How I Met Their Father (a.k.a. The Love of My Life)

I've decided to participate in Rebecca's carnival about how I met my one and only... click over to read more stories of how love bloomed. But only after you've read mine first! ; )

My story begins in a college dorm cafeteria a long, long time ago. Okay. It wasn't THAT long ago, but it sure seems like it...

My friend Carrie and I saw a table tent at lunch advertising for a co-ed service fraternity called Alpha Phi Omega (a.k.a APO). During our meal she agreed to go with me to the intro meeting of some boring business organization if I went with her to the APO one. Mine was a complete dud (DUH!). Hers was the key to my future.

Carrie and I both pledged APO that semester and thus my college social life began. I met many people through APO but the most important was probably Tiffany Smith. She was Catholic like me, and encouraged me to attend "Awakenings" (no, not the Robin Williams movie) a special college retreat for Catholic students. During my first retreat, like anyone's, I was one of the special guests who didn't know all the wonderful and beautiful secrets that went along with the weekend. It was a very special time.

But once you do know all the top secret info, you become a host/worker instead and I was assigned to one of the tables as a "gopher." So my second retreat may not have been as special as the first for spiritual reasons but it would still change my life - forever.

The retreat always began on a Friday night but since I worked retail, I had to come Saturday morning to this particular one. I happened to walk in while everyone was having a moment of prayer and announced to the whole room, "I am here, the party can start now!!"

I know how to make an entrance don't I?

Well, I can tell you my future husband was in that very room and he will never forget that entrance, ever.

And I will never ever forget the first time I shook his hand, the electricity I instantly felt and the sweet man I saw for the very first time on November 11, 1995. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I was assigned to his table as the aforementioned gopher. So, I stuck myself to him. I invited myself along for the ride in his Volvo named "Bev" to the convenience store. I walked with him back to where the guys were bunking and told him some jokes. I watched what he was doing every chance I got, checking to see if he was flirting with any other girls (he was, because that's just his nature...)

But I knew when we went our separate ways at the end of that weekend that I would definitely see him again. We were 20 and 21 years old.

The following weekend he came to where I work to see what I was up to that Saturday night and we have (basically) been together ever since. The "basically" part is a post for another time! ; )

One thing that I love to think about is the fact that when we met I had one of the worst hair styles that I have ever had in my life (minus the time my hair was totally chopped off in the 6th grade). He has a little bit of a hair fetish and at the time we met he had no idea the potential my hair really had, but he fell for me anyway. Now that is a love that is meant to be. See evidence below. I am in the back with the bad hair cut and my Tim is on the right in the red t-shirt.

I was also sporting one of the sloppiest shirts I have EVER owned. I mean really, I was not "swoon-a-man" ready that weekend. Obviously he looked past my bad hair and fashion choices and obviously the good Lord was doing some of his best matchmaking work that weekend. Cause I can promise you it was not my modest first impression.

And yes, I still wanted to be with him even after my first ride in Bev the wonder Volvo, which was, let's just say, quite a sight on the inside...

We were married exactly 4 years later from the weekend we met. We were meant to be and I like to say that I knew it from the moment I shook his hand that first day.

The hand I will hold for the rest of my life.