I will never forget the first day I heard his voice. We were both in a small building and I was ease dropping on his conversation with our manager. He was the most polite person I had ever heard speak.. His words were “yes sir, no sir, or lord willing.” His words were soft, kind, genuine. He was genuinely a nice person. The first thought that came across my head was how I would want to marry someone just like him (not necessarily HIM) but a nice genuine human being… I personally thought he was already married. How could a man like him NOT be married already? Moments
later I was introduced to T.J. A couple years later I found out T.J. actually wasn’t married and he never had been married. We both started going through a breakup at the same EXACT time - (kind of like Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani hehe), somehow we drifted to one another. Looking back now we should have been each other’s “rebound” from our previous relationships, but we ending up having a shotgun wedding and enjoying this last decade with one another.
Our shotgun wedding was definitely one of the best days of my life. We kept it small and simple. Getting married at the court house wasn’t our dream, so we contacted our pastor, Chris Condit. Our pastor arranged to meet us at our church so we could cherish this wedding for years to come. We didn’t originally PLAN to get married as quickly as we did, but the truth was; we were in a hurry. Julian’s biological aunt had threatened to take us to court for custody because they wanted Julian to be able to go to the prison. I was not okay with our son growing up visiting his biological father in prison on a monthly basis (I mean they didn’t have a relationship at all and he was sentenced to 30 years)… There are some situations where this is in the best interest of the child; however, I didn’t feel like that was the case for Julian. It was February and Valentine's Day was coming up. Why not get married on Valentine's Day (I THOUGHT)? Valentine's Day is an easy anniversary date to remember, it was a year from our first date; why not keep all the dates the same? But when you're 21 and you've never been on a "real date" for Valentine's Day, you don't know how HARD it is to go do things on VALENTINE'S DAY... Because guess what - everyone else is celebrating TOO!
We kept our wedding quiet. I knew someone would try talking me out of it, but I had made up my mind. If you know me, once I make a decision – my decision is made. I honestly didn’t want the drama; so not many people knew. I had worked that day and the ladies at work fixed my hair before I headed to the church. To this day I wonder if we weren’t in such a hurry would we have gotten married? This is why I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason
I am thankful that Julian kept me grounded, on my feet, and guided me to the man I am married to today. Of course, we have had our ups and downs - who hasn’t? There were times I was unsure if our marriage would last, but I am confident I have made the right decision. What man steps up and agrees to be responsible for your nieces and nephews? What man legally adopts your niece and nephew so he can help you try and break a generational cycle of child abuse? What man only has one biological child so he can help give a better life to other children? What man agrees for his wife to be a surrogate, because her mind is made up on wanting to help others? My man. He has stepped up and taken on my nieces and nephews to try to help break the cycle and he has supported me in every decision I have made. He makes me a better human. I can’t say enough about him and there’s not enough words to describe the way I feel about him. I am thankful for this man and I am so blessed to have had Julian lead me to him. Happy Anniversary Babe! I love you!
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