Anniversary Celebration

My wife and I will be celebrating 20 years of marriage come August 8, 2012. But since we were already planning to visit my parents in Florida in April, we decided to celebrate a little early...and our boys just had to come along for the ride. We spent 3 days in Orlando at the happiest place on earth and are now enjoying a week in Daytona Beach.

So in keeping with the celebration, I thought I would share our story.

Wendy and I met at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where we both were students working on our master's in music. I first saw Wendy when she walked in to a practice room where I was to tutor her in conducting. After a few weeks I remember thinking, "I would like to ask her out, but it would be extremely embarrassing and difficult to tutor her each week if she said no."

Eight months after we met, I finally asked her out. Eight months later, I proposed to her on the beach. Eight months later we got married on August 8, 1992 (8-8).

As seminary students, we were able to get free premarital counseling at the seminary. We also had to have premarital counseling by her pastor who was going to perform the wedding. Both counseling required us to take a marital exam which came back showing that we were incompatible. Her pastor said something like, "Well, the report says you are not compatible because you are too much alike, but that just means you will have to work hard."

Two of the funniest things that happened with our wedding actually happened after the wedding. The morning after the wedding, Wendy had to call her dad to ask him to look for her Mickey Mouse watch which she left in the bridal dressing room at the church. How many new brides call their dad on the first day of their honeymoon? And I forgot to pay the pastor his honorarium after the wedding so we decided to mail him a check while we were on our honeymoon. Problem is that I only had $67 in my checking account, so that is the amount we sent to him.

Wendy's mother shared some additional information after we were married. Apparently, Wendy called her  parents after her first week at Seminary and told them that she had met the man she was going to marry. She told them all about me and when she went home for Christmas she showed them my photo in the Seminary Yearbook.

We also laugh about the people who came between us before we were engaged. I waited so long to ask Wendy out because everyone thought she was dating another guy. They would go shopping together, go out to eat together (dutch), etc. She finally had her roommate tell me that Wendy would very much like for me to ask her out and told me that she was not dating anyone. While we were dating, Wendy thought I had another girlfriend because she came over to my apartment one day and this girl was there watching Star Trek: Next Generation with me. But this girl is probably the reason I finally got enough courage up to propose to Wendy. She told me one day to just be a man and propose already.

(Photo by Ashton Poole)

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