This past July I finally got to meet my dear blog friend Heatherly. She of good taste in books and bad taste in baseball teams. Not only did we hang out during most of She Speaks, we were also roommates. Late one night, I asked her to finally tell me her love story and I was not disappointed. How they met is just a teaser for this epic tale. But hey, TIHWM is all about the beginning, the unknowns, and the what ifs. If you want to know the rest, you'll have to ask Het yourself.
I was 16 years old.
I was 16 years old and an emotional wreck.
I was a 16 years old emotional wreck and had just been dumped by my boyfriend...
...on the youth group bus...
...on the way to a weekend retreat...
...in front of my friends...
...for another girl.
Additionally, I was recovering from a stomach bug and the bus broke down.
{By "broke down" I mean that smoke starting pouring into the bus and we couldn't get out of the bus by the back emergency door because the leaders had stacked our luggage in front of it.}
By the end of the weekend I had met the man I would eventually marry. {He also happened to be the one who drove the replacement bus up to Snow Camp. My hero.}
When I informed my best friend that I was going to marry David, the knight in a shining bus, she said, "Ew. He's old."
11 years make an awfully big difference when you are 16 years old.
But David was kind. And appropriate. He talked to me like I was a person- not an annoying, whiny 16-year-old.
We talked about music and he asked me about school.
He was brotherly and stood up for me instead of laughing off the teasing {I think they'd call it "bullying" today} of my ex and his friends.
Sure, it was just a teenage crush. It continued through seven guys that I dated, three major youth trips, and my last year and a half of high school, but it was a crush.
Until we ran into each other when I was nineteen years old.
Suddenly there was a spark. And he asked me out.
We dated for two months, I went back to college, we broke up, and didn't speak for five years.
But this isn't "How the Man of My Dreams and I Finally Got Married After Ten Years and Several False Starts." This is how we met: a lonely, heartbroken young girl and a youth leader, who appropriately connected. They just didn't realize at the time how deep the connection ran.
Heatherly Lane Sylvia is a mom, wife, home schooler, speaker, writer, and apprentice grace-giver. Her greatest desire is to live a life following after God with abandon, and she hopes to be a blessing to as many people as she can while she figures out exactly how to do that. Het is passionate, loud, addicted to books, and loves her friends, old and new. She adores the blogosphere and would love to “meet” you there. She’s also pretty sure that blog comments and tweets are her love language. Check out her blog A Pinkdaisy Life or follow her on Twitter @Pinkdaisyjane.