History.

My wonderful husband brought me roses and a sweet card today. It makes me smile to be so blessed :) To think of where we started out....wow. We've come so far! The night we were reacquainted, I almost backed out at the last minute. My mom pushed me to go to movie night at Mat Bishop's house because she was worried about the people I had been hanging out with and what I had been doing with my time. She wanted me to try and hang out with people outside of my circle. I drove to a mutual friend's house and we drove to Mat's house. The funny thing is when I told my mom I would go, inside I said:"I'm just going to go make friends. I've had enough with dating." I had just gotten out of a relationship and had really had bad luck with guys recent years. I was somewhat jaded.

We rolled up at 6 Vaughn Avenue right on time. It was weird because I had no idea what to expect. Nowadays I normally have a plan for every day. I lived so differently back then! On the front porch sat Mat playing his guitar; chubby, hairy, musical Mat. Immediately I thought:"Hmmm...I like musicians." He was my type, but totally different from how I remembered him from 6th grade in Mrs. Loftis' class. He was a J.T.T look-a-like with a blonde bowl cut and a scratchy voice. (Loved it!!) Anyhoo, we walked up on the front porch and everyone came outside. Some of them I had known for years, and some I had never met. We were all so different. I was one of 2 people there who smoked. I was one of may 3 that drank, and I drank a lot. I was the only one who had been married. I was the only one who had lived a life like mine, which in recent years had turned into a life of bad decisions and, although fun at times, a bad existence. I look back now and know that it's only by the grace of God that I'm alive.

We hung out that night until the wee hours of the morning going to haunted houses and searching for Snickers ice cream bars.By the end of the night he had invited me to Clemson the coming weekend. we went and had a fabulous "first date" watching Booncock Saints while Super Todd slept on the couch beside us. The next day we went home and crawled into his bed and slept until we were hungry. He ordered us a Domino's pizza and we watched movies and sang songs until I had to go home! It was sort of unconventional, but that's how it happened for us. After a month of dating we broke up one night because of the vast differences in our lives. The next morning I get a text saying ,"I don't care about the differences. I freaking love you!" From then on, I spent a couple of months trying to fight him off. I told him how we would never work and how he just thought me loved me. I told him I didn't love him and we were wasting our time. His response was always,"We'll see." After a while of hanging out strictly as friends I started to have feelings for him again. One night I was hanging out with the people I was always around and I missed Mat. I was scared, but I wanted to be with him. We arranged to meet the next day at his house to go do something. When I pulled up in his driveway my heart was beating fast because I knew I was going to have to say something to him about how I was feeling. We got in his truck and got about 1/8 of a mile from his house before I said,"Stop the truck." He stopped and looked over at me. I didn't even know what I was going to say! My heart was about to pound out of my chest! Then, before I knew it I said,"Will you just kiss me?" Without missing a beat he grabbed my face and we sat in the middle of the road making up for all the kisses we had missed during the time I was trying to turn him away from me. That was a good date. I totally have no idea what we did for the rest of that day!

It all happened so fast. We started dating in November, we moved in together soon after that, and we told everyone we lived together like 2 months later. I didn't say I started making great decisions yet. After 5 months of dating, we found out I was pregnant. We were both so excited, but scared! Our relationship was so strong and passionate from the beginning. Our lives had merged together so seamlessly and quickly it's kind of hard to believe now. Mat definitely influenced me in a positive way. We started going to church together, which was something I hadn't been doing in like 8 years. He started talking to me little by little about his belief in God, which is something I had but had all but abandoned trying to live Biblically. In some ways I influenced him negatively, but thankfully all those influcences have been absolved. We have had some very hard times, but we have always worked through them and come together to grow stronger. Our marriage suffered after we had the baby and found ourselves struggling over being parents and being twenty year olds who wanted to go out and make less than smart decisions. Amazingly enough, I was the one who made the decision for myself that I was going to change my life. I was going to give up everything to walk on a different path and I didn't care what it took. I was going to follow Christ and trust that he would get me through. I told Mat he could follow me or not. He did, thankfully!

Since that time, we have grown so much in the Lord. We have turned our marriage over to him, even though we still have work to do. Our relationship is truly unlike any other I've ever known. We communicate, not always perfectly, but we try. We pray for each other, which makes all the difference. We parent together and not against each other. And most of all we love each other. We sometimes have to have our fire for each other relit, but we always love each other. Mat and I continue to build a home of God, of trust, of laughter, of comfort, and of peace. I am a blessed woman. My two boys are the greatest gift and I wouldn't trade them for anything. They're the only friends I need. They're my reason. This turned into a way longer blog than I had planned. I started writing to say that my wonderful husband brought me flowers and very sweet card today with a very sweet message inside and....I love him. I love him. I love him.