Today is a very special day. In exactly one year, at this time, I will be married to my wonderful Jordan! And tomorrow marks our fourth anniversary. Hopefully, a year from tomorrow, we will be on our way to Ireland and the best honeymoon I could ever imagine.
We have gone through a lot of stuff since he asked me out on a date four years ago. I was a senior in high school and he was a sophomore at UGA. Three months after we started dating, he told me he loved me and I said it back, meaning it with every ounce of my being. Five months after that, I left home for UGA, dealing with a lot of family issues. Jordan was always there for me when I would randomly burst into tears because of stress and high emotions.
A year after we started dating, we moved in together. Two months after that, we spent the most amazing week together in Jamaica for his brother's wedding. Within a week of returning, we almost broke up because of some very unfortunate issues. We spent the next year rebuilding our relationship from the bottom up, and he had to win back my trust after hurting me very badly. I also had to learn how to trust him again. From that point on, we were both very different people from what we had been when we started dating in 2004. We had reached the breaking point, but instead of giving up, we both showed a lot of maturity and strength and stuck with each other, even when we were both being our most annoying/frustrating selves.
One year after that, Jordan proposed to me in front of the UGA Chapel; he said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and asked me to marry him. I said yes, and we decided to wait until after we both would be graduated from college (me with a Bachelor's Degree and him with a Master's). So the date was set for September 20, 2009...one day shy of what would be our fifth anniversary.
Here we are, four years after he first asked me out, almost two years after the proposal, and exactly one year from the wedding. We are still growing together, and sometimes the process is painful, but we both try to keep in mind how very much we love each other. Things have been tough for us, especially lately. We're both dealing with the stress of finishing our respective degrees, finding the money to pay for both rent and this upcoming wedding, and still finding the time and energy to show our love for one another. It's definitely not always easy, but anyone who tells you that love is easy has never truly been in love. It takes effort. It takes work. But the final outcome is worth a lot more than what you'll ever have to put into it.
Have I had doubts? Of course. But it's overcoming the doubts that has strengthened our relationship more than anything else.
One year from today, our lives will become even more interconnected than they are now. And we'll be eating delicious food at Paula Deen's restaurant!! :D
Have some pictures:
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