Our Love Story – Part 2

We were 13 and 18 and in love. This was not totally unheard of in our small town, but it was unusual. Most times when there were couples that were this young and with this kind of age difference there were things going on between them that shouldn’t have been. That was not the case for us, but I am sure that in the circles of gossip our purity was questioned. We were together for different reasons. We loved getting to know each other… we could talk for hours. We understood each other more than anyone else in the world understood us, and we found comfort in each other because of that.

Over the next 4 years we continued to grow more and more in love. I was very involved in school and church while Corey was away at college during the week - an hour from home, and we both worked most of the weekends. But we lived for those weekends - even if we only had a few hours to spend together. Our time spent together was almost always spent at one of our family’s houses. We would play games, watch TV, lay outside and look at the stars, go hunting or fishing together, cook together, or just sit and talk. We never went on dates until I was 16. We became a part of each other’s families. We shared holidays and went on trips with each other’s families. Everything we did outside of school and work was done together – usually with our families.

I can say that being fully in love and committed to someone at such a young age was hard sometimes. I was different from all of the people that I went to school with. Sometimes it was hard to relate to them, and I am sure that it was hard for them to understand me. I was at a place in life that many people do not reach until they are in their mid-twenties or thirties. I was a decade younger than those people, so I didn’t really relate well with them either. I would have times that I questioned what I was doing, but my love for Corey always brought me back to knowing that with him was where I was supposed to be.

The spring of 1991 rolled around. We were 17 and 22. One night Corey & my dad were looking at the baseball cards that they liked to collect together when Corey asked my dad if we could get married. He said yes. Corey came and told me that they had talked about it, but he did not officially propose. We began to unofficially plan for a wedding the next summer after I graduated from high school – as soon as we possibly could.

In May he graduated from college and signed up to be a summer missionary. We would have to go much of that summer without seeing each other. When he boarded that plane, I was heart broken. I had never felt my heart ache like it did that day as I stood at the window of the airport and watched his plane roll away. Once during that summer my parents took me to see him. He was working at a boys ranch, and they were having a rodeo that night. When we pulled up, my eyes darted from here to there as quickly as I could make them… looking for my guy. Finally, I saw him. He was the most beautiful sight that I had ever seen. He was very tan from working out in the sun all summer and the white shirt that he was wearing accentuated that even more. And that smile… he flashed that smile at me when he saw me, and I melted.

We survived the summer apart, and he came home to Meridian in August. He had gotten his college degree – two of them actually, but could not find a job. He continued working with an electrician in town and I started my senior year of high school and worked a lot. One December night when I got off of work, I found a note in the car. Handwritten from Corey. It told me to go to a location where I found another note which told me to go to another location… and so on. I ended up out at the place that his family owns and walked up to the hunting cabin to find Corey sitting at a table in the candlelight. Waiting. When I walked in, we talked for a moment then he got down on one knee, told me that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, and asked, “Will you marry me?” Of course I said yes.

The next few months were filled with wedding planning, working, finishing school, house hunting, finding a college… an odd assortment of activities. We were both so anxious for June to arrive, so we could be together all of the time. One thing that I vividly remember Corey telling me during that time was, “This is going to be hard.” We never lived with that oblivious “love is enough” kind of outlook on life. We always knew that this marriage thing was going to take a lot of work.

15 years later, I cannot say that I understood what his forecast of “hard” was going to entail. I had no idea what twists and turns our life would take us through. But I can honestly say, if I had to live through it all again, there would not be a better person to live it with. Corey has proven to be the hardest worker I have ever known. He knows what he believes and he stands behind that 100% - even when it is not easy. And when it comes down to it that is what marriage – life - is all about.