Anniversary Week: Our Story, Part II

In honor of my and Daniel's 2nd anniversary coming up this weekend, I wanted to finally share our story here for you guys. In case you missed Part I, it's here!

On Monday we left off with Daniel leaving for PA for the summer and me returning to WV. Whatever it was that was going on, I wasn’t about to let it fizzle, so soon came some strategic texting on my part. We got to know a bit more about each other through that, which continued for a few weeks. 

At some point in there, I was going through an out-of-the-blue hard time late at night and had no one to talk to. For some reason, I wanted to text him, late as it was, and I did. It was really a small thing that we texted briefly, and, even though we were too far apart for him to help me in person, he told me he was praying for me and really made me feel better, and the texting continued off and on for the next few days. We were clearly something, again only to everyone else, and I think I was just so blown away by the easiness of it all (I think I actually said “This is just too easy” to a friend about it), that I didn’t really stop to ask, What are we really doing here??

He unintentionally taunted me with this new profile picture on Facebook when I started to figure out my feelings for him. Ah, so glad that guy's mine now. ;)

By a month into summer vacation, though, I had started to realize the seriousness of what was going on. He had said so many things through texting (that was our only form of communication) that seemed like he really truly was interested in me, but I knew from experience that sometimes guys do that ... and really don’t mean anything by it. 

So after much thought and worry and agonizing, I finally had to come out and ask him if he was interested in me or not. Thankfully, he very much was. He was just afraid he wasn’t good enough for me, with our ages, the distance, and other such reasonable but totally insignificant problems.

Thus began our dating relationship in June of 2010, long-distance, with Skype as our hero. We finally saw each other for the first time as a couple that August.

Our first date, in August 2010, after three months of long-distance.

He went back to school in SC in the fall, and I temporarily moved in with my sister, in the same town, while her husband was deployed. So we weren’t long-distance anymore, but we definitely didn’t get to just up and see each other whenever. By the winter, he was living with his oldest sister (remember, my friend from society my freshman year) and her husband, and then he moved back to PA in February. So the long-distance continued.

November 2010 on a trip to WV

Insert in here that my health went south that fall that I moved to SC, and he was there with me through all of it. My health story is for another time, but I will say that I could not have gotten through any of it without him.

By May 2011, less than a year after we started dating, we were ready to get married, but money doesn’t grow on trees, y’all. It didn’t help matters that I had all kinds of health problems and he’s a type 1 diabetic (we’re a match made in heaven), both of us requiring all kinds of medical bills. It’s crazy.

Also around this time, I kept trying to tell him that he shouldn’t have to deal with me and all my health problems. It wasn’t fair to him. We both knew if we got married that I wouldn’t be able to live up to your usual wifely expectations of cleaning, cooking, etc. And he wanted me in spite of them. It’s not fair to him to have to live with my health problems, I insisted, but he wanted me with my problems more than anyone who’s healthy.

This would be Superman.

We were finally engaged on January 28, 2012 (story yet to come, though tiny preview in this post) and married on May 11, 2012. Yep, three-month engagement, y’all. (Hey, I got my dress that past November. Like I said, we were ready for a long time....)

Now looking back on meeting him, the excitement of seeing him, how much my thoughts and actions were directed toward him, I really don’t know how I didn’t realize sooner that that guy would be my husband. It really was so simple how we found each other and hit it off. The long distance was not easy at all though, and the waiting and waiting to get married when we were ready to say “I do” for what felt like forever was incredibly hard. The last few months before our wedding, he was actually able to move about 25 minutes away from me, so we would see each other nearly every day. But saying goodnight and parting ways night after night was the hardest, saddest thing when we knew we belonged together, which was the only place we wanted to be.

But here we are, now two years into our long-awaited marriage. It isn’t your typical marriage since, as I mentioned, medical bills never end and my health problems really like to mess things up, daily. But my Daniel is superman—he does everything that I’m supposed to be doing, plus working full-time and taking me on very long trips to weekly doctor appointments. And always assuring me that yes, he does want to be with me regardless and doesn’t blame me at all for my problems.

Us this past weekend on our pre-anniversary trip/trip to see my baby niece for her 1st birthday

There really are not words for how much I love him—there just aren’t. The kind of love where I lie awake at night staring at him, just totally overcome with how much I love every inch of everything he is and everything about him and pray and pray that our years on earth together are long, long, long. 

He is the best, best thing that’s ever happened to me, and only God could have brought us together and gotten us through the many hardships we've dealt with in two short years.

He's also definitely the best thing I got out of college, far better than any diploma. Those four years of misery were so worth it. :D Oh! And his sisters, my friends from freshmen year and junior year? Yeah, we’re in-laws now. It’s not everyday you get to become sisters with two of your friends. :D

Now just in case you're wanting to hear more about how we got engaged, you're in luck--that's coming to you guys tomorrow. ;)

P.S. Linking up with Lovely Thursdays and Throwback Thursday.