A decade and counting

A little over ten years ago I met the man that I would marry. 

(Since this is my blog I’ll tell the story my way, although you should know that the details of exactly when we met are to be debated between Jason and I.)

I walked into IMPACT (our Wednesday night youth gathering) one night and spotted someone new.  A guy that I had not seen before wearing his letterman’s jacket.  And I thought he was pretty cute.  Later that evening our mutual friend Tim introduced us.  A few weeks later I had to get a splint put back on my arm from having sprained an old injury and Tim and his friend, Jason, came and sat down next to me during IMPACT and they asked if I was ok.  After that we started sitting together but it was still more just a manner of happening to sit down rather than planning it.  A few weeks after that we had a band come in and perform a special program and I left the room in tears because one of my friends had died.  Jason will tell you that he felt really bad for me that night while I was really embarrassed.

We continued to see each other on Wednesday night’s only because he didn’t come on Sunday’s and we went to opposite high school’s so our path’s didn’t cross even though we lived in a fairly small town.  In December I was talking to some friends about trying to figure out who I should ask to my sorority’s formal in January (the girls asked the guys — it’s crazy to think about and seems ridiculous to set it up that way looking back on it) and Tim suggested that I asked Jason but I quickly countered that I barely even knew him even though at this point I had developed a crush on him.

Our high school’s played each other in basketball and when those games came they were held at a nearby community college since neither of our school gym’s was big enough to hold the crowd.  When the teams played in January Jason and I kind of waved to each other across the court but stayed on our respective sides until after halftime.  Once the second half started Jason caught my eye and did his head indicating that he wanted to go outside and talk.  Since I didn’t really care about basketball anyway, we met in the front lobby and talked for a while.  At the end of our conversation he asked for my number and my screen name (yes, we were on AOL back then in the dark ages and had screen names!) and I invited him to come to formal the next night with his friends.

I was going to formal with a friend of mine and there were no romantic feelings between us so I didn’t feel bad continually watching the door waiting for Jason to show up.  He never did. 

Regardless, I was a sucker I guess, we started chatting online every night.  Our conversation’s were always easy and friendly.  We continued to see each other at church on Wednesday’s and we started purposefully sitting next to each other but we were just friends.  We discovered that we had younger brother’s who were the same age and, conveniently enough, they were playing each other a week or so after we started chatting online.  Suddenly, both brother’s had a very supportive big sister and brother!  When I got to the game with my family Jason was already there and was sitting with some of his friends.  I almost immediately went and joined them and my Mom told me later that she leaned over and asked Suzy with a decent bit of confusion who in the world that boy was.  After Suzy told her that his name was Jason and that we had started sitting together at IMPACT some of Mom’s confusion as to why I was so eager to attend one of Charlie’s basketball games cleared.  🙂

We still were just friends but a few weeks later our youth minister announced on a Sunday night that he was leaving the next week to take a new position in a different city.  Jason wasn’t there because he still only came to church on Wednesday’s, so when we started talking online later that night I told him about Robert and he wanted to call to talk about it.  Jason told me that he had learned a lot from Robert and we were both pretty upset that he was leaving.  The next Sunday morning, Robert’s last, Jason came to church and joined the church.  I was in Tuscaloosa for an honor’s day that I couldn’t miss because it was required for a scholarship and so missed church but Jason called me on the way home and told me what he had done and I was so happy for him.

That night we met at the church for the Super Bowl party and Robert’s last gathering and Jason asked me to go out with him.  I think it might have even been at halftime while we were eating pizza.  🙂  And we’ve been together ever since.

Most people, I’m sure, stop celebrating their dating milestones once they get married and probably one day we will too.  But right now it leaves us with a celebration roughly every six months between this anniversary and our wedding anniversary and we got so used to celebrating while we were dating that it seems weird to stop now.  We’re not actually going out tonight but are going to enjoy the night with Charlotte at home.  So even if we only remember the day and don’t actually go out to celebrate it’s still an important day to us.

I am so very, very blessed to have fallen in love with my best friend so many years ago at church.  I am glad that we were able to get married at First Baptist so that we could take that next step in the place where we first decided we might want to get to know each other more.  To this day Jason is my best friend and I am so thankful to be his wife.  I’m so glad that we found each other so early because it makes all of those memories of high school and college even more special.  Thank you Jason for loving God and loving me and choosing to spend the rest of your life with me.  I love you more and more each day!