The Story of Us

For Valentines Day one year, my husband asked me to put together our love story into a scrapbook so that he would always have it. He is such a sweetie :) I thought I'd share it here too! I guess I'll start at the VERY beginning. My senior year of high school, I met a nice guy a few years older than me. He was a co-worker at the grocery store I worked at as a cashier. He was a great guy (still is, in fact - Married with 2 little girls!), but I just wasn't ready for that kind of relationship. I was young, and immature, and it was my fault COMPLETELY that it didn't work out. After a semester at community college, I transferred to Zion Bible Institute (now called North Point) to pursue my bachelors. My parents and I agreed that I wouldn't date for the first year. I didn't even really pay attention to the guys - just dove head first into my school work. At the end of my first semester, a nice guy named Victor chatted me up in the dinning hall. He asked me out for ice cream, and I politely turned him down telling him that I wasn't dating my freshman year. He was a perfect gentleman and said he understood. He even signed my yearbook that he was, "excited to get to know me better next year." I went home for the summer, and when I returned in the fall, Victor (then a senior) asked me out on a date. I said yes, and I was looking forward to it! Right before our date though, a misinformed upperclassman told me that Victor was, "getting ready to graduate and looking for a wife." I was 19. That freaked me out! So, on our date, I was quick to tell him that I just wanted to be friends. We still had a fun time though - dinner at Applebees and then mini-golfing. I even opened up to him about my life and my love of pranks. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and Victor came down with a terrible stomach bug. He was laid up in bed, and instructed his roomate that he was going to bed, and not to bother him. The phone rang shortly after and the caller said that it was an emergency and they needed to speak to Victor. The caller then told Victor that they were calling from McDonalds and that if he had eaten there, he needed to been seen by a doctor because of a severe food poisoning issue....and then the caller burst out laughing and hung up. Victor assumed the prank caller was me, and was MAD. He didn't really speak to me for the rest of the semester. I just assumed it was because I had said I wanted to be friends and that hurt his feelings. Well, we both got busy with our lives, and didn't really "hang out" again. When he went home to New Jersey for Christmas, he rain into his cousin who told him that it was HIM that pranked him, and forgot to call him back and let him know. Whoops! We still didn't really hang out or talk, and soon Victor graduated and took a job in upstate NY as a youth pastor at a Church. I went back to school to finish 2 more years. I didn't have any other "real" relationships at Zion. There were a couple of guys that I "tested the waters" with (deffinition - hung out with, flirted with, got to know, etc.), only to find that they weren't the right fit. I was pretty content being by myself, and started looking into graduate programs (and even started the applications to go to Princeton Seminary for a masters in counseling). One day, I was trying to rest after class and I had this overwhelming urge to go to the student union and practice piano. It was odd - I was tired, and didn't really want to play, but I felt this tugging for me to go. As I approached the student union building, I saw Victor! He was there visiting with a few of his students from youth group. I was stunned to see him, and he looked pretty happy to see me. We said our hello's and caught up for a few minutes. And,that was it. He left the next day. A couple of weeks later, a friend of mine, Pelig, stopped me before class. He said, "A friend of mine wants your phone number, but I wanted to ask you before I gave it to him. His name is Victor." Of course I knew who it was, and I said yes! Give him my number! Victor and I spent the next 3 months talking on the phone for hours at a time (which greatly annoyed my sister because I didn't have a phone and she did, so I had to use hers and sit outside her dorm room and tie up her phone for HOURS. Thanks for that Steph!!) Anyhow, after months of talking, we decided we were ready to become boyfriend/girlfriend. He drove down to Rhode Island from NY for the day to take me out on a date and make it "official." Then we went to a picnic at our friend Jeremy and Kristy's house. We were long distance the entire time, and it was hard. But, we made it work. That summer, we drove down to NJ for me to meet his parents, and he came to Syracuse to meet my parents. My mother knew him for under an hour, and she pulled me aside and told me she knew he was "the one" - something I already knew in my heart. By October we were engaged, and by the following September, we were married. How here we are, 9 years later and still very much in love. It has been a journey, with ups and downs, highs and lows. But, at the end of the day, I can honestly say our love has grown with each step. I am blessed that God brought him into my life. He's a really good man. He Loves God, loves his family, and each day tries to grow in God and in humility. I'm not trying to brag (Vic would hate that - he is the most humble person I have ever met), but He truly is an amazing man. He is always willing to help, even if it means stopping what he's doing and helping someone else. He is an amazing Dad to our 3 beautiful kids, and the most perfect helpmate God could give me in this journey. I love you Victor! I can't wait to see what the future holds for us :)