In late December 2009, after totaling my car in a bad accident, I had a difficult time coping with the fine line of coming so close to it ending in tragedy and leaving so much undone and then just walking away from it. I finally came to grips with my Heavenly Fathers plan for me, and having much left to do here on this earth. It took a blessing, many prayers, and a sweet friend to bring me back on top and put it behind me.
Then I was hanging around on LDSMingles website one day on Dec 27th, saying hi or sending emails to some of the new guys. I was just mostly killing time, I was bored. I didn’t give any of them a second thought, as it does no good to think about it any further unless they get back to me and are interested. I welcomed this one gentleman to the site with a short email, as he was new. I liked what his profile said, he was honest and had been thru the refiners fire like me.
Around about the same time, I think it was shortly after that, I started to feel some chest excitement. Like my heart was swelling with joy, it was a tremendous “feel good” feeling that kept welling up inside of me. There was no reason or explanation for it, it would hit me from out of the blue. So I decided I was just going to ride the tide of joy, it was mine to enjoy, even though I had no clue what it meant.
Then on Jan 14th, Criss sent a smile that just said he was looking for friends. Sure! I thought, I can be friends. That is what I was looking for anyways. So I replied with an email telling him I was looking forward to being his friend. Now keep in mind, I had about three other gentlemen showing interest at this same time too. So, I was still not thinking much of it. But all the while still getting those unexplained “heart swells”.
One week later Criss finally paid for a subscription to Mingle and sent me a “about me” email. I did the same, but before I logged off of the site he caught me on IM. We chatted for awhile, hitting so many similarities in our lives....I told him we needed to talk. The IM conversation had reached a “can’t believe this is real” level. So he called me about a minute later, lol. We talked for about an hour, about everything, especially our journey back into the gospel. It was an amazing conversation, and most amazing of all was the tremendous heart swells we had both been feeling thru this entire conversation (although keeping it to ourselves at the time). I immediately sent him a message after our conversation thanking him and telling him (after saying he was going to think I was crazy) that it felt like a spirit to spirit conversation. He replied that he felt it too and looked forward to getting to know me....YAY!!
We talked everyday, more than once and text every chance we got for the next week. Each time we connected it felt like the relationship accelerated ahead several weeks, even several times in one day. By Thursday of that week, I was completely in love with him. But not willing to say it first. After I text him the next day that I wasn’t supposed to fall into that four letter word with him, he asked if I could talk. I told him I could in an hour, lol. That conversation was so beautiful, Criss was in love with me....ME. I was absolutely bawling, he was bawling....
The next day, on January 30th...we finally met for the first time at the Layton Hills Mall parking lot. Hard to describe...but it was like coming home, “OH, WOW!!” is all I could get out. He was the most beautiful sight these sore old eyes had ever seen. He thought I was gorgeous (and I tell him if he keeps telling me that, I will have to believe him someday, lol). It was a day Criss and I will never forget, it was tearful and joyous. We knew we were done, we had found THE ONE, our forevermore without hardly a word spoken. Priceless, just priceless.
We couldn’t wait to start our life together, so long story short (I know...too late!)...we got married in front of family and friends on March 6th by my Bishop. We are so happy! We didn’t know a love like ours was even possible and it is a beautiful thing to experience! And oh...the heart swells are still amazing!
