Our Love Story

In honor of Valentine's Day, I had intended to post our love story on my Monday blog.  Due to my internet deciding to crash, it had to wait until today!  Praise the Lord, we have internet again.  How did we ever make it without the internet?  What did I do all day before I could check email, read blogs and update my facebook status?  Anyway, here it is, how we met, fell in love, got married and started our crazy family...in as few words as possible!

Jason and I both moved into our dorm rooms the weekend before classes started at OSU.  Somehow our floors ended up being put together to do things like campus tours and weekend events designed to help freshman ease into college life and meet new people.  One of the oldest memories about that weekend was when we were at a pizza dinner on the President's lawn.  Jason and I were sitting at the same table, and I thought he was so funny!  I liked him right away, not as a love interest, but as a friend.  For some reason I kicked him in the butt that evening trying to be funny and luckily did not scare him away!  We both had a significant other back home and were not looking to meet anyone new.  At least that is what we said at the time. 

We quickly formed a great friendship and did most things together during our first months on campus.  Along with a core group of people we ate dinner together, walked to class together, watched TV and movies together, attempted to study together, drank coffee at "The Bean" together.  Everything.  We would talk for hours on the phone when we couldn't hang out any longer and discuss pretty much everything from family to our current boyfriend/girlfriend.  Nothing was off limits and we got to know each other very well in a short amount of time.  One thing led to another and pretty soon it was clear that we were developing a deeper bond than just friendship.  The boyfriend and girlfriend back home both faded away, and pretty soon we were on our first date. 

From there we did have some hiccups.  We were in college and well, not the most mature people.  We also were not in church and not really following God's plan for our lives.  Needless to say, there were many times when we made poor decisions and it affected our relationship.  Through it all, however, we always managed to be honest with each other and work things out.  Honesty was key for us then and still is today.

Jason proposed during our sophomore year at OSU.  Not everyone was as excited as we were and many of our friends and family thought we were getting married too soon.  The fact that we had both had long relationships with people that were less than great before college didn't help us out much.  It took some work to convince people that we were making a good decision and that we would finish school and that, "No, Tracy is not pregnant."  And even after making every attempt to convince our family that we were not rushing into things, not everyone was sold.

A year later at the end of our junior year, we were married.  We had a great wedding and a great honeymoon and when the summer was over we went back to being college students only now we were married.  I would like to say that we lived happily ever after, but we had our ups and downs like anyone else.  We argued, we made mistakes, and we still were not putting God first in our marriage.  There was more than one time when I wondered if we had made a mistake and I am sure Jason felt the same way.  But we had promised each other long before we got married, that when we did, it would be forever.  We both came from divorced families and had decided we were not going to have the same lives as our parents.  We were going to make our marriage work no matter how hard it was.  I am so glad we made that decision!

Eventually we got back into church, started seeking God and His plan for our lives.  Slowly we started making better decisions and through God's mercy and love we were able to start building the marriage we had both dreamed of.  College led to employment (thankfully!) and we moved away from our friends and family for three years.  We were forced to rely on each other and deepen our relationship because we had no one else around to distract us.  It was a great time for us and though we missed OK, being in Texas was one of the best things that could have happened to us. We came away with a better relationship with each other, with Jesus, and made some lifelong friendships as well.

After three years and two great jobs, we moved back to OK.  A little more than a year later we had Isabelle and then a little more than a year after that had Molly.  Life is great.  Yes, we still have our issues.  Yes, sometimes we argue, but now more than ever we strive to put God first in our lives and in our marriage and that has made all the difference.  This year we celebrate 10 years.  Looking back I will tell you I fell in love with Jason at first sight.  No, I didn't recognize that right away, but I remember at that pizza dinner thinking that he was so different from anyone I had ever met and liking him so much right away that I didn't want to stop talking to him EVER.  And I was convinced I wasn't looking for a boyfriend.  He was amazing then and continues to be amazing today.  We have not just 'lucked' into a great marriage, we have worked at it.  We know that a great marriage doesn't just happen and we continue to make the effort everyday to ensure we have a great marriage for many more years to come.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day.  I am so glad to be back in the digital world!  See you tomorrow for Embrace the Camera!