Aaaaahhh, that's true love Lorna! Him wanting to keep you has made his life healthier and better! Way to go girl!
I'm enjoying these stories, too! An ironic situation about ours is that my husband is notorious about losing things. I should never be too shocked about that though, considering our first date! I can't say he didn't warn me!!! Some of you knew your future husband for quite a long time before marriage and others only a short time. Some married in the twenties, and some in the teens. Some, here and some, there. Yeah for marriage!
My hubby and I met at our chruches VBS. I had showed up to help out where they needed it. He had stopped by to drop off some stuff that his mom needed to teach her class. I guess he saw me and found out which class I was helping in. He got the director to help out there as well (2 and 3 year olds!) His mom seen him about an hour later and asked why he was still there. He told her that he'd seen the woman he was going to marry and was trying to find out her name. Somehow, he was told that I was already engaged, so he started dating another woman. We were friends at this point, and I TOLD him it was a mistake, but oh, well! Six months later, he had broken up with her and we were dating. Less than a month later, we were engaged. We were married less than a year after that. Looking back, I know that God was in it from the beginning. I had a sister that had just been through an awful divorce and had not had very good relationships with the opposit sex myself. God knew that I need to really be able to trust the person before I would have ever even considered dating him.
I met my hubby through mutual friends. I had just moved back to town after a long 5 year HORRIABLE relationship. I was dating but nobody serious so a friend that I worked with at the sewing factory introduced me to Tim. Our first date was to church. Which really impressed me. We hit it off right away. And I honestly don't know how I never met him before because we both ran in the same circles. I'm sure our paths crossed several times. The time before when I lived here he worked at sonic which is the local hang out here for the teens and I was dating a guy that he was friends with that also worked there. I actually hung out inside the sonic while he worked but I don't remember meeting him. Anyhow, We were married 3 months after we met and have been HAPPILY together every since. The 14th will be our 12th anniversary. I can't imagine being without him. Our song back when we first got together was "The keeper of The Stars" He lived out in a small house in the country and I remember watching him walk down the dirt road raising his hands up in the air thanking God for letting us find each other. That song was playing in the background. Everytime I hear that song I remember that night. There were about a million stars out and he was thanking "The Keeper of the stars". After being in that abusive relationship he was everything I always knew I wanted. But I really didn't think I deserved. I remember crying because he made me feel so special and loved. He still makes me feel that way today. Angela
Date? I don't think we had a first date. We met while I was in the Navy. I was at a party in one of the rooms and ran out of smokes. Everyone else was out too. So while some people took off for more (I wasn't able to drive, KWIM?) I notice a guy all by himself at the smoke pit. So off I went to meet him so I could bumm a smoke off him. For the next few months I would offer him to come with us on weekend getaways because he seemed nice but he always declined. I was determine so I came up with a way to get him buy asking him to pick up something that I bought for my barracks room. I didnt have a truck and he did. He took me out to dinner afte we picked up my item and he helped put my item together and he left. I didn't see him until awhile later when I bought my new truck. I just had to show it off. Well I just ended up hanging out with him and his friends for the night. Then we made plans to finally go out. I waited for 30 minutes for him and while waiting I had the waiter guy hitting on me. He brought me a rose and said he was sorry that he got hung up with his friends. I ended up leaving because I was a bit mad. I saw him again 8 weeks after I met up with him after buying the truck. It was not a friendly get together. I was 8 weeks along. We were going to be parents. We decided not to get married right away. We did have trying relationship. I was up north and he was down south. He was due to go on his first ship when 9/11 happened. During that time frame I decided to pack up what I had and move to be closer to him. He was my daughter's daddy. We did go on a date there. He took me for a ride on his bike after our DD went to bed. My mom was there, she helped me move. We went for a ride and then out for a late snack at BW3's. Guess that was really our first date. Shortly after I moved to live near him we got married. It will be four years this fall.
I met my husband in a Christian forum in Compuserve called Christian City. I'd been going in there for several months and was a sysop - which is short for systems operator. I helped facilitate one of the chat rooms (there were 6 or 7 chat rooms in the forum, plus several message boards): welcomed new people, made sure they were included in the conversations and understood what all of the little abbreviations meant, etc... It was not a singles forum - in fact we discouraged people from being in there to look for a "someone", if you know what I mean. It was just a fun place to go and talk and laugh and hang out. We had prayer meetings on Monday nights (which I also helped with), and a Bible study of sorts on another night. I had no intention of dating someone from there. I had seen friends who were looking for a "someone" get very hurt, and I wasn't at all interested. I sure wasn't interested in meeting some guy from TEXAS, for pete's sake!! But then this guy started coming in... And it was so odd.. It was as if everything he typed was highlighted or something - but it wasn't. We slowly started to chat in private messages (still in the forum), and then to e-mail each other. He started coming in the forum in June. He flew up to Ohio for a long weekend in September and stayed with my brother. He met my family on the first day and didn't run away screaming! (And you can ask Jackie about my family! :lol There was another family from Christian City who was going to be in town that weekend, so we met them for lunch on Sunday after church and had a lot of fun with them. And then Charles and I went hiking at my favorite park, and he fixed my computer, and we just got to know each other in person. (As opposed to being on the computer, I mean.. no "advanced cuddling" happened. :lol I suppose our first date, technically, was at Max & Erma's where we went right after I picked him up from the airport. We ate yummy sandwiches and stared at each other, trying desperately to think of something to say. Pathetic in a funny sort of way.. LOL I knew before he came that this visit was going to be a pivotal point in our relationship - either we were going to be just friends afterwards and maybe we would keep e-mailing, but eventually it would all just slack off and we'd go back to life as usual... Or else we would be very good friends, and God had something else in mind! I wasn't sure which one it was going to be, and really, I wasn't too worried about it. I knew that God had arranged for us to meet, He had obviously orchestrated Charles' coming up to visit, and He knew what was supposed to happen - or not - afterwards. We both had such a sense of peace about the whole thing! Anyway, afterwards, we were VERY good friends and we were e-mailing multiple times a day. I flew down to Houston in December and stayed with his sister (she proposed to me on the first day (while he was out of the room), which she still remembers with glee! :lol For my Christmas present he bought me airplane tickets to go to his neice's wedding in Colorado Springs in January, so I got to meet HIS whole family. I was terrified - they were (and are!) wonderful. We met in St. Louis in April to attend the wedding of some friends who also met on the forum. I sang in the wedding and he helped take pictures. And then I flew to Texas again in May to go to his best friend's daughter's wedding and to start looking for a job. It had become obvious that our relationship was going somewhere... And we needed to be closer to each other to find out if we were supposed to get married or not. He liked his job and I hated mine, so I was the one who was going to move. So Charles put up a notice on his church's bulletin board saying that I needed someplace to live - right next to another card on the bulletin board that said that a lady from the church was looking for a Christian woman to rent a room from her. He flew up to Columbus in the beginning of July (just over a year after we first met), and after going to my mother's family reunion in Wisconsin over the 4th of July, we drove down to Texas. Charles and I drove in my little Geo Metro, and my sister followed in my brother's truck, with all of my stuff in it. My sister stayed for a few days and then drove back home. I loved (still love!!) his church, and my landlady was great! She was in her late 40s and was a junior high music teacher. I've done very well with roommates who are teachers! Anyway.. this is getting way too long. The deal was, I was going to live down there for a year. At the end of the year, we either were going to be engaged, or it just wasn't meant to be and I would move back to Columbus. I found a job in September (finally! Eating was getting to be difficult on days that I didn't have dates with Charles. I did lose a lot of weight, though..) We were engaged in October, and married in May of 1999. It has been a wonderful 8 years. :love:
What Marylyn DIDN'T tell you is that his sister took Charles aside IMMEDIATELY after meeting Marylyn and told him very pointedly that he was NOT to let this one "get away"! LOl!!! Plus, not only did Charles have to gain the approval of ALL her family (and she has one of those big, hands-on family where you are either immediately accepted to where the new person is totally overwhelmed or else they are all very nice and polite and you just don't cut it for some reason), but he ALSO had to gain the approval of ALL of us in Ohio, who wasn't too excited to lose our #1 Babysitter to a guy she met (GASP!!!) ON LINE!!!! I mean, he just MIGHT be a Mass Murderer, just looking for a Good Baptist Girl (well, OK, maybe I'm pushing it calling Marylyn a gBg, lol!)!!!
LOL Well, I didn't grow up in a Baptist church like you did, so I don't suppose I qualify for gBg-hood. Actually, Christ Church is the only Baptist church I've ever attended regularly.. I did go to a Baptist college for a year, though. Does that count?
Our very first date was to take 3 year old Kevin to a carnival, where Dean and I got sick on the Tilt-A-Whirl! I could have stayed home, because the two of them hit it off at first sight. The first time he came to my house, he actually got on the floor and played cars with Kevin so long I had to ask if we were still doing the carnival. Our first date alone was to see Bird on a Wire, a Mel Gibson/Goldie Hawn movie. Believe it or not, he actually asked permission to kiss me.
Happy Birthday to Kevin! My oldest is 23. I wonder which of us has the oldest child. Sloan127 and I have both been married almost 26 wonderful years. I think Beth may have children older than I. About dating--when I was young, I tried to decide what type of man I would like to marry. I had a list of characteristics, and I noticed what type of man seemed most attractive to me. (I'm SO glad that some of them didn't know I was attracted to them, because they've not made good life choices, and I may have married unwisely if they had known. Marriage is such a risk!) So, what makes a good marriage? Similar past experiences? Agreement on issues of faith? "Chemistry?" Compatible personalities? Complementary abilities?
Of course they do! Congratulations, Jackie! Somehow I used to think that I'd feel more mature when I'd have grown children than I do. At least, I thought I'd feel wiser and more responsibile, understand life more, etc. Afterall, my parents seemed so wise! It's scary now that our children look to me for answers!
Our first Date! It was over 17 years ago, so I'll have to try and remember acurately. I remember him picking me up from my Washington, DC upstairs apartment taking me to one of my favorite resturants "Houstons" in Georgetown. We laughed, chatted and enjoyed the time together and the meal. I'm sure I had their delicious babyback ribs and the cheese melts. The thing I remember most about the date, but more importanly him, was when the waitress came for with the bill, he gave her his credit card and said with a smile; "I hope it goes through." -- I knew he was the man for me! :lol: Sidenote: The last guy I had dated when we broke up, told me how he went in debt "wineing and dining me." Ha, like I told him to spend money he didn't have trying to impress me, which I mentioned to him. Anyhoo, when Hubby and my 1st date was over he brought me straight home, we chatted in the car for a moment, I gave his a lite peck on the cheek and skipped upstairs to my door.:love:
DS and I didn't have our first date until after we had been seeing each other for over two months. He and I were great friends in high school. I had been seeing another guy for over a year and it was a bad relationship, bordering on abusive. I was so scared to tell my parents because they really liked this guy so I just let it go on. In September of '95 I realized that I was absolutely in love with my friend. In March, I told my then-boyfriend that our relationship was over but it was NOT to be made public or I would report his actions. I also let him know that there was someone else. That same night, after practice for the high school play, my friend was giving me a ride home. I told him that I was in love with him and he was totally silent. I was on the verge of tears. I said, can you please say something. "Yeah, I just asked another girl to the prom. And I love you too." So, we secretly saw each other for two months while he helped me find the courage to talk with my parents, who are NOT unreasonable but I was 17 ya' know. Our first date was to dinner (Lone Star I think) and Mission Impossible. We came out of the movie to find that his car had been broken into on MY side. There was glass everywhere. He tried to get me to drive so that I didn't have to sit in any tiny shards of glass but I didn't know how to drive stick back then. Anyway, 11 years and 2 kids later he is still my everything. :love:
