this morning...

Paul, 9: Mom, Philip said, 'p**p' and now he's lying and saying he didn't say it.

Philip, 6: No, I didn't!

Zeke, 3: God HATES Lying!

God bless,

Jen

(Warning: This is long but a fun read if you have time.)

I've been asked  that question many times over the last 25 years, especially when people knew I was from Georgia and Mike was from New York.

July 10, 1983. I was on vacation with my family. We had planned to go to Jekyll Island, but when we got there the water was so nasty, we decided to go on over to St. Simon's Island, which you can see from Jekyll. For some reason, the water there was fine.

One morning, we parked at the pier, and decided to walk down the winding beach. As we were walking back, we saw that there was a Coast Guard ship docked at the end of the pier. We walked past a group of guys playing soccer. I remember thinking, "They must be from that ship. Wouldn't it be neat to have a boyfriend who lives on a ship." We walked out onto the pier toward the ship. When we got to the end of the pier, two guys were standing on the ship at the railing apparently arguing over which one of them had nicer legs. Both were in those nasty short shorts that guys used to wear. As I just happened to be the only girl nearby, they called out to me, "Hey what do you think, which of us has nicer legs." Well, I'm sure this somewhat shy girl turned many shades of red before answering, "I'm not going to say." Besides, my parents were right there. We continued walking up and down the end of the T-shaped pier, looking at the ship and taking lots of pictures. Fast forward to the evening. My sis-in-law and I were the only ones left at the pier, except for one guy, not from the ship, who had been sort of stalking me all day. (Why did my parents leave us there alone with him?) That guy is another story for another time! He was a harmless little guy. Anyway, sis and I decided it was time to go back to the room. The guy offered to escort us for which I was grateful to have a male presence, as our room was several blocks away. As we were walking off the pier, two guys rode their bikes onto the pier toward the ship. I recognized Mike as one of the two with the "legs". He said, "Hey, it's the girl with the camera." Something took over my mind and mouth and I yelled, "I like yours the best!" (When I tell this story, I joke that the Lord must have put those words in my mouth as it was completely out of character for me to say such a thing.) He came back with, "Thank You!"

Next morning, my mind was occupied with thoughts of the day before and I was anticipating seeing the "ship" again. But, when we went back to the pier, the ship was gone.

Hmmm... sadness...

We took another walk down the beach. When we came back, the ship was there again! We walked out onto the pier and there were those two guys again. This time they were in their work uniforms. Yumm... Mike had his hat on backwards. Very cute... Mike yelled to me, "Hey, tell him what you said to me last night." I said, "I don't know what you're talking about. Did I see you last night?" We joked around and talked a little. I asked where they went earlier in the day. He said they had gone out to work on some bouys. I remember my daddy asking Mike how he liked the CG. Mike answered, "I enjoy the h--- out of it." I thought, "Oh well, no chance for him now. He said a bad word to my daddy." They came off the ship and we took pictures and exchanged addresses. I said to Mike, "I like long letters." He said, "You like long letters. I'll write long letters."

Infatuation...

We went home that day. The next week, I got a long letter from him telling me all about himself. I liked him. I wrote him back and told him all about myself. I didn't hear from him for three weeks. I thought he didn't like me.

During those three weeks, I ran into a guy I had gone to school with and we started dating. I'll call him W. He even gave me his class ring. I thought I was a little old for that but I wore it anyway. He was fun, but I didn't "love" him.

Back to three weeks later. I was in the bathtub one morning and my mother slid a letter under the door. It was from HIM! He wanted to come visit me. The last page was a poem. I was screaming with excitement in the bathtub!

Butterflies...

It was now mid-August. He wanted to come by on his way to his parents' the end of October. I wanted to see him. What was I going to do with W? My grandmother liked W. She suggested that I just make sure he wasn't around when Mike came to visit. That just wasn't my style. I said, "Maw-Maw, I'm a one man woman."

That night when W came over, I told him about Mike and the letter. I said we could still see each other, but I had to give him his ring back. I asked him if he had ever met someone who it seemed like he had known forever. He said, "No." haha That's W. He never came back.

From August to October, we wrote letters and talked on the phone a lot. The ship was in "drydock" for a while and he had to call me from a pay phone. We have fond memories of that operator interrupting and saying, "Please deposit X cents for the next X minutes."

Falling...

The day finally came. October 25. He called me from McDonald's in town and I drove to meet him and lead the way to our house. After a long hug, we headed to the house. When we got out of our cars, and were walking toward the house, he grabbed me, pulled me to him and planted a big one on me right there! Woohoo! (This was obviously before I was against kissing before marriage.) :) We talked all night long. During that conversation, I was explaining that I had gone to college a little, but my heart was not in it because all I wanted to do was be a wife and mother. He asked me, "How'd you like to be a Coastie's wife?" My answer was, "There's just one problem." haha I think that's so funny. Now I add 'Besides the fact that we don't know each other.'

"You're Catholic." "Yeah.", "And I'm not." "Yeah." "And I'll never be."

"Well, I don't always have to be Catholic."

Thinking to myself, I can work with this.

Love...

We were engaged by Thanksgiving and were married January 1st, 1984.

He gave his life to the Lord on May 4th of that year.

I would never recommend to anyone to do it the way we did. Not because I wouldn't do it over again. I would. But it doesn't always work out the way ours has. I never left the Lord. I knew he would come to the Lord. I have no doubt that God brought us together and even though we might have done things a little out of order, God was with us working His plan. I could have had lots of my own ideas and not even considered dating him. I'm so thankful I let God lead. His plan was so much better than anything I could have come up with. He knew what we both needed  and He knew our hearts. I can't imagine, nor do I want to, my life with anyone else. I love my husband. I am in love with him. More now than ever.

And they said it wouldn't last six months.

God bless,

Jen