Tuesday, February 21, 2012

POST #6 Good intentions and the Beginning, Again

So I made some well-intentioned comment about ahem... (whispered) "14 posts on love" a while back, and while I believe one should "swear to their own hurt, and change not," this obviously doesn't apply to one's blog, does it? Anyhoo, I have been knee-deep in homeschool research for next school year. Truly.

February 19, 2000, Nathan drove me to the beautiful nearby Guntersville Lake, and he popped the question. And he kissed me for the first time. There are two audiences reading this: one, saying "What?! You kissed before the wedding?!" (to you, I'm sorry I've let you down) and the other, saying "What?! You didn't kiss until you got engaged?!" (to you, I'm not sorry I've let you down- haha!) In the interest of full disclosure, neither of us had ever kissed anyone before and neither of us were impressed with that first experience. Let's just say, there were no sparks or heel-lifts. Maybe we were just too cold to feel anything. It was February, after all. At a LAKE. He gave me a beautiful engagement watch with a personal inscription on the back. It was a bit large for my bony arm, but my uncle was a watchmaker, and he had it display-worthy in no time :o)

Back I went to college. I had some incredibly ridiculous notion that I MUST have a Spring wedding. And that Spring was obviously out, since I was in the middle of a school semester. So we waited 14 MONTHS to tie the knot! Not my recommendation for anyone, by the way. Did I mention 'incredibly ridiculous?' All for the colors I wanted in my pictures?! Sigh.

After that semester, I began working at my old job at a Spanish translator to pull together some funds. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and my goal was not to walk down the aisle with one either. So we went as frugal as we could, and I paid for a lot of it myself. And then there was the blessing of the produce manager who happened to love the church I was to be married in, who gave me the finest of fruits and veggies of the season. A whole buggy full for $25.00!!!

We spent weekends together as much as we could, spending many hours walking and walking and talking and talking! And putting together puzzles. And playing Rook by the hours with the Greg Makcen family. Those were sweet days.

April 7, 2001, we were married on a beautiful SPRING day! I found out that day from my grandmother that it was also her and my deceased grandfather (Ponder Frederick)'s anniversary. That held a special significance for me as I never had to privilege to know him. My other grandfather passed away the Monday before my wedding. Dad Brown momentarily stepped on the train of my dress, the flower girl and Bible bearer (who wore WHITE socks with his black suit- agh!) fussed all the way down the aisle, my cake leaned, the candles leaned, my sister Chelsea vomited from stress (she's going to kill me- good thing she never reads my blog ;o), and the day was still perfect.

And just before they all waved goodbye, my 80-something year old aunt popped her head between ours and began giving me the 'birds and bees' talk. Yep, just perfect! ;o)

Almost 11 years later, I'm still learning and growing in this amazing thing called love. The commitment is unconditional for us, and the joy of learning about each other is still happening. And just in case, you were wondering (which you weren't, of course), the kisses have definitely improved ;o)! And that was the beginning!

4 comments:

Kimberly said...

i don't remember seeing your wedding pictures, Charity...i wouldn't mind seeing a few!:) blessings to you and Nathan on many, many more years together...

Charity said...

I don't have any on the computer, Kim. I'll have to see what I can do... Thanks- I feel blessed ;o)

Angie D said...

Oh my word--I love the wacky wedding day memories. We have a few of those too!

Hope your family is well!

The Dickinsons said...

Very fun reading this, Charity. I saw a couple days ago...on someone's blog that you had a new post on...and WANTED to go and read it, but with my Grandma being near death, and us going to Colombia in 11 days...life is busy! Just got to read it to my girls tonight and we enjoyed hearing it.
That's FUNNY that y'all had a 14 month engagement, for we did too. We wish now that we would have gotten married 2 months after he asked me...rather than waiting THOSE LONG MONTHS!! =) My Mother FELL right before our wedding, but praise the Lord she didn't break any bones and was able to walk down the aisle.
Such a sweet post. It was fun reading it all!
Blessings on you and your sweet family!
~Heather~