Our Love Story

Bryan & I recently celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Twelve years already? TWELVE? A dozen years gone by and it feels like yesterday that we were newlyweds.

We met while I was attending BYU and Bryan was going to UVSC. He lived in an aprtment that was very close to the Y and, therefore, he and I were in the same BYU student ward, the 3rd ward. It might seem a little strange but in most BYU wards they divided the wards into 'families' so that you can have Family Home Evenings. Bryan was the FHE 'dad' and my roommate, Mindy, was the FHE 'mom' so we frequently met together at our apartment.

From our kitchen window we could actually see directly into Bryan's apartment living room. It was a little difficult to see anything past a disconcerting hazy (dirty!) spot that clouded much of the window but that didn't stop us from looking...

My roommate, Aleena, had a huge crush on Bryan's roommate, Jeff, so she talked me into asking them out on a double date. Bryan and I had a lot in common and, of course, I thought he was cute so I agreed. We planned this whole elaborate date, (BYU-style, if you know what I mean - and if you don't it means cheesy...) that revolved around the letter B. We made them a poster with some sort of poem on it to ask them out detailing our plans for Bowling, Banana splits, and Blockbuster.

All of my scrapbooking friends know how painful it is for me to actually post the following layout I made of our first date with my horrible handwriting and extensive use of markers... but, embarrassing as it is, I am glad I have it.

There was another group of people at Regal Lanes that night on a video scavenger hunt who were looking for people on their first date. They talked to us for awhile and documented the action. I've always thought it would be so cool to find that tape someday... This was probably the only time in my life that I had a higher bowling score than him. Bryan absolutely LOVES to tell people that I asked him out first...

To make a long story short, Aleena and Jeff never went out on another date but Bryan and I saw each other every day after that. He was very upfront and honest about his medical issues. He'd just finished a round of chemotherapy and had lupus which was wreaking havoc on his body. (It's actually a tremendous miracle and blessing that we have children now.) I did have people question the decision to be with him but I gave them all the same answer, "You don't choose who you fall in love with." I knew this was it very early on and so did Bryan. We were engaged in December.

Sometime in January, maybe February?, Bryan's kidneys failed and he was put on dialysis. The doctors did surgery to make a fistula in his arm but until it was healed and large enough to work he had these tubes inserted into his jugular sticking out of his neck that they did dialysis through. They are a little hard to see but maybe you can see them in this photo. It was fun to see the different looks Bryan would get when we went out in public... many, many double takes...

His health improved very quickly on dialysis and we continued to make plans for an April wedding. The dialysis tubes were a challenge to avoid in our engagement picture but I told the doctors they had to OUT by our wedding day! They did remove them the day before... phew!

Our wedding day was the best day of my life. Nothing went wrong, all of the people we love were there, and my parents didn't have to set up or clean up! I loved every minute of it! It feels like yesterday, really.

Since then we've gone through our share of challenges:

• Bryan's many other surgeries (his kidney transplant - 6 months after our wedding, appendectomy, removal of his fistula, a hernia or two, removal of a non-functioning kidney, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting...
• The house above our apartment burning down in Dec. 1996 and smoke-damging everything we owned and, no, we did not have renter's insurance... lesson learned.
• Unemployment
• Bryan's long and drawn-out college career
• Moving so far away from our families

But we've weathered them together, hon. So here's to the next twelve!! I love you.

(To all my blogging friends: I'd love to read about your love story sometime!)