How I Met Morgan

I was reading some other blog friend's stories of how they met their husbands and they were so much fun to read. I'm not going to link up, but thought it would be fun to tell a little about how I met Morgan.

I was a junior in high school and he was a senior. I didn't even know him, but we ended up in the same Spanish class. We had spanish names, so my name was Christina and his was Paco. I have no idea why he picked that name, but it cracks me up because for the longest time, I knew him as "Paco" and didn't even know his real name. Haha!!

One day, it was "Go Texan" day at school, and I wore these red boots I had and red western jeans. Wouldn't you love to see a picture of that. LOL!!! Totally not my style! Anyhow, he walked up to me and the first thing he had ever really said to me was, "Why don't you wear that more often?" Ha!!!!!!!!!!! Makes me laugh just to think about it.

I just really was not interested in him though. He would walk me to my locker after class sometimes and we were friends, but we never dated. I think I did go to the mall with him once. And I think he came over and watched TV with me once. I remember giving him a hug at his graduation. I was there because I had been named the Drum & Bugle Commander for the next year and we were presenting the colors (flags) at the ceremony for that.

He moved to Houston after graduation and we would talk occasionally on the phone. There weren't really any guys I liked my senior year and I wasn't dating anyone at the time when Prom was rolling around. I remember talking to him about it and saying I didn't have a date yet and he said, "Do you want me to take you to Prom?" And so we went to Prom together. It was funny too because I found out the next week that another guy was going to ask me, but I had already told Morgan I would take him. Still, we were just friends and that was it.

And this is so weird, but one time my parents and I had went out to eat and my Uncle Dennis was there too. I think we were talking about me being married one day and immediately I thought to myself, I already know I'm going to end up marrying Morgan. And I really didn't want to marry him at that point. But for whatever reason, I've just always been very intuitive. I just think it's so funny that I knew. I always knew, even before we ever dated. And I never sat out to make it happen either.

So, we went to Prom and still we didn't date. Never even kissed after prom or anything like that. I graduated and started college in Fall of '94. That Christmas, he had his first Christmas party to go to with the company he'd been working for. He invited me to go with him. It was a formal party and they had unlimited food, dancing, and drinks. So, we went. And that night when he dropped me off afterward, we kissed for the first time. And we've been together ever since! In fact, that company is the one I ended up working for, for 6 years, until I quit to be a SAHM. So, even though Morgan quit working there after we were married in '99, we still got to go together to the annual Christmas Party. We went to every one from '94 - '03. It's fun to look at those annual pictures and see how much we changed over the years. In 2 of them, I was pregnant. One with Madison, which I didn't know about at the time and one with Kaylee, which I was just starting to show in.

Anyhow, we had been dating for about 4 years and I was about to graduate from college and I basically told him that he either wanted to get married or he didn't. The next day was a Friday, and he always drove to my house on Friday and stayed with me until Sunday night. I cannot believe my Mom let him do that! So, I was folding laundry in my room that night and he came in as usual, but he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me and in his hand was an open box with a solitaire engagement ring in it! So, I always laugh that I was doing laundry when he proposed. He was so nervous and the whole time I was just thinking that I couldn't believe he actually bought a ring on his own and that he was doing it like that. Ha!

My Mom was at Lowe's at the time, so we actually drove to Lowe's and found her so I could show her the ring. LOL! Later that year ('98) is when I started working at the same company as him and we started planning the wedding. It was neat because our company had a travel agency inside the building, so we booked our honeymoon to Vegas with them. It wasn't necessarily where we wanted to go, but it was affordable and neither of us had been before and so we thought, why not?!

He ended up finding a better job and leaving there before we got married. We found an apartment in Houston to live. I had never lived away from home before I got married. We had a small, beautiful wedding with our closest friends and family, went back to our apartment that night, and then left for our honeymoon the next day. I think we ate "Taco Cabana" for our first dinner as a married couple. What I love about us is that neither of us care what you're supposed to do for these kind of things. We were never about having some fancy proposal story you can brag about, or the fanciest wedding/honeymoon. None of that mattered to us. We were practical and we paid for everything on our own. And we hardly made any money back then! I think our entire wedding cost us about $5000. Plus, whatever the rings cost and the honeymoon. We were given $1000 by family to take on our honeymoon............thank goodness, or else I'm not sure how we would've done anything in Vegas!

That first year was rough! We had gotten into a fight one night, and well this may be TMI, but I'll just say that we made up and that was the night Madison was conceived. That was only 3 months into our marriage and it literally took one time to conceive her. We had not planned that! I was freaking out when I found out and Morgan was the one who was all excited and telling me it would be wonderful! It was funny too because we were about to ring in the new year 2000 and I couldn't even drink! Everyone kept asking why I wasn't drinking and we ended up telling them why. When we got married, that was the first time I had been on my own and I think I just wanted freedom at that point. But, I wasn't free because I was married. I wanted to go out with my friends from work and have fun, but that wasn't appropriate. I can see that now, but at the time, I felt like I was just tied down by being married. I'm just being honest, because I want people to know that no matter how much you prepare and want to be married, sometimes marriage is just hard work!

Looking back, I am so glad that we had Madison as quickly as we did. She arrived just 2 weeks before our 1st Anniversary. I am also so thankful for a husband who forgave me for going through my "wild phase" that I went through. I think of where we are today, as opposed to everything we went through before, and I can see how hard the enemy worked to break us apart. I believe he did that because he knew that one day, I would go to church and Morgan would become a Christian because of that. I stand amazed at God's grace and mercy and how He brought us to where we are today! He never gave up on us, even when we gave up on ourselves. He gave us 3 of the most beautiful daughters in the world and He patiently waited for us to get our act together. I would even go so far as to say that He even created a church specifically for us.........I'm not sure if that's true or not, but Lifepoint couldn't have been more perfect and it was a direct answer to so many years of prayers. I believe our story is just another example of how God directed every single step of our path to lead us to who He always intended for us to be...........and we are still walking that journey!!