My 9/11: A tribute to my man

First let me say that in no way do I mean to trivialize the events of 9/11.  It was a tragedy of immense proportions and I mourn the lives lost that day.  However, long before 9/11/2001, September 11 had special meaning to me.  You see on September 11, 1992, I had my very first date with my man, so in spite of our nations tragedy on this day, my 9/11 makes me smile.

So, because I am never ever cheesy on this blog and because at this moment Jason is traveling and I miss him much, I dedicate this post to him.  So stop reading if you're bugged by cheese.  I'm not going to apologize for it- I don't ever write about us.

First, oh how I wish I had pictures!  Sadly we started dating BEFORE digital cameras (yes, we are THAT old), and since I live overseas and don't want to risk losing all my non digital pics I have NONE of them with me.  However...  I did come across this lovely bit of history (click here) on one of my friends facebook pages...Ha!!  I really hope that link works and you can see that I had the privilege as an incoming freshman of dating (drumroll...) Mr. June!  His stats are all wrong though- he's not 5'10", he's 6'1" and his hair is definitely light brown and not blonde...   Ok, so I'm exaggerating a little.  That goofy calendar didn't come out until my sophomore year (his junior year) and by that time we were old news.

So here we are 19 YEARS later- that is so crazy to me.  It means I have been in love with my best friend for over half of my life.  We started dating in a world where no one (at least that we knew) had cell phones.  We didn't text or message each other on facebook.  We had to walk across campus to find out if one or the other of us was studying in the library. We sat in a swing on top of the hill by Mary Nelson dorm on MC campus and we talked face to face.  Imagine that.  We didn't even have email accounts! (at least until our second year of dating and only then because Jason's parents moved back overseas and it was how we communicated with them...).   What I love is that we basically grew up together.  This is so much more real to me now that I have a 12 year old (in 3 more days!).  We were 18 and 19 when we started dating- babies!

 So I didn't fall in love with Mr. June (at least not until the next year) but I did fall in love with the lead singer of a really awesome Christian alternative band, and yes, they produced (wait for it).... tapes.  Not CD's.  Tapes.  How fun is that?  I still have one and I protect it because I'm afraid one day it might die as tapes do.  So I was a groupy.  Had a t-shirt and everything.  Loved, loved, loved to here him sing.  Still do.  Don't get to hear it as much and don't get to be the "lead singers girlfriend" anymore but hearing him sing to our babies or lead the family in worship is oh so much better.  (but if anybody reading this knows how I could get a hold of some Higher Call tapes or even live video- what I would pay!!)

I also fell in love with an athlete.  Such an athlete that when we first started dating, he would walk to my dorm at the crack of dawn and we would go play tennis.  Now I"m thinking, WHY IN THE WORLD? That's actually how we introduced Kimberly and Jeremy (Jason's brother and wife).  They played tennis with us.  Not sure what the tennis draw was- something about it worked though because Jeremy and Kimberly are now married too.  They broke up a lot more than us though so that's fun to tease them about.  We actually never broke up.  Didn't really fight that much either while dating- don't worry, we've made up for it...  Also, all of us Freshman girls loved to go and "walk" (for exercise of course) around the track on the soccer field where all of our boyfriends were playing soccer.  Not sure how many calories we burned but we laughed ALOT and made lots of fun memories.  And we loved watching the guys play soccer and I'm pretty sure they didn't mind us watching...

Most importantly, I fell in love with one of the most Godly, generous, selfless, loving men I have ever known.  He is my rock.  He holds it together when I'm falling apart.  He loves our girls to pieces.  He loves me to pieces.  He is everything I ever dreamed about in my prince charming.  He is the kind of husband and father that I pray my girls will one day find.

So on this, my 9/11,  as I look back at our 19 year together, I remember...

Amerigos

midnight Krispy Kreme runs in the back of a pick-up (yes, we're from MS)

formals, semi-formals

bribing the security guard with donuts (again Krispy Kreme) when we missed curfew- yes, the girls at MC had a curfew way back when!!

Higher Call concerts

first trip overseas

Waffle House coffee (he's matured to Starbucks, I never recovered from Waffle House...)

fishing trips with Granddaddy

passing on the love of the great outdoors

water skiing in Hot Springs

honeymoon hurricane cruise

Bethesda Baptist Church ("brother Jason" and "sister Kelli")

first pregnancy surprise on Jason's birthday

nursing school

married student housing

graduate school

a semester in south France

a cancer scare

God's constant provision

1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th time parents (it never gets old!)

holding hands through first labor

almost delivering 2nd baby ourselves

in vitro miracle babies

3rd baby overseas

4th baby C-section

heart break of miscarriage

loving and losing grandparents together- when we married we were blessed to have 9 living, since we married 4 have gone to be with Jesus

laughing together about the kids

crying together about the kids

moving here, moving there, moving 14 times in our 16 years of marriage

France

Lebanon

Jordan

Mississippi

Tennessee

knowing that Jason will always hold my heart, so home will be wherever he is