Happy Anniversary

Guido and I are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary today! I woke to find a card and a beautiful rose waiting for me. Neither one of us had discussed the plans for today, so I honestly thought Guido had forgotten about it. He's been so busy working extra shifts during his school break that I figured we would have a quite celebration this year. So when I woke and saw the flower, those feelings of love sky rocketed.

If you had asked me 5 years ago, if I ever saw myself married, my answer would have probably been "NO". I had celebrated my 20's with weddings of other friends but no serious boyfriend of my own. When I turned 30 I really began to ponder if I had wasted my 20's looking for love rather than using it for ministry. The next few years, I hunkered down and became really involved with learning more about Christ and being a servant to others. You name it I was involved in church life. In fact, one guy I did date during that time was frustrated with me because I had to schedule him in between retreats and bible studies.

In Lent of 2002, I decided I would fast television. You are talking to a TV junky here. I had the TV on all the time just for background noise, so to have it off left a lot of silence. Silence that as a single person I didn't like because it reminded me of how alone I really was. It was hard at first to sit in silence, but then I began to use that time to really pray. My prayers weren't even focused on asking God to find me someone to marry. I was focused on wanting to know how to love God even more. It was an incredible 40 days, it completely changed my life. I felt on fire for God.

Now I had known about Guido since 2000, but I was never really interested in him because he was 4 years younger than I was and my mentality at the time was that he was just a "boy" and I wanted an older "man". He and I criss-crossed paths so much during this time but neither of us were interested in the other.

In the fall of 2002, we went out to dinner just the two of us as a "thank you" for helping him out with a favor. It wasn't a date but he did take me to my favorite restaurant in Ponte Vedra -Barbara Jean's. By the time they sat us for dinner we ate under an umbrella of stars. I don't know what happended but all of sudden after hours of talking, eating, and laughing my eyes were shinning and my heart felt a little weak. He didn't want to go home after dinner so we cornered ourselves into a booth at Barnes and Nobles and for another couple of hours laughed and talked more. I couldn't believe how impresed I was with this "boy". He was younger than I usually liked, but he was such a deep thinker and so passionate about his faith. He had this huge loud family, he had lived a military life much like mine, and he had all these wonderful dreams for the future. I went home that night a little shaken up, because after becoming so close in my walk with Christ, I thought he could seriously become a distraction.

I often tell people that our friendship birthed into a relationship because it was 9 months after that dinner that Guido finally asked me out on a "date". Guido wanted to know the real me before he asked me out. He spent 9 months "getting to know me" as a "friend" watching and observing how I acted. Was I really the person I said I was? It was a long 9 months. But because he and I had gotten to know each other so well before we dated, it wasn't long, only 2 months, after our first date when he proposed. The rest as they say, is history!

Guido has never been a distraction to me in my Christian walk. If anything he has helped strengthen my Christian disciplines of reading the Bible and praying. I'm a take-action kind of girl. Guido has taught me the importance of thinking and especially praying before I do something. He's a wonderful man, not a mean melicious bone in his body. Where I feel I could be vindictive and judgemental, Guido is completely forgiving of others. He has taught me so much and shown me so much love over these past 4 years. The future only holds better things.