Prelude

    Now, before our adventure of life on our own there was a time when I thought I had lost all chance of getting to know Emily, let alone having her as my wife some day. We met sophomore year back in high school when we were in biology class together. Pretty much the only thing I really remember from that class is dissecting various animals (frog, rat, crawdad). During our time in that class she and I started talking and getting to know each other a little. We had developed one of those "puppy love" relationships, or so I thought. We shared a work table and sat together every day and I figured we were "dating" long enough so I decided to put a hand on her leg, not in a perverted "I wanna feel you up" kind of way but in an affectionate "I don't want you to leave" kind of way, but apparently I was the only one who saw it innocently man was I wrong. After awhile she forgave me for that and we started talking more but I messed up again by saying some things that should never have been said which certainly didn't help my situation any. For two years I hardly saw her and never got to talk to her again until senior year.

    Back in grade school I went on vacation with my dad to Texas, while we were there I was attacked by a golden-retriever/lab mix that resulted in over 150 stitches in the left side of my face and a law suit granting a decent amount of money to be accessed when I turned 18 (that story will make sense in a minute). Back to high school, I was in the Army JROTC program all four years of high school and that program has molded me into a more disciplined and respectful person and I was so grateful for the training I received that I decided to donate $3,000 of my "decent amount" to the program. Now, being from a city of only 36,000 people this action caught a bit of media (front page newspaper) and apparently I'm the only person my age that doesn't read the paper because about four different people told me how they saw my story in the paper. One of those people was Emily, keep in mind that we've not spoke in two years and about three cell phone numbers, yet she made a point of talking to me about what we've been through and working together to set things straight. When she started talking to me again I told myself "You'd better now screw this up again or you'll lose her for good this time."  By now we had both grown up quite a bit and I had matured a lot. So we started talking more and more and decided to give us a shot again and a few months later I proposed and here we are now. I guess you could say that ours is a high school sweet heart relationship or that I'm just lucky to have her, but either way I'm thankful for a second chance and wouldn't give her up for the world.

God is good.