Do you want to hear a love story?

Our engagement picture 1992

Today is my husbands birthday so instead of doing my usual and tell all the things that are amazing about him I have decided to tell our story. This may take several posts but I know that my girls will love it.

I was 23 years old. The emphasis on OLD. At this point all of my high school friends were married so I felt like the lone relic. Such a silly concept to me today!! Getting married was very important to me, I felt like it was going to be the most important decision in my life. In fact when I was around 14 I began praying everyday for the boy who would eventually be the man I would marry. I prayed for him vigilantly that he would be making the right choices, withstanding temptation, and becoming the kind of man that would be a great husband and father.

I had a vision in my head of him. He was going to be tall, dark hair, very distinguished and lawyerly (whatever that means). He would be thoughtful, somewhat serious minded, ambitious and most of all he would make the gospel the center of his life. He would be good to the core and a great husband and father.

At this point I had just gotten back from serving an 18 month mission for my church. I wasn't the most beautiful girl on the BYU campus, just ok cute. I was ambitious and finishing up a degree in Broadcast journalism with visions of anchoring the evening news. I dated but they weren't lining up, hmmm maybe because I drove a 1981 brown beat up Toyota Terrell that was lovingly named "the piece of poo" by all who knew it. It usually went like this......

"Who is driving?"

"Gale is,"

"oh no do we really have to ride in the piece of poo".

So I obviously wasn't on the radar of those with style, money, and class. But I felt I had lots inside that would make me a good mother, wife and partner. I did date some really great guys who seemed to fit the bill but it just didn't feel right and I wasn't sure why. I rarely got very serious with anyone because as soon as I realized he didn't fit the ideal or I didn't feel for whatever reason that he was the one, I gave him the shove off. At 23 I began to question myself and how picky I was being. In fact around this time I wrote a song called "I've said No, one too many times". I was suddenly feeling that I needed to drop the ideal and just find a good man. What was I waiting for? It was such an awkward time of my life.

Then, like a ray of sunshine and bolt of lightning all rolled up into one, he happened in my life..........to be continued.


Off to make him his birthday breakfast of Dutch Babies, with strawberries and cream, yumm.......more tomorrow!