Aug 30, 2003, Our Not so Traditional Story

On this day six years ago at around 2:00 in the afternoon in Los Vegas, NE. my life took a change in a direction that I never thought it would.

You see in June 2000 I met this man, online of all places, who lived thousands of miles away and in a total different world from what I was used to, Los Angeles, CA. I'm a southern girl born and breed.

We met through an instant message system, ICQ, not sure if it is even still around. We chatted online and talked for hours on the phone for six months. We finally met face to face Dec. 29,2000 in Nebraska which is where his family lives. He lived in LA and I in KY. I thought NE was a compromise.

In Aug 2001 he came to KY to meet my mom. She was completely against it and though I was 25 there was no way her baby was moving to LA with a stranger. But all it took was for her to meet him and she knew what I had knowm from the beginning. She cried when she told me that when I was a baby she would rock me and pray over me to find a good man that would treat me well and in no way abuse me. Mom said with just one meeting God gave her the peace that Jose was that man even though she would rather we be with her and have done things a bit differently.

My friends thought I had lost my mind, one I was a small town girl moving to LA, CA and two I was veering off my plan. See, I had this plan that when I finished college got a decent job and turned 25 I was going to adopt or at least become a foster mom. I was a social worker after all so it all seemed to be going according to plan, my plan that is. Marriage was not in my plan in any shape or form, I associated it with heartache, divorce and children caught in the cross fire from my own experience as a child of divorce.

But after meeting and falling completely head over heals in love I left my mom and a very good job and moved to Los Angeles in Feb 2002.

I knew he was the man I would marry, I always thought that sounded so cheesy before it happened to me.
He proposed at Thanksgiving dinner in 2002 in our one bedroom apartment in front of four of our friends. We all went around the table stating what we were thankful for and he went last and came around to where I was sitting and dropped to one knee and proposed.

So we begin to make wedding plans for Aug 2004 to be held in KY.

But the wedding just seemed to get bigger and bigger and that's not what we wanted.
In July 2003 I became sick and had to go into the hospital. They weren't sure what it was. I have a feeling it is whatever is going on now. Well he was scared to death and they would not let him go back to see me because he was not my husband.

After I got out of the hospital, he sat me down and said he thought we should go ahead and get married as soon as possible. He did not want to take the chance of something happening to me without him getting to be my husband.

I was a bit shocked. Vegas had never really been my dream wedding. But truth be told I would have married him anywhere, anytime.

But I did not want to have any regrets down the line or wish I had a traditional wedding. So we made a list of what was important to us.

I wanted a dress, nothing fancy but something that looked like a wedding dress.

He wanted a tux.

We had to have our closest friends there. the ones that could attend on such short notice, 10 + attended. (family was unable to come) We planned this in three weeks.

We wanted to write our own vows.

We both were crying in this picture.

We wanted a reception (in our hotel suite), and wedding cake. My other best friend could not make it but painted this beautiful cake topper as a wedding present to us.

I wanted flowers, which my maid of honor, Mee Mee made from flowers bought from Kroger the day of. Oh and I refused to were shoes, you can click on the pic to get a better view. I only wore white sequins flip flops then took them off as soon as we stepped in the chapel.

Mee also made our wedding favors.




I can honestly say there is not a thing I would change about our wedding. It was perfect. We both were a bit sad that our parents couldn't come but maybe that was a blessing in disguise.

Six years and we have went through so many things, from having our first child in Los Angeles in a one bed room apart with no family around and not knowing what the heck we were doing, to almost losing his sister to a brain tumor 3 months after Roo was born. Moving to KY with a baby, and two screaming cats in the air plane cabin with us, working out our inter-faith marriage, a very difficult pregnancy with our 2nd child who had to have an operation at 10 months at age, moving my bed bound mother and aunt in with us this year and now to my illness. And a whole list of other things that has made our marriage stronger and taught us that we have to put God then our marriage then our children first. Marriage is hard and takes a lot of work sometimes but divorce is just not an option for us.

We are totally opposites and that works well for us. He is calm, cool and collected. I am high strung, short temper, and find it hard to forgive sometimes. He keeps me grounded and I bring a lot of spontaneity to the table.

So Happy Anniversary Baby!

I am working on my next living post and will have it up Monday or Tuesday, so stop by and look for that.

Night friends, it's 4 am here and I will be having to get the kids up for church in a few hours. Hope you all enjoy your Sunday.