Year number 3

Be warned: this entire post is in honor/celebration of my marriage and relationship with my husband. If you have no interest in this topic, then continue no farther. There is, however, some exciting news at the very end! Feel free to skip ahead.

We are rounding the corner of 2018 and quickly approaching the debut of next Year as well as our 2 year anniversary. I honestly can't believe it. I've been married for 2 whole years? I guess the saying is true, that time flies when you're having fun. Man, has it been fun. I don't know how many individuals have been blessed to the extent that I have been by marrying and birthing two best friends, but every day feels like another play date with the pair that makes me laugh and cut loose more than any one else. I honestly didn't think I would ever be completely, one thousand percent myself around my husband. It didn't seem possible that someone as odd, quirky, and obnoxious as I am could show the good, the bad, and the borderline disturbing, and not wind up getting served with divorce papers. Yet somehow, Hunter takes the whacko things I say and do, and filters them in a way that (according to him) feeds his love for me. Awe, how sweet.

Really though, it's uncanny, almost miraculous, that a man could love me the way Hunter does. It's almost like he was given a special love, just for me. And to be honest, I really think he was.

Some of you may know this, but when I first met Hunter I was not attracted to him. I thought he was a nice guy and that was all. I was actually pretty jaded and pessimistic about dating and males in general due to a concentrated year of stop-start attractions that puttered out after no more than 3 dates. I think the total, individual, "interests" came to a grand total of 8 by the end of that semester in college. Suffice it to say, I was not having it any more. From what I had seen, boys were fun to look at and even entertaining to be around, but not worth much effort or personal investment in the end. It was the first night of my return from that year at college that Hunter and I met.

He and I had known of one another from childhood, in fact he had a massive crush on my best friend for many years and we had several friends in common, so it wasn't entirely out of the blue when he asked me to meet him for coffee.

I later learned that he thought it was a date. I just thought it was two acquaintances catching up. I most likely wouldn't have gone if I'd believed otherwise. But during our time at the sunny table outside of Asheville's Book Exchange, Hunter proceeded to do literally everything you shouldn't do on a first "date."

He filled me in on his past dating relationships and shared the kitten and caboodle on the last girl he'd been "talking to" and for whom he had in fact traveled across the country for as a surprise. It was all a bit TMI TBH. But he was a nice guy and I actually really enjoyed the time we spent chatting.

Toward the end of the summer, Hunter gave me a phone call to invite me to visit a lake house that his whole family was renting an hour away. It could be a day trip and "a good vacation" for me, since I'd been working four jobs and hadn't had much of a break during my break.

At this point, I was suspicious of his interest in me so I politely declined in an effort to make it clear that it was not reciprocated.

Fortunately, his response was completely "cool" with my refusal of his invitation. He was neither offended nor deflated by being rejected. In fact, it was a very gentle apathy that poked and prodded my ego into submission. I hung up the phone, laid back on my bed, stared at my phone, redialed his number, said, "Ok, I can come." then hung up again. No one invites me to a lake house, gets declined, and is completely O.K. with it.

The drive down was fine. We chatted and laughed every now and then. But I was on guard. I didn't want any thing other than friendship. When we arrived, the house was brimming with nieces, nephews, sisters, brothers, aunts, and fur babies. Does your family have a glue? And by that I mean, is there one person who just brings everyone together? That's Hunter with his family. He loves everyone, is loved by everyone, and he has a tendency to point out the things that he loves about his loved ones to the other loved ones who don't love his loved ones as much as he loves them so that they begin to love them more. As I watched him interact with his seven brothers and sisters, 13 nieces and nephews, and all of the in-laws, I began to realize how special this man was.

The return drive was completely different. Something had changed, although I couldn't put my finger on it. Were those butterflies in my stomach??

We had met halfway to the house so I had to drive the remainder of the trip home alone. After I picked up my car and I returned to the interstate, the wildest feeling I've ever experienced began to grow in the pit of my stomach. The closest thing I can compare it to is the feeling you would get as a little boy or girl on your birthday or during christmas after you've opened up a wrapped gift and realized that you've received the exact thing you've been begging your parents for for the past year. At first I didn't understand it. I tried to shove the feeling down. I felt silly and confused. Finally, out loud in my car, I began to laugh/cry and say "Seriously? Really? Are you serious?" I was talking to the One to whom I'd asked, all my life, to spare me the drama of multiple relationships and bring me a man who could love me as fiercely as I knew I could love him. In the stillest part of me, an assurance as solid as the chair I now sit in, flowered. He was it. He was my man.

Both my parents were still awake when I walked through my front door.

"How was your time at the lake?" they inquired, most likely expecting a detail-less response like, "good." Instead, I walked to the couch, sat down, stared at the ceiling fan, and said, "I think I'm going to marry Hunter Foreman."

And marry him I did. It's been two years now, and it's amazing how much my love for him has grown. For Hunter though, I feel like his love has been as steady and powerful as the pull of the moon on the ocean. I have no doubts that his ability to put up with my crazy and often, extremely selfish and unfair attitude, is entirely due to a love that gives absolutely no credit to Hunter. God placed it in his heart for me.

So what does year 3 hold for us?

Well, much like the special love I know Hunter was given for me, a new desire and longing has come into the forefront of both my heart and my husband's. Through prayer and petition, we have begun our efforts to pursue a life overseas in service of those in need of physical therapy and nutritional aid, specifically, Uganda. The following year has been dedicated to raising support, awareness, and a troop of Prayer Warriors who desire to be a part of our work there. If you've waded this far through all of the personal information I just gushed onto the internet, I hope you will experience the love I have just described that surpasses understanding. Hunter and I have felt it for one another since we met and are watching now as it expands before our eyes, all the way to across the pond.