Tuesday, February 14, 2012

How We Met

How about a little love story on the day of love. The idea was inspired by my fellow blogger Megan.
I feel like our love story could go one for pages because it was not a quick love story like so many you hear. With that being said I know nobody cares to read an unabridged version of love stories so here is the story of how we met in a  nut shell!

In 2008 my life seemed to be a hot mess full of possibilities and potentials. All in a few months time I broke up with a semi-serious boyfriend, moved from an apartment to a house with a bunch of friends, and was in search of a new job. During this stressful, but limitless time in my life I was also experiencing a decline in health that I couldn't get under control. I now believe all the stressors (both good and bad) were a huge contributing factor to my health problems.

I had been working in my industry (was actually using my degree), but funding was running out and I knew my time was limited with my company so I went to find the first thing that would bring me a paycheck. I found a job at a restaurant that was so perfectly...me. Let me explain, this restaurant is the most eclectic place you will ever see adorned with buddas, pictures of Frida, and statues of Lakshmi. It serves international cuisine as in a little bit of food from every country. The servers were funky, natural, and had the laid back vibe that I love. I knew that THIS was the job I needed for my transition time. I also decided since my life was a wide open book that I wanted to travel and do volunteer work.

Some people will call me crazy, but I knew that I would meet my husband here, but did not think it would be a coworker. I just knew that this transition time would turn my world upside down in every aspect of my life. Roll your eyes if you want, but it is true!

I met my future husband while on a shift. I was walking into the back room to find a man with dark curls, glimmering brown eyes (I swear they really did glimmer), and the kindest smile. I went home that night and called my best friend to gush about this guy I saw. The problem was we hadn't spoken. I didn't know how old he was and my friend teased me that he could be 16 for all we knew (I was 23 at the time) and I decided I better get some info before falling in love.  I worked behind the bar and was somewhat secluded from everyone else so it was harder to talk than if he too worked behind the bar.

This is already getting long...I investigated to find out what his name was, and spent a lot of time going into the back so i could pass by him and smile or say hi. One day as we were closing he came behind the bar and just started talking. He had the cutest accent I had ever heard, but still had no idea where he was from. At this restaurant there were Hungarian accents, Mexican accents, Bolivian accents, and British accents, but this one I just couldn't place. He gave me his number and that's when it all started.

We were both smitten with one another, but we worked together which made things...more difficult. Also, I felt like my life was too out of order to start a relationship. I have this philosophy that in order to have a healthy relationship a woman must have her life in order. If you are not put together yourself how can someone else fit perfectly in your life? So we started off as friends. We called each other every single night after he got off work and would talk till the wee hours of the morning. I still wonder what we talked about for so long. I realized that I had completely fallen for him when one evening his phone call never came. I waited for his call only to hear silence from my phone. I wanted to call him, but my pride got in the way. I replayed our last few conversations over and over trying to find some reason for him to ignore me. I went to bed heartbroken. The next day I found that he didn't call because I had complained of not feeling well and just wanting to go home and sleep. He knew his call would wake me up and he didn't want to disturb my sleep. I realized that our friendship meant a hell of a lot more than friendship.

About 8 months after talking he was ready to be in a real relationship, bu by this time I was really falling for him and I felt so unbelievably guilty about dragging someone into my life of CF. I also hated the idea of falling in love with him and wanting to live a normal life (marriage, family, retirement). It was so much easier to except a short life when you didn't have to worry about leaving others behind. I made him read all these depressing facts about CF and kept telling him I would die young and never have his children. We spent every waking moment together and yet kept it as just friends. At the same time we were both officially in love with one another, but I was too scared to allow the relationship blossom. One evening he dropped the love word. I burst into tears. I too wanted to express how much I loved him because I loved him so much. Instead I cried and told him it wasn't fair for him to love me and he would have to sacrifice too much to be with me. He grabbed me and looked me in the eyes and said that he didn't care how many days I had on his Earth all he knew is he wanted to spend every single one of them with me.

I finally realized that he was strong enough and willing to be with a cyster and I so desperately wanted to be with him so we officially started dating. A few months later I was scheduled to go to Costa Rica to do volunteer work for 6 weeks and then was going to Mexico for another week. He proved his love to me once again when he called me everyday while I was in Costa Rica. One of those phone calls sparked the first real conversations about marriage and the rest is history.

In 2009 we were engaged and 2010 we were married. Now in 2012 we will be having our first baby. Had someone told me back in 2008 that not only would I fall in love, get married, find my health improve drastically, and have a baby I would have never believed that my life could have turned out so beautifully. I guess dreams really do come true sometimes!

6 comments:

  1. This is the sweetest post, ever. I love your love story, and yes I do see the parallels now! As I've said many times, a cyster's husband is a special guy, and this post shows exactly how special your husband is. I'm so glad you two found each other and that he convinced you to let go of your fears and take a chance. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  2. This is one of the most beautiful post I have ever read! What an amazing love story (: You're truely a lucky girl to have such an amazing man love you and accepts you for every part of you!! I can't wait for you guys to add a third (:

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  3. Thanks girls! I am glad you enjoyed it because I love telling it. I think having CF helps weed out guys that aren't the whole package. Brianne- Thanks, we can't wait till we become a family of 3 either! :)

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  4. I'm totally slow to respond to this, but it was so sweet! I've found it interesting reading all these cyster love stories how much they are alike... it seems like almost all of has went through the "scare the crazy guy away with CF stats" phase! ;) I sure did.

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  5. I love reading how we met stories as well and fine there are a lot of similarities between cysters and falling in love! I think the scaring a way tactic helps weed out all the people that can't handle CF which really isn't something the average person could handle. Glad you found your perfect match as well :)

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