October 6, 2006

Crazy how time can fly.

Four years ago today, I drove 80 miles to meet a stranger from the Internet.
We'd exchanged pictures, chatted on Instant Messenger (dunno if anyone uses those anymore outside of Facebook), and gradually gotten to know each other, at least in the context of frozen faces on screens.

We'd heard each other's voices via microphones, and even latched onto each other's penchant for music by singing little songs to each other via our computers.

It kinda faded in and out for awhile.

But after my relationship crumbled, I looked again to the long-haired cop daughter, and felt a swelling of attraction.
I asked if I could come see her.

I think she was shocked, pointing out that 80 miles lay between us.
"Honey, I'm from Texas. I grew up 80 miles from the nearest Braum's."

So I ventured into the unknown, not sure what I would find, and she not sure if this man coming her way was really whom he had claimed to be in the much-decieved world of the Internet.

A first kiss (in a piano practice room), a first date (to see 300), and many happy moments later, we were joined at the hip.
Three years, fighting through her mother's final heavyweight bout with cancer, and a million joyous moments later, we were joined at the hip and at the left-hand ring finger.

If someone were to ask me if God exists, I could point to my marriage as prime evidence to the affirmative.
Had I not indicated X-city as my location, had she not been looking at that EXACT time, we would never have found each other.

Plus...up until we met I was an arrogant, selfish bastard pretty much all the time.
Starting arguments, procrastinating (especially in school), mooching off family, etc.

But once we were together, making sacrifices came second-nature to me, especially as the ordeal with her mother's health began and continued.
She's asked me many times what kept me around during those years, especially given that I was the boyfriend...not bound by familial obligation to stay or help or do anything.

The short answer?
I felt like it would have just been the height of douchbaggery to ditch when the going got tough.

The real answer is deeper.
The divine presence of God and the amazing presence of my wife are the only things which could transform me from selfish and arrogant to selfless within the course of just a few months.

For that, and for all she has given me in the intervening moments, I will always treasure her.