He’s More Than My Husband; He’s My Best Friend

The title of my Blog is "From You and Me, to Family"; so who is this person "You". He's a very specific you, not the "You all" You. I met him 12 years ago, he's tall blond, blue eyed, quiet, friendly and completely gorgeous. He is my husband, Jeremiah.

We met at a party at the home of a mutual friend in October of 1997. I was a newbie student employee in the Admissions and Registration Building, and I was just getting to know all of the other student employees when I met a young woman Z. Z kept telling me about how she'd been dumped the previous spring and really hated her ex boyfriend Jeremiah. He broke up with her in the car on the way home from Jr. Year. They had been high school sweethearts and apparently he'd gone to our college because she had decided to go there.

The Friday before Fall Quarter was to start our friend Kathy who also worked in the A/R office, was having a dinner party and she invited me. I was excited to go, but I didn't live on campus at the time, so I had no time to go home and change…and I'd just had Aerobics class and no time to shower, so my hair felt greasy, my face was devoid of makeup and I was probably a tad stinky, my clean shirt could only cover up so much!! But, I went anyway, because I couldn't say no to my first invitation! And JV, another young man who worked in the A/R would be there and I had a minor crush on him, so I thought it would be fun!

Some of us were playing poker in the living room, and I noticed a truck pull up outside and a couple of guys come up the walk, I "knew" one of them was Jer. And I assumed it was the less good looking, slightly grumpy looking guy. I don't know why, probably because Z had gone on about what a jerk her ex was. I had a dark image in my mind, well I saw the cuter of the two, (both were handsome it was a really close to say who was more handsome) and thought "Wow, he's cute". Then he walked through the door and I kid you not, I was the person he said hello to first, and when I said hi and our eyes locked, I was reasonably certain that I'd never again be without a "Special Someone". (I had taken Z's stories with a grain of salt, she wasn't a friend, merely someone I'd just met, and when I saw him and the kind eyes, there was just no way that he could have been as awful as she'd said) The evening went on and he left early so that he'd be able to get up for Church in the morning. He went to a Seventh Day Adventist church at the time. I immediately admired the fact that he was committed to his faith enough to go to church out of town at college and to leave a party early in order to go.

When he got home, he called the party and asked for my phone number…I had to give it to him, with every one watching…they teased me relentlessly for the rest of the night! Then he neglected to use the phone number all weekend! I was beginning to wonder if maybe Z wasn't so off target after all!

Monday came around and I dressed up for school, wearing a skirt and sweater and tried to look the opposite of the hideous I looked that Friday! I went to all of my morning classes and didn't see him anywhere! I had a 2 hour break before my next class (I MISS COLLEGE!) so I went to the SU for a new fangled espresso drink, (I still like iced vanilla lattes!) I stood in line and waited my turn, and I heard someone say "Kelley?" I turned to look and didn't see anyone actually looking in my direction, but there was Jeremiah standing in line behind me. I said, "Oh, Hi! I was wondering if I'd see you today."

He asked me to sit with him and we proceeded to have an hour and a half long conversation. He walked me to my class and I sat down next to a friend from high school and he said, "OK, who is he?"

I grinned and said, "My future husband." My friend looked at me and said, "She who's never had a boyfriend longer than two weeks?" I nodded. I was right!

To this day, Jer insists that he never said my name to get my attention that day, nor did he hear anyone else say it. I can only guess that it was the Holy Spirit whispering in my ear, and he insists that I was gorgeous that day that I think I looked disgusting.

He is the best man I've ever known, the only men that are equivalent are my Dad, and my Grandpas followed quickly by my uncles and brothers.

We met in October and were engaged in March. We were in love, but we grew into best friends. I can't imagine going through the disappointments of trying to conceive and getting a diagnosis of infertility with anyone else. Whenever I thought we might be pregnant, he would get this sweet glowing lovey look and he'd get all cuddly and smoochy. I loved it, and I can only imagine how wonderful he will be with our children. The hardest thing about the failure in January was seeing how disappointed he was. I don't like how hard this is on him. But he is good at holding me up when I feel like I can't go on, and I have discovered that I can be his leaning post when he's having a hard time too. I can prop him up; I'm too short to have good leverage to hold him up! I'd rather hang out with him than do anything else.

Thank you Father, for giving me this fantastic husband to share my life with. You've given me a man who supports me in all ways, helps me with all things and holds me up when I can't stand. I know it is you that put us together, that our relationship is special and unique. We wait for you to make parents out of us, and we thank you for trusting us with a child that needs our special family personality. That you've designated us to be parents of a child that needs us and our particular gifts, a child who needs to know that we love him/her unconditionally including the condition of biology. You and you alone will be responsible for the blessing you give us and we thank you with our whole hearts for trusting us with your special child/children. Thank you for finding me such a wonderful man!

Amen!