The Countdown to 5 Years!- Day 10

Have you figured out that I'm big on dates yet?

This is a big one!

Next Friday will be 5 years since Dan and I got married.

Some say it was a miracle. It certainly took long enough...

12 YEARS!! It took 12 years from the day we met until the day we got married.

So for my 10 day countdown, I thought I might do some reminiscing.

Dan's out of town for the week, so I probably just miss him. However....Our wedding weekend was a lot of fun (if I do say so myself) and reflecting back on that time in my life is something I love to do.

So sit back and join me...

I thought I would start with "Our Story"

THE STORY OF US!

(one of our early year snapshots-1993)

HOW WE MET
Well anyone who knows us, knows that the story of "Dan and Amy" started long ago. In 1993 we were introduced by a very special mutual friend (Thanks Justin!)  who knew we would be attending college together at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. In the beginning we just thought it was cool that we had the same last name and spent much of that first year at school together convincing everyone that we were long-lost brother and sister.

As the years went by we became very close friends. We helped each other through the usual college drama, stood beside each other for many important events, comforted each other during break-ups, and even lived together for a semester. I had a boyfriend who was notorious for kissing other girls and Dan just seemed to always be the bearer of bad news. Dan had a tendency to let his ego get the best of him (that tends to happen to lead singers in the band), so I worked hard to keep him in line. :) In an ironic turn of events, I wound up riding with Dan to our college graduation and of course we set next to each other that day as well. You know...Warren and Warren? Little did I know that I would spend the rest of my life next to him as well.

The friendship continued after college. I continued to support Dan in his music ventures, and he continued to support me in life. We stayed in close contact when I moved to Dallas for graduate school, seeing each other on the weekends and for special events. Through all of this, we were still just the best of friends.

In December 1999 Dan decided to move to Charlotte and start a new life. I think we both realized when he left how dependent we had become on one another. Shortly after he arrived in North Carolina, I decided to come visit.  At the time, I had finished graduate school and had a new job that I loved. Long story short, (do I ever tell short stories)..we decided after living near one another for 7 years, that it would be a wonderful idea to start a relationship-long distance. I proceeded to visit Charlotte many times over the coming months, falling in love with the city, as well as Dan, along the way.

In October of 2000, I packed my bags and moved East. It was the craziest thing I had ever done. I remember Dan saying "We have so much history. This will be a great story to tell our children." If we had only known how much more was to come!!
The story goes a little downhill from there. As much as things seemed perfect, they fell apart once I moved to Charlotte. Six months after I got here, we broke up, and our friendship went through it's most difficult time ever. Those months were some of the darkest in my life. My former boss offered me a job if I wanted to come back to Dallas and I just ALMOST accepted it. However, in a monumental conversation with my mom, I made the decision to stay in Charlotte until the one year mark. Mom felt like God had led me to Charlotte for a reason, and if the reason wasn't Dan-then I needed to give it some time and figure out what it was.
This is where I started a new life. In a city where every single person that I knew was through Dan. At this point, we were not really even speaking. We were just at two different places in life. It took us a couple of years, and a couple of other relationships to find our way back to one another. We both grew apart in many ways-both good and bad. I made a while new set of friends and maintained many of the ones I had started because of Dan. It was a wonderful time in my life. I grew more as a person in those 3 years than I ever had. I know that the experiences that I had during those 3 years changed me forever. 
After a year or so, we were comfortable enough to be around one another and decided that after almost 10 years of friendship, it would be too sad not to be friends again. So we started working on that first. Dan was convinced that we were meant to be together, but I wasn't that sure. I was grateful to have his friendship back, but I truly did not think that we were headed back towards a relationship.
Dan made a vow to prove to me that this time would be different. It took 14 months and a lot of patience and persistence for me even consider it.  At some point during this time, he wrote a very special song for me and it won a local contest (on the radio). His prize was a trip to Nashville. He invited me to come along and I agreed. However, we were really reaching a point where we both knew it was time to stop hanging out as much if we weren't going to ever really date. Dan said it was becoming too hard to just "be friends!" I went into that weekend quite certain that when we came back, we would each go our own way again. But you never really know what God has planned do you? 
That weekend, a sweet little patient of mine died. Dan's dog of many many years died as well. During a time where we were supposed to be living it up as VIPs in Nashville, we found comfort just being together and I realized (after many obvious) signs that there was no one else I would rather share my life with. I've said it so many times since, but I knew that whatever choice I made that weekend would determine the rest of my life. It was by far, the biggest decision I have ever made and I am thankful everyday for the path that I chose.

So here we are - still together, still the same last name, and married for almost 5 years.It's been 17 years since we first met.  WOW...
Stay tuned...Tomorrow I'll post our engagement story. 

(Coming home from Nashville-2004)