Love Story

I was sixteen when I first met Andy. He was twenty-one. Way out of my league. But he was just such a great guy! My dad is the director of the Ohio Wilderness Boys Camp, and Andy came to work there as a counselor. 

Andy liked the same things I liked. Fishing. Hiking. Playing musical instruments. Singing. He also hung out with my family quite a bit on his off days, so I saw a lot of him. It wasn’t too long until I liked Andy a whole awful lot even though I tried to guard my heart and not let the feelings get out of hand. I wanted to wait for God’s plan for my love life, but meanwhile there were all these strong FEELINGS!

When I was almost nineteen I went down to South Carolina to volunteer as a cook at a girls camp. It was something I had always wanted to do, but part of the reason I went was to get away from Andy and try to forget him since he didn’t seem to be showing any interest in me other than as a friend. 

It didn’t work. Hard as I tried to forget about the guy, he just stayed on my mind. Andy had finished his term as a counselor at this point, but had come back to Camp as a Supervisor, so even though we were states apart, I heard a lot about him from my family. 

In August of 2013 I went home to Ohio for a visit, and it was during that time that my dad told me Andy had asked his permission to date me. I was floored! I had thought he wasn’t interested in me, thought I was too young, etc, etc, but Dad informed me that Andy had in fact asked my dad to date me a YEAR AND A HALF earlier, but my dad told him I was too young.

Andy waited and waited and about gave it all up, but then my dad told him if he was still interested in me, Andy would have to date DAD for a while until he was sure Andy was serious enough. What a patient man I married! Andy endured the testing, and we finally started dating!

Two months later, Andy asked me to marry him. 

I said yes!

We were married in the spring of 2014 on a beautiful sunny day. We sure were glad it wasn’t raining, because we rode away from the wedding on a motorcycle. Yeehaw!

We are now celebrating three years of married life, and while life has changed us in many ways, we are more in love now than when we got married.

It has been so rewarding to see Andy grow as a man. From boyfriend, who drove through the night to spend a day with me in South Carolina only to drive the 10 hours back the next day to be on duty at the Ohio camp. To husband, who wasn’t scared off by tears, but always held me until I was ready to talk about what was bothering me. To father, who does WAY more than his share of rocking crying babies, changing dirty diapers, and doing the dishes and other household chores. My respect for him grows each day.

And now we will leave for Alaska in five weeks to start our own adventure on the Last Frontier. There is no one I’d rather do it with. We like each other a lot.  🙂