, I caught up with another group of friends going for a walk. There was a beautiful lake in the middle of campus that separated the residential part of campus from the academic, with a nice wide paved walkway in the middle. We stopped about halfway to just sit and chat. Remember those days?

As I was sitting there, I watched this tall, dark stranger walk from one end of the walkway to the other and back again. One of my friends had met him earlier in the evening and invited him to come join us.

While we walked back to my friend’s dorm, I kept thinking, “I want to say something to him, but I don’t know what to say.” Once in the dorm, my thoughts changed to “maybe if I leave, he’ll follow.” I left and, sure enough, he did follow. (You could say, he’s been following ever since, j/k)

We went up to my suite to talk. There was a lounge with one glass wall where we could talk privately and yet not be completely alone. As a matter of fact, all of my suitemates were just as curious as I was about this tall, dark stranger.

We had such a good time talking that we talked until 4:30 in the morning. I found out where he lived, what he did for a living and most importantly that he was a Believer. He lived two hours away and had only come for the weekend to go to a football game with a buddy from college, who was one of the Resident Directors. Yes, his buddy was from his college days, meaning he had graduated from college, meaning he was much older than I was.

I could tell he was older, but I wasn’t sure how much older. It took us 3 weeks to get around to that bit of information. I think we were both afraid of the answers. Remember, I was only 19 at the time. He was 27. There was 8 years between us. At that point it was a big deal. Not so much to us, but it was to both my step-father and my biological father. And yes, that was a hurdle that had to be crossed.

After that first weekend, he started to come every weekend. He would leave work on Friday and come straight to campus. He would stay with his friend and leave Sunday afternoon. As the months went by, he began to leave later and later.

Then in January, we both realized we needed to make some decisions. Where were we going with this relationship? By the time the conversation ended, we had decided to get married that summer. We really didn’t see any other way. We couldn’t go on the way we were and we couldn’t go back.

People tried to talk me out of it. “You’re only 19,” they would say. But I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was marrying the one God intended me to marry. I walked down that aisle without any hesitation and I have never looked back. That was over 14 years ago. (Yes, now you can figure my age. In fact I’ll make it easy for you…34.)

Fourteen years later, I am so thankful for the man God chose for me. I could not have done any better if I had tried. Our personalities complement each other so well. Our strengths and weaknesses balance one another.

Life hasn’t always been easy. But the important thing is we’ve done it together. Each step of the way we have worked on our marriage. Having come from a broken home, I had no intention of getting married and I had even less intention of getting divorced. We both have had a lot of growing to do. But through it all our love has lasted and even more than that, it too has grown.

The most important thing, though, is that we have always had God at the center of our marriage. His grace has sustained us. His love has carried us. And His protection has covered us.

So, sweetheart, if you are reading this, know that I love you no matter how young you are. You will always be that spry 27 year-old who met me at the altar (remember, I was the one in the white dress that was actually on time…for once). I’ll never forget the sacrifices you have made for me. And I could never repay the love you have given me. I am forever in your debt. And I will forever be at your side. As you told me those many long years ago…

Grow Old With Me
The Best is Yet to Be

Happy Birthday, my love!

My dear blog readers, as I read over this, I realize there is so much more I want to say. Again, this post turned out longer than I expected. Thank you for reading through it! So, I am quite sure I will post about it again. As I have mentioned before, I am very passionate about the topic of marriage. But, I will stay off of that soapbox for now. I did write a poem in honor of our wedding anniversary this past summer. You can read it here, if you are interested.

Thank you for reading!

Your friend,

Alicia

For more Thankful Thursday, visit Iris at Grace Alone, where she is discussing being thankful for life today. What a great topic!