day 79: from the beginning....

Day 3 Military Photo Challenge: Post a pic of something from the Internet that symbolizes how you and your Marine first met each other and tell when that was. Did you know then that you'd be where you are with him today?

It's all thanks to my social butterfly college rommate and AOL Instant Messenger, really.

Long story short: It was Valentine's Day 1999. He was attending a school out in 29Palms after graduating boot camp, and I was in my college dorm room (obviously no hot plans for the night for Heidi). My roommate was good friends with ASC in high school; even shared a locker next to him. Since he'd joined the Marines, she'd stayed in touch with him.....nicely bugging him to find a church out there to attend. And in 1999, V-Day fell on a Sunday, and ASC found himself in church that morning. That night, when she was at a meeting, I was at her computer (we shared), working on homework, of course, when "devildog29palms" IM'd. He wanted to tell her that he took her advice and went.....but he got me. Quite literally, as it turned out.

Did I have any idea then that we'd be here now? Yes and no. We became fast friends, over the phone, talking for hours every night. And yes, I do mean hours. His phone bills during those months were in the hundreds of dollars (and that's per bill, NOT added all together!). As soon as we both saw that best friends was changing into boy/girl friend, I knew that this was it. He was the husband that I had prayed for for years. And I really had. Always had prayed that God was preparing someone just for me, and vice versa, and that he was being shaped and molded into a Godly man, and that I would know it was him when I found him. So yes, I knew. Did I envision being in this exact circumstance 12 years later? Not quite. But I wouldn't trade a day of it for anything else. Ever.