The Happy Marriage

I find it ironic that I had to travel 553 miles to meet my husband when we were from the same place. I tried to register for a social dance class that would fit my schedule only to find that my first several choices were already full. Finally I found one that would work and added it to my schedule. On the first day of class the instructor taught the first simple dance and then told the men to go pick a partner to dance with. I braced myself to be one of the last ones to be picked, since that was generally typical for me; but to my surprise, a young man came straight up to me and asked me to dance.

Nathan tells me now that the moment I walked into the room, he saw me and knew that he would ask me to dance. Every class the rest of the semester he asked me to dance first. I have to admit that I was flattered, though a little unsure if I was interested. I had just ended a different relationship and wasn't exactly ready to jump into another one. But he was persistent.

A month after we met we went on our first date...to see one of the worst movies ever made: Captain Ron. Despite the movie, he was nice to talk with and brought out a side of me that I really liked. We dated for about 10 months before he headed off to Alabama on his mission. I was starting to like him a lot more but wasn't convinced that he was the one. After he had been out for a little over a year, I went to Alaska on my mission. The time that we wrote to each other was good for us. We got to know things about each other and I finally started to feel like this was right. Three months after I got home we were married in the Las Vegas Temple.

My mom says that it doesn't matter who you marry, because when you wake up the next morning they are a different person. I think marriage is a leap of faith. I'm happy to say that my leap turned out better than I could have imagined. He is a wonderful provider, has told the children a bedtime story every night for the past 8 years and makes me laugh every day. Of course we annoy each other at times, but most of the time we are able to overlook those minor imperfections.

This morning I woke up with the stomach flu. I knew that Nathan would take care of me and the kids. I had cups of water, toast when I asked for it and an empathetic ear. I would call that a happy marriage.