fourteen years ago.

Half of my life.

That's how long I've loved the cute boy who first caught my eye in math class a couple years prior.

On September 9th, 2003, I had no idea the weight my answer held when I told him I would be his girlfriend, but I'm thankful that I said yes. He wasn't my first crush, but he was the crush who changed everything I'd ever thought about relationships. He respected me, always looked for reasons to surprise me, was proud to introduce me to his family, stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking to me on the phone almost every night (a landline, mind you), and there was a sincerity in his voice every time he confided in me or told me he thought I looked pretty.

We didn't know anything about love back then. We thought we did, of course, but it would be many years later that we really started to get a grip on how much sacrifice was involved in this little four-letter word. Even now, we're still learning what it means to love each other well in new seasons we enter. But even when we both wanted walk away (or kill each other, quite frankly), there was always a pull towards one another that never allowed us to wander too far.

That's still true today, too.

In spite of our imperfections, we make a pretty great team. We chase after God and the dreams He's given us with everything we've got, and we help each other when one gets tired. He challenges me, I challenge him, and we push each other towards goals, both individual ones and the ones we make for our family. We hold one another accountable, and we forgive no matter what. We mess up a lot, making forgiveness more necessary than either of us ever thought it would be (something those fourteen year-olds didn't know very much about).

We're still those cheesy high schoolers who celebrate all the little things (seriously, ALL of them), wait on each other to take our first bite of a meal together, say "I love you" multiple times a day, go on regular dates just so we can be together, hold hands while we're walking down the street, give each other high fives when we do something we're proud of, take a million pictures each year (that'll never change, folks), fight over unnecessary and unimportant things (yep, still guilty), push each other's buttons just for kicks and giggles (Lord, help us), and never give up on one another.

I've loved my Teesh for fourteen years, and still I wish I would have met him sooner so I could have love him even longer. But I suppose I'll still be saying that when we've loved each other for a hundred years. Being his girlfriend, then fiancé (fancy, as I called it), and now wife and teammate is a gift I refuse to take for granted, because it's one of the greatest gifts I've ever received on this side of eternity. We've shared more memories than we can count, and we're still just getting started on our life together.

Fourteen years ago, my life changed forever. And so did his.

Our story began that day, and all of the pages we've added to it since that Tuesday afternoon at 3:49 PM tell of our life together.

With pencil in hand, our story continues. Oh, that God would give us the grace to keep writing it forever.