My Valentine

Valentine's Day is coming up. I love Valentine's! I just love everything "lovey," lacy, and heart-themed. Pink. Red. Purple. Blush. I start getting excited when it's time to send all my girlfriends a Valentine. I look forward to it every year.

I also look forward to a special evening or day with my husband! 💕💓💗

This upcoming May, my husband and I will be married three years.
We dated for three years before that.
Were broken up for three years before THAT.
And dated for one and a half years in high school/first year of college ... before that.

Needless to say, our "love story" is ... interesting.

It all started with a prank call-gone-wrong. My friend was hanging out with Justin in a group of their friends at the time, and she wanted me to prank call him one summer night. It was our summer before my senior year of high school (summer 2007). I took the dare and called Justin. When he kept asking who it was, and I wouldn't tell him ... he called back. I (panicking and not thinking clearly) just sent the call to voicemail. Yes. Voicemail meaning, "Hey, this is CANDACE..." *insert face-palm here* Now I know I should have just answered and hung up. In the end, he found out who I was pretty quickly.

We had actually met a couple weeks earlier when my friend brought him to our youth group. I even remember what he was wearing the first time I met him. When I meet someone, I don't necessarily "judge" them by what they're wearing, but I do remember if it's a big moment. Apparently it was a big moment. When he walked in, my first thought was about how tall he was ... and then his mop of curly hair. He was wearing a collared, red polo, Sperry shoes, and a pair of interesting plaid, "patched" shorts. (I still think he has those shorts now that I think about it...) We shook hands, and he didn't hold eye-contact. I took this as, "Hm ... he must be shy. Like me." NOPE. I found out later that was NOT the case. At all.

After the prank call, we started texting. Then calling. Then we went on our first "date." He came to pick me up at my house, and my dad was there in uniform (loved it). We went to his high school's first scrimmage football game of the year, to Guthrie's Chicken for dinner, and back to my house. (I remembered what I wore on this day as well.) I met his parents on his birthday in August. We had a cross-country meet that day, and I drove him home. Then he invited me to go to with them out to eat for his birthday dinner. We had sort-of a rocky dating relationship the entire senior year, but stuck together through it. Half the time things were great, half the time things were difficult. I think part of it was because we attended different high schools, and things were always going on.

When I went away to college in SC on a running scholarship, things started to fall apart. Not just in our relationship, but with my college choices in general, my physical health, and my emotions. It was not a healthy time for me ... or for us. So we broke up. Well... I broke up with Justin. I said we needed to grow up and move on. I was devastated, but recovered. It probably took a year, but I did recover in all areas.

After a year, I wrote Justin a long apology letter from my heart. I really did regret a couple things I had done over the course of that time (and hoped he regretted what he had done to me). He wanted to meet. I thought, "This is progress. Maybe we will try to work things out or try to become friends again." Not the case. I still feel, to this day, that I was misled that entire afternoon. I bawled my eyes out when he dropped me back off at my house, no steps or conversation taken in the right direction. At this point, I was determined to move on. I got rid of all the letters, gifts, sentiments, or ANYthing that even reminded me of him.

Those next two years, I only got a text from Justin on my birthday (one year, he didn't even text me on the right day ... which I also never let him forget 😉). 2012 rolls around, and Justin and I end up playing on the same Ultimate Frisbee team. Through that, I think a lot of my iciness thawed towards him. I could tell he was different, not the immature boy I remembered dating in high school. We had each talked to a couple people over the course of those years apart, but nothing stuck. I always had a feeling deep down that it would be him, and nothing could replace him. He started making comments like, "You won't get three touchdowns. If you get three touchdowns, I'll take you to coffee." Then he would proceed to throw me the frisbee any chance he got.

Well ... I got three touchdowns, we won the game, he took me to coffee, we worked through our pasts, and the rest is history. We dated until my birthday in 2015 when he proposed at the top of Mt. Yonah. (That in itself is a story.)

I will always feel in my soul that God led us back together. First we needed to grow up, mature, work through what we had been through together, and forgive. Is it always easy? No. No marriage is. However, I feel that we are in the best place we've ever been as a couple. He is my one and only on this earth, and I thank God for Justin and his leadership every single day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Valentine! I love you forever. xoxoxo

Throwback engagement session pictures: