Our Love Story

Every couple has a story they could share about how they met.  

(I personally love hearing them!)  

Well, here's ours:

In 1988 I applied to a college I never really had any hope of actually getting into.  

I was a fairly average student in high school.

When I graduated in 1987 I decided to put off college and spend a year in New York being a nanny.  

I grew up a lot there, and decided to reach for the stars and apply to Brigham Young University. 

Miraculously, I got in!  When I finished my commitment in New York I moved to Provo, Utah.  

I began school in June, as I was accepted to the summer term.  

I don't remember much about that term. 

Fall semester was a lot different than summer, that was when all the cute guys came.  

Which seemed very important having just returned from a year long dating hiatus. 

Within weeks I had met my "college crush", and no, it wasn't my husband.  

My future husband didn't arrive to BYU until the block began.  

By that time I was fully invested into my current romance, which was progressing quite nicely. 

I remember the first time I laid eyes on my future husband.  

He was sitting behind me in church- holding another girl's hand. 

'What the heck!'  (I thought) 

I had literally just gone on a double date with that girl- and she seemed really into the guy she was with...so...who was this new cute guy she's holding hands with?  

That was it.  I didn't think anything more about him. 

That girl, and that cute guy- they began dating, and ironically, she lived right next door to me. 

The guy I was progressing quite nicely with- well, he lived across the hall from, 

you know-that cute guy, (My future husband). 

I found it very odd when that cute new guy encouraged the girl he was dating to go on a mission. 

 I sure didn't see that coming.  

But he did, and she went, another thing I didn't see coming.

 Weird.

After that girl left on her mission that cute guy became friends with my roommate. 

 I don't know how that happened.  

One day he just started showing up at our apartment.  I found him very intimidating.  

He was proper and smart.  I guess he was a "Southern Gentleman", but it made me uncomfortable.  

There was something about him that made me feel very.... unrefined.  

I taught aerobics while I was at BYU, and it seemed like I was always in gym clothes every time I saw him. He always looked very put together, like he was going somewhere important.  

One day I was walking past the Cougar Eat, and saw him walking towards me.  

I changed directions so I wouldn't pass him.

He tells me now that at that same moment the teacher he was walking with pointed to me and said,

"That girl has a lot of light, you should date her."  

To which he says that he replied, "I'd like to, but she has a serious boyfriend."   

(I still wonder if that part of the story is true.)  

I found BYU to be a lot more difficult than I imagined.  

I was working multiple jobs and my grades reflected that.  

I heard that Delta Airlines was hiring flight attendants.  

I loved traveling.  

I applied, interviewed, and got the job.

This would mean I would leave BYU, as well as the guy I thought I was progressing nicely with.    

Obviously it wasn't progressing as nicely as I'd hoped because he had never mentioned the prospects of marriage with me.  

One day, that cute guy, (my future husband), came over to see my roommate.  

He asked where I was going to train for the airlines.  

I became self-conscious, and somehow muttered out, "In Atlanta, Georgia".  

He then told me that he's from Georgia and would be home for the spring.  

THEN he said that I should give him a call! 

Yeah, right!  Had he not sensed my awkwardness around him?

Why would he even suggest such a thing?  Did he even know my name?

Then one night I was sitting in the hot tub with the guy I now only wished I was progressing nicely with, when that cute guy, my future husband, walked across the pool area. 

The guy noted, "I really like that guy...he doesn't say much, but when he does say something, it really means something." 

Hm.  What was that feeling that just went through me?  

Why did those words mean something to me? 

What was it about that moment that sent a message to my brain that said, 'Yeah, that is kind of cool'?

I still don't know- but it did, and it still does now.  

By April I was in Atlanta, Georgia training to be a "Sky Goddess".  (That's what we called ourselves.)

One day I got a message that he had called for me at the training center.

I tried to call him back but when his mom answered the phone I could barely understand what she was saying due to the fact that her southern accent was so thick.  

She must have understood that I was calling for him, because eventually we ended up on a date.  

Our date was awkward.  

He talked about that awesome girl on the mission. 

I talked about the guy who I was now not progressing with at all.   

Let's just say there was absolutely NO hint of love potential here.  

I ended the flight attendant training, he came to the airport to see me off, 

and I decided to take an earlier flight.  

I stood him up.  Wow.  Can you believe this story ends in marriage?

I can't either, but it really does!

I went home and began my new life of flying.  

This was a whole new world for me, and to be honest, it was a lonely world.  

Meeting nice Mormon guys to date wasn't as easy as it use to be.  

A girl I was flying with introduced me to a Mormon boy she knew, we started dating,

and within weeks he asked me to marry him.  YIKES!!

Now- can you believe that I actually accepted this proposal?  Me neither, but I did.        

I think I might have been a little heartbroken over that guy who I was no longer progressing with.  

This is what they usually call a "REBOUND" relationship.  

Two weeks before we were going to get married I came to my senses and called off the wedding. 

I'm not going to comment anymore on that time or experience.

I will simply refer to it as "temporary insanity".  

Let's just say that I was distraught.  I felt genuinely sad.  

I questioned myself and my ability to think right. I also felt very alone.  

I now had to move into an apartment that I didn't want, that I had signed the lease on.

 I was stuck in a situation that I didn't want to be in.  

Thankfully, I knew someone else who was kind of stuck in a rut...

it was that roommate that the cute guy, my future husband, had become friends with.  

I called her and she happily agreed to come and live with me in Salt Lake City.  

Moving us both to Salt Lake City was the only thing left to accomplish.  

She asked that cute guy, my future husband, to help us out.  

He agreed and took the bus to Salt Lake City.  

On moving day my roommate suddenly had plans.   WHAT?!?!

I ended up picking up that cute guy, my future husband, from the bus stop. 

He and I spent the entire day moving us into that dreaded apartment- without my roommate. 

THAT'S when we started to become friends.  THAT was THE day! 

I think he felt bad for me.  

When he heard I had been engaged he was surprised.  

Honestly, I don't know what he thought about me right then.  

Just months earlier I had completely ditched him at the airport.  

But he never even mentioned that! 

Within weeks he was not my roommates good friend anymore... he was now my good friend.  

He would call me to go to football games with him in Provo.  I liked that.

I would never let him pay for anything.  

I was determined that this wasn't a date.  (I wanted to be sure that he knew this.)

Plus, he was a starving college student and, hello, I was a working woman.  

I didn't want him paying for me.  

One night after the game we drove to the Provo temple to talk.  

That seems a little odd looking back on it now.  I wonder what made us go there. 

This was the first time that we talked about our life dreams. 

We talked about a lot of things, things other than the girl on a mission- or the guy I didn't progress with in college- or even the ugly situation I had just been in.  

We just talked about life and goals, and our love for God.  

I dropped him off and for the first time, we hugged each other good-bye.  

I guess we did because we had had a good day, and a really good conversation.  

I left to go back to Salt Lake City.  It was late.  I was always afraid of falling asleep at the wheel 

 so I began to pray, which I often did as I drove from Provo to Salt Lake City.  

I talked to my Father in Heaven about what I should do with this new life I had created.  

Should I quit the airlines and go on a mission?

Should I move back to Provo, or should I stay where I was?

Suddenly I felt something tell me in my heart, "You should date West." 

"West" was the cute guy, (my future husband's), name.  

That feeling was not expected.  Nor was it desired.  

How could I date West after just ending a very bad rebound catastrophe?  

Did I even think of him that way?  I wasn't sure.  I'd never allowed myself to.

Before long I was crying in the car.  

I questioned my own ability to discern feelings properly, 

which was something I had always felt pretty confident in...until now.  

  

How could I date this once intimidating- cute guy- 

who I had determined was waiting for a missionary? 

Was that even appropriate to consider?

I went home and did what any smart girl would do- 

I wrote that cute guy, my future husband, a letter and told him I didn't want to see him anymore. 

Yeah, that's exactly what I did.  

 But I worried about sending him the letter after such a wonderful night.  I called him the next day to tell him about the letter and that I wanted to explain why I couldn't see him anymore-- 

because... well...that's what silly girls do I guess... 

WHO KNOWS!!

But before I had the chance to explain the letter, he said, 

"Kristi, I wrote YOU a letter last night as well!" 

That cute guy, my future husband, continued... 

"After you left me last night I had a very distinct impression come to my mind-

 that we should start dating." 

Well.... the rest is history. 

We didn't see each other again until Thanksgiving, a few weeks later.  

When I arrived in Provo he walked up to me, took my hand, and has been holding it ever since. 

We got engaged in January, and were married April 6th, 1990.  

Life has been total bliss ever since.....Ha!  As if that's even possible!  It's not. 

Let's face it, marriage is hard work!  It doesn't matter if it's "meant to be" or not.

You could have a heavenly messenger literally come and tell you that this person is absolutely 

THE ONE and THE ONLY person that God wants you to marry, 

and you will still have to work at marriage every day of your life.  

That's all part of The Plan, God's Plan.   

We had never had a single disagreement the day we got married.  

We had never dated while living in the same city. 

We had a lot of learning and growing to do.

But none of that mattered, because we made a decision to do it together.  

  I made a personal decision to take a chance that I wasn't actually insane, and I made a personal decision to believe that God truly was in the details of my life, even my dating life.  

What if I hadn't dated the guy I was progressing nicely with?

What if he'd wanted to progress the same way that I did?

What if I hadn't suffered temporary insanity and been engaged to someone I didn't love? 

Had just one thing been different- would this story have ended differently? 

See how things all worked out?  

I really love our love story!

The truth is that I would go through it all over again in order to end up with that cute guy, 

who would end up being my husband-- forever!   

Happy 25th Anniversary to My Best Choice Yet!!

"A Southern Boy", I had you defined, and I was a silly girl, not quite yet refined.

We began as strangers, so intimidating- crossed paths, it seemed fate was simulating.

Friends at first, therefore, we could not see- 

the many evidences of serendipity.

But once our love was undeniable, the signs of marriage were quite reliable. 

It began with memories I will never forget, and a personal choice I will never regret. 

One from Mars and the other from Venus meant 25 years of learning between us. 

The highs, the lows, and the in-betweens- all with a cause, all with a means.

We are fallen creatures, learning our way- about how to love, about how to obey.

But the one thing we both had from the start was love for God with all of our hearts. 

Without that how could there ever be, an eternal union between you and me?

Children, work and decisions to make, let's face it, there are times when we break.

This journey in life can be very rough, this "sweat of your brow" stuff really is tough!

Take heart, my love, it will all come together, there is nothing in life that we cannot weather. 

No burden too heavy, no barrier too wide, no trial too great, with you by my side.

There are great times ahead!  I know that it's true.  

I believe "Our future is as bright as our faith," as do you.

Someday I trust we'll look back on this time, and wish we could interject reason and rhyme.  

We'll be older and wiser, probably happier too.  Hopefully we'll go back to just me and just you.

The stage will be different, as it's always changing, and perhaps our lives will require rearranging. 

It's normal, how awesome!  It will mean we're alive!  

Yet another fun stage for which we will survive! 

Know that I'm here, you are never alone.  I am grateful and honored to call you my own.

Friends at first, better friends at last- I will love our future as much as I've loved our past.

Did I love you back then, it's so hard to say, as it feels as though it was a lifetime away. 

Who were you then, and who was I?  We really didn't know, that's hard to deny.

But all of the "who's" and all of the "when's" mean nothing because I would choose you again.

It began with memories I will never forget, and a personal choice I will never regret.