I remember our first date as if it was yesterday, well, almost. It was a very cold January Sunday evening in Provo, Utah and my roommate wanted to go to a fireside at the Provo Tabernacle but we didn't have a car. She knew I was friends with Steve and asked me to ask him if he was going and if we could hitch a ride. He said yes so we went with him. That was that, or so I thought.
See I didn't go to BYU to get a man, I went to get an education. I had my WHOLE life mapped out and it didn't involve a upperclassman from California at all. I was still a freshman with lots of ambition and ideas about what I wanted to do with my life.
I didn't get to college the normal way. I did go to high school and graduated, but I didn't goof off that summer between graduation and college. I did something a little unorthodox, I went straight to college. I graduated the first weekend of June and by the last week of June I was living in my own apartment (Glenwood), going to school and trying to get a job. I had to work and I knew I would have better luck getting a job if I was in school during the summer term. I was right and I landed a job.
But going during the summer and moving into an apartment wasn't what a typical freshman did. But then again I really wasn't the typical freshman. I wasn't the typical anything. I have always walked to a different drum beat. So when Steve met me earlier that school year he had no idea I was as young as I was.
Well, one date led to another and eventually I did what all good girls who don't want to get married do, I told him to take a hike. WORST WEEK OF MY LIFE!
I finally wised up and he was so kind to take me back and then in March (yes, that's how fast things went) we started talking marriage. I think he was in love with me before he found out I was still a teenager. Remember how I didn't do things that the typical freshman did? Well, that had him all confused. I didn't live in the dorms, I was serious about school, had a job, came in the middle of June and I guess he thought I was an upperclassman. Oh, well. He fell in love with me. I feel in love with him. He asked me to marry him. I said Yes and June 30th we were married.
Now twenty-five years later we are still wondering what the heck happened back in the spring and summer of 1989 that made both of us start this journey together. I'm not sure, but I'm sure glad he did it with me.
We have gone through a lot in our life. Most of the stuff has been my stuff so I really think the bigger thanks needs to be given by me to him. He has supported me through infertility (I know hard to believe with six kids), a horrible car accident and now cancer. He's let me do some pretty weird things. I've started businesses (none really took off, but they kept me busy). Run a non-profit organization and sink a huge amount of his money into it with only a negative return. He let me host homeschool conferences at a dear cost to him. He even allowed me homeschool all my children. I still don't believe he thinks it was best for all of us, but he allowed me to do it anyway. See what I mean by I think I owe him a HUGE amount of thanks.
So here's to Steve for taking a chance on such a young thing--a young thing who had so much growing up left to do.
So here's to Steve for loving me despite of all my flaws and for all the trouble I've brought to his life.
So here's to Steve for his devotion, support and love.
And here's to twenty-five more.
