Our Story: Part 1, The Courtship

We officially met the week after Thanksgiving 2003 at a concert at a small hole-in-the-wall though apparently he'd seen me a few weeks before as I was getting ready to leave for Italy.  He was with his brother and I was with my bible study girlfriends.  His brother had dated one of my friends.  Our first conversation was about attorneys and drilling in Alaska's ANWR.  I guess I shouldn't call it a conversation, it was a debate.  We had some seriously different perspectives.  We started dating the next week.  Neither one of us was looking - we'd both broken off relationships the previous spring.  And yet, there we were.  Dating - a lot.  I was absolutely taken.  I can't speak for him though we're married now so I guess he was eventually  

I was in love with him before three months was up.  He took a little longer.  We were SO different.  I loved the city and museums and fine dining and he loved the ranch and cattle and hunting.  But he was amazing.  Handsome, funny, smart, great kisser, interesting, curious, thoughtful, HONEST.  I'd not had a lot of experience with honesty in men I'd known.  I trusted him completely. 

We had so much fun.  We fought some, but mainly over "big" issues to figure out whether this was IT or not.  We traveled.  I went to the farm and ranch with him.  He went to galas and fancy dinners with me.  And we did our own thing too.  We loved our jobs and our families and our friends so we had really full lives.  He proposed on Halloween 2005.  We were both still in full costume after returning to my place from a Halloween party when he got down on one knee.  The gorgeous center stone in the ring was his mother's diamond from her original engagement ring (my father-in-law upsized it later).  He proposed on Saturday and I had a wedding date picked Monday.  Six months out.  Whirlwind planning.  Really happy times.

We had a beautiful morning wedding followed by a jazz brunch on May 6, 2006.  Everyone said they'd never seen a bride so happy - that I kept looking at everyone in the pews as I walked down the aisle & smiling & waving.  I was happy.  I was elated.  I was madly in love and couldn't believe God's grace at bringing this man into my life.