2nd-4th

{There are some of you who have heard this story before, so feel free to ignore :)

For those who haven't

& for me

here is the story of my 2nd-4th.}

My husband asked me to marry him 4 months to the day that we began dating.

From the moment he romantically proposed to me on the beach of our first kiss, and in a song he wrote for me, I couldn't wait to be his wife.

I had prayed for him. I had walked a different path in my heart with God during my relationship with him. I knew he was my gift and mine alone.

His proposal and our few moments of solitude before sharing our excitement are something I treasure because In a heart beat, my once-in-my-lifetime moment became about everyone else.

Instantly we had parents dialing family and putting my ear to the phone to share my news.

I had directions as to who would be my bridesmaids.

I had assumptions made about the church we would be married in.

I had two dates given to me and was asked to choose one of them.

I had two sets of parents who in my 23 years of life at the time had NEVER seen get along, a relationship with my father that barely existed, a desire to have my step dad walk me down the aisle...

I had PRESSURE.

I completely broke down inside, cried all the time, and hated what was supposed to be so special to me and mine.

Instead, I was thinking about the choices I made and how they would affect everyone else....

until one month later.

One month and three days after my husband proposed, I found myself begging him to elope.

In the end, he agreed- on one condition: we tell no one.

So we hopped in the car with our two best friends and drove through the night to Las Vegas and got married.

I wore a simple skirt and blouse and made my vows before God (and a strange little man I'd hope to never see again) and with the sound of a silly fountain in the back ground.

I didn't want it to be elaborate.

I wanted it to be what it was supposed to be about

MY COVENANT WITH MY HUSBAND.

By December, we were actually pushed into revealing our secret by the pastor who would still be conducting our formal ceremony.

With individual conversations and meetings with all three sets of parents,

our marriage was in the open and we moved in together.

(Kinda crazy that as a married couple we didn't live together yet because no one knew!)

It was an incredibly difficult moment in our lives

that ended with incredible healing in our formal ceremony before our family & friends on February 25, 2006.

Our formal ceremony was where we FELT married.

We apologized to everyone we hurt

but we owned and were OK with our decision to marry the way we did.

The hus and I now have a dream of renewing our vows on our 10th anniversary in the way we would have if we had done it our way from the beginning:

on the beach of our first kiss and his proposal. ultimate simplicity

and then

one BIG party!

Happy 2nd-4th Anniversary to the Love of My Life!