John and I met in May of 2005 at church in Grande Prairie. I had moved there the month before and John had moved up that weekend. My first impression of John was "Wow, that's an ugly tie", ha ha. It didn't take long before John was the one driving me to all of our YSA activities and we were always hanging out. We became good friends pretty fast. It wasn't hard to figure out that John had a thing for me, but it took me a little while longer to figure out how I felt about him.
We had our first date in August. We went out to dinner, had Booster Juice and went for a walk in the park, put Oreo cookies all over the windows of the missionaries' car and had some hot chocolate at Tim Horton's. It was so much fun.
A couple of weeks later John invited me to go and visit his sister and her family for the weekend in Edmonton, since most of the rest of our friends had to work for the long weekend. I was happy to have something to do and went. That Sunday I was fasting to know what I should do about John (basically if I should date him seriously or not). As I stood in the hallway looking at him with his nephew on my shoulder falling asleep, I got my answer in bold full force. This was the man I was supposed to marry. (I also found out later that at the same time with the situation with his nephew, that's when John knew that he was in love with me.) Later that day as we were sitting on the steps of the temple, I let him know that I knew that. So that was the day that John and I became an official couple.
Here is the part where we fit the stereotypical "Mormon dating to engagement time". 2 days later, back in Grande Prairie, John had time to fast about it as well, and proposed to me at the river valley. This was September 7th. It sounds fast, but we both had been told by the Lord that this is what was right, so what was the point in waiting?
We weren't in the same city for a lot of our engagement. I moved in with his youngest sister and her family for a month and a half and got to know his family better, and then went and lived with my mum until the week before the wedding.
On New Year's Eve morning, after a week of a serious head cold, I met up with John at the front of the Cardston Alberta Temple. We were sealed to each other so that our marriage would not end with the death of one of us. Being married without having a single member of your family there in the room with you isn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but I'm very glad that right from day 1 our marriage was an eternal marriage, a 3 way covenant between us and the Lord. I have never ever felt regret over that decision.
Of course, in our 5 years of marriage we've had some ups and some downs. We have been blessed with 2 beautiful boys and are currently 27 weeks pregnant with our third and last child, another boy. We've moved as a married couple 4 times. We have held each other through severe PPD and painful flare ups of mental illness, and marvelled together when we found something that works for mine. We held each other again this year after hearing that I would never have a baby girl of my own to take home from the hospital and are still becoming stronger people as we come more and more to terms with this. Through it all we've had each other and we've had the Lord, and that's what matters the most to us.
John and I may not be the perfect looking couple or have everything together all of the time, but he's perfect for me and I love him so much. I can't imagine my life without him and have a hard time putting into words what he means to me. I have been so blessed to have been married to this wonderful man for the past 5 years, and am SO thankful that we have an eternity left together. Happy First Five Years Of Eternity, John!
