Jason and I met in October 2002 during my senior year of high school. I had no interest in dating but a friend decided that I should meet his friend, so I did. Best decision ever.
We met at Jason’s parents place and decided for the group of us to go bowling. We were both shy and I ended up spending most of the night chatting with another one of Jason’s friends. I took his lack of communication with me as he just wasn’t interested in me, which was fine since I wasn’t looking to date someone anyway. Somehow Jason got a hold of my AOL Instant Messenger ID and wrote me. We chatted back and forth for a week or so and met up again as a group with his friends. This time things went a little smoother, but we were still a bit shy. Eventually Jason called me up and asked if I’d like to drive around and look at Christmas lights in the area. I was hesitant but responded “yes” and had to convince my mom to let me go. Jason is four years older than me, and he is a larger man standing at 6′-5″ and with some extra weight. My mom was very protective of me so it took a lot of persuasion to get her to say “yes”. Thankfully she caved.
Driving around looking at Christmas lights with Jason was the best time. We talked about EVERYTHING. I truly fell in love with him that night. I loved his personality, his background, his family life, his dreams/goals, the respect he showed me, etc. He was a proper gentleman and was just so easy to talk to.
After that night we chatted some more on the phone and online and just really connected well. New Years Eve 2002/2003 he and his friends had a little gathering and Jason invited me along. Little did I know he has plans to officially ask me out. He surprised me with a couple red roses and asked me, which I responded “of course”.
We dated for a year and Jason proposed the following New Years 2003/2004 at the same type of gathering he hosted. Totally caught me off guard. I was completely clueless of his plans that night, but it was one of the best nights ever. He handed me a gift and I quickly opened it but had no clue what the gift was for. It was an angel figurine holding a box with a ring inside. When I was holding the figurine I was holding the hand with the box/ring so I didn’t quite catch on to what was taking place until Jason dropped to one knee. He wore a Christmas garland around the top of his head and told me he wanted to be my angel in the new year (which goes with the figurine he had gifted me). I’ll be honest, he said a bunch more to me but I don’t remember much because I was confused and in shock until I heard the words, “will you marry me?” I excited said “of course!” and gave him the biggest hug. I whispered to him that his heart was beating so fast and we shared a laugh.
We had an almost three year long engagement because I wanted to finish college and get a job first before starting a marriage. We then married in October 2006. It was a very memorable day and easily the third best day of my life; the first being when he asked me out and the second being when he proposed.
Family Against All Odds 