Shout-outs Part 5: True Love

OK, so yeah, I've really been procrastinating on getting the whole shout-outs thing wrapped up. I'm totally cheating by only writing about one person today, but I figure it's all right since it's about my favorite person, my husband. :)

If you've missed any of my other shout outs, you can find them here, here, here, and here!

Raymond is over at SunRayCafe. (Isn't the name cute? We got SunRay from our names, of course. We wanted to have a family website a few years ago and use sunray as our domain name, but it was already taken, so he came up with adding cafe since it sorta rhymes and flows well.) Now, he has only blogged three times and I doubt he'll ever really blog again, but hey, he's my husband, so he has to be on my blog roll. ;)

Raymond and I met almost 10 years ago. It'll be 10 years in May actually, so I think I'll write our story sometime around then, but it might be on my other blog (the one that I never use anymore). I haven't decided yet.

Anyway, Raymond was 18 and I was 17 when we first met. I had come to California to interpret a church business meeting, basically the denomination's annual meeting, for my dad. Raymond's church was co-hosting this event, and so families within the two churches were asked to host visiting pastors for the week. My dad and I ended up staying with Raymond's family. I was really shy and quiet when I first met Raymond and his family. For the most part, I was busy interpreting and stayed at the church during the day.

The second morning that my dad and I were there, we were all sitting at the table having breakfast. Greg, Raymond's dad, had had to go and wake Raymond up so that he could have breakfast before we all left to go to church. Raymond was a bit of a zombie at the table, so Greg explained that Raymond and some friends had gone to see "Episode One" of the Star Wars movies at the theater. The movie had opened that very day, and Raymond had gone to see the 12:03 am showing (since tickets for the 12:00 am movie had sold out a long time ago). My dad and I exchanged looks and all I could think was, what a GEEK! I thought it served him right for being so tired if he had decided going to see a movie in the middle of the night was so important, even though he had a long and busy day ahead of him and couldn't just sleep in.

I really had no business thinking such things about him because there I was, a sheltered little homeschooled girl wearing a denim jumper! LOL!

The night before I left, Raymond, his mom and I stayed up talking while everyone else had gone to bed. I don't even remember what we talked about, but we were having fun and getting to know one another. After a while, we all decided to head to bed since it was getting late and my dad and I had to leave super early the next morning to catch our plane. I started walking down the hallway to the bedroom I was sharing with Raymond's sister, Angela, when Raymond stopped me and asked me if he could have my email address. I told him his mom had already asked me for it so he could get it from her. We said good night and I went into the room and closed the door. Then I crawled into bed and barely slept! My 17 year old mind raced with questions like, what does this mean? Does he like me? Does he always ask girls for their email address? Will he actually write me?

Well, since this is already getting really long, obviously he did email me! We wrote back and forth for several months before he planned a trip to visit me. After that trip, we decided we wanted to start dating. We dated long-distance for almost 3 years before we got married.

Back when we were both super thin! I'm 18 and he's 19 here.

Lush, green Maryland! Oh how I miss you! And yes, I was a dork who wore t-shirts with kitty cats wearing hats.

The night before our wedding.

Yay, we're finally going to be together forever!

I love my honey! He is incredibly smart when it comes to all sorts of things. He's a self-professed geek and has a lot of computer knowledge, which is nice when friends and family want him to fix their computers and they pay him! *wink* But he also knows how to do handyman projects around the house which has been essential in our old house. And usually what he doesn't know, his dad does and can help us. Raymond is a very caring father who loves our little boys. I know he absolutely adores me and I am secure in his love. He tells me frequently that I am beautiful, even when I don't feel like I am, and he never complains about me or anything I do, even when I deserve it! He's super friendly and can make conversation with people easily, which is hard for me to do sometimes with people I don't know well, so it's nice when I can let him do the talking. We have so much in common, not just every day likes and dislikes, but past experiences and future goals. We agree on just about everything which makes life simple. I am blessed daily by being his wife and I truly can not imagine being married to anyone else!

MUAH! Love you, sweetie!