.Our Love Story.

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G and I have been together just shy of seven  years.  As our life is preparing to change in a very dramatic way, it's led us on a new adventure that I just want to take a moment to pause, reflect, and process.

We met our senior year of high school through a mutual friend at her birthday party.  We went to rival high schools, and funny enough I remember meeting him twice before... with his girlfriends.  We didn't speak at all that night, until it came time for me to depart and say my goodbyes.  Then G, who was brazen and cute as ever requested a goodbye hug instead of my traditional you're-sort-of-a-stranger handshake.  For some reason, instead of being repulsed by his confidence, I was smitten right away.  A few weeks later, after the traditional go-between our mutual friend we had a date arranged.  At this point, several circumstances arose that could have negatively impacted our blossoming relationship... but somehow everything just aligned and make a path for our courtship. 

Once we graduated, I was off to Tennessee for college... four hours away.  I don't think either of us knew what to expect for a long distance relationship at the age of 18, but somehow it just worked.  It was never easy, at times it seemed unbearable... but eventually one year turned to two, which then turned to four.  As challenging as it was, I would never take it back because it truly gave us time to grow up apart from each other as our own people.  Depending on the semester and our workload we were able to see each other as often as every two weeks, to once a month but we stayed patient and dedicated.  On December 8, 2007 in the middle of my senior year, G proposed in the most incredible, magnificent way possible {a story I'll have to share later, but it was more than I could have ever asked for}.  Garrett, as responsible as he is graduated early with a Finance degree and started saving for our future, as I finished my last semester of studies in Psychology.  By the end of that summer, we were married and I was set to start graduate school right after we returned from our honeymoon {also amazing}.

I wondered how we would handle living together in the same house after living long distance for four years, but we came in with realistic expectations and a vow to remember that we were on the same team... always.  We were partners and while that doesn't always mean agreeing and liking each other, it meant we were always working on a common goal together... and by then we had a ton of experience in the "working" part.  We've gone through studies abroad, summers away, drama, formals, trips away together, disagreements, stress, misunderstandings, life adjustments... for alot of the time it was truly blood, sweat, and tears. 

Two and a half years later into marriage and I still wake up enjoying him more than I already have.  It's been an unbelievable ride so far and we're really only at the beginning... there's a lot more years to get to 60.  Working towards baby Tyler has enabled the love and appreciation to grow even deeper and while we have no true idea what to expect come June... we'll just take it one step at a time... always together.