how I became a mrs. (part 8)

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So he asked me out. In a weird, awkward, pretty formal way. But I fell for it.

In the coming months, we spent our time huddled around the Daily Tar Heel crossword puzzle, because we're cool like that. And we walked around the campus learning about each other's lives - our families, our childhood, our best friends, our dreams and plans and fears. It sounds cheesy, but it was true. We were learning as much as we could about each other. Drinking it up. I couldn't get enough of him and knew I was done for.



About a week after we started dating, we had spring break. He went off with a relief organization to New Orleans to help clean up after Katrina. I headed to sunny Charleston with my Aunt Rita for a girls weekend. We enjoyed steak and lobster while he ate porrage. We got massages while he tore down houses. We are so, so different.

The whole time we were apart, I couldn't wait for him to call. Aunt Rita still picks on me about how I glanced at my phone every 5 minutes. But I wanted him to call! Ahh! One night when I couldn't sleep, I got out of bed and wrote him a note on the hotel stationery. I told him that I loved him and knew that I would marry him one day and then I folded it up, put it in my wallet and didn't share it with him until the day of our wedding. After ONE week. I told you, I knew I was done for.

One thing I probably forgot to mention. I was Andrew's first girlfriend.

Andrew was not my first boyfriend.

So you can imagine how that went. There were times of frustration and confusion and hilarity. And lots of, "Did he really just say that to me?" Like the time I was meeting his parents for the first time and just before we walked through the door, I asked him if I had anything on my face.

"Just a big ol'...nose."

Awesome.

But we navigated it. And six months later, he told me he loved me. And a few weeks after that, we were walking on the beach at a leadership retreat and we started talking about our future. He was thinking about the Marines, I was thinking of teaching in a big city. Should I plan on him, around him? Was he planning around me? I need to know these things, people!



I fired a million questions at him about his expectations and his intentions and his thoughts on how I fit into his life in the coming years. It was frantic, I'm sure. He stopped and looked at me and said, "Page. I would marry you tomorrow if I could."

Well, ok then.

That was August of my junior (his senior) year. We'd been together just five months. Who does that? Certainly not me. I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever consider getting married a) right after college b) after only dating a guy for a few months c) to someone who had never had a girlfriend.

{Just kidding on that last part :) I love that he's never been with anyone else. It makes me feel all puffed up when I think about it. And while there were some bumps, there isn't a better boyfriend/fiance/husband out there. I'm convinced of that. His mama raised him right.}

Anyway, that was August. And it wasn't until the following February that we got engaged. And holy whoa, was that an intense six months. It was great, but it was awful at times. Because if you're going to marry someone, you have to know that you can make it through the ugly. And ugly there was. We're two sinful people, right? We had to work through my sins and we had to work through his sins and there were moments of should-we-even-be-together frustration and hurt. But through prayer and great role models and great counselors, we worked it out.

Despite the whole fairy tale mentality, it's anything but perfect. It's freakin' hard. But we did it. I remember thinking, "No one is perfect. And if I can never be with a perfect person, he's the only imperfect person I want to be with." Romantic, right?

We should have had that engraved on our wedding rings.

But it's so true. It's real. And when we worked through the yucky and came through holding hands, we got engaged. And that was a fabulous day...