Today and all-ways, I am thankful for the man God prepared for me. No matter where life takes us, I am thankful to have him by my side.
There is not a day that goes by that I am not astonished that God has given us so much time to love, to hold, and to honor one another. When we married, we knew that sometimes God calls some earlier than others and we saw that first hand in watching my aunt lose her husband after only a few short years together and two small boys (ages 2 and 3). We knew that we wanted to make each day count. It is really hard to believe that we have been blessed with 12 years of marriage thus far. There is no one else I would rather have to spend my life with, no one else I would rather have hold me in my times of grief, no one else I would want to face forever with besides him.
In all the years of waiting to watch Jessy become a daddy, I am still mesmerized by the how devoted he is to our family. He works hard, prays hard, and loves deeply.
I really am trying to learn to become the wife God intended for Jessy, just as Jessy struggles to become the husband God desires him to be for me. We are both growing through learning stages of figuring the whole parenting thing out, but I am deeply appreciative that Jessy takes his role seriously as a father and is striving to go to the source of life to learn just how to do that. 
So here we are, 12 years later, and not only raising one child but three. Two that were there with us to celebrate our wedding and one that was only a dream of ours on that day. Praise God that his plans are so much better than our own.
I will never forget how God called me out of my comfort zone to go and cross paths with Jessy. In hindsight, it is really unbelievable. In the day that I applied for a secretary’s job while still in college at the company he worked for, I still remember hearing God speak directly to my heart when I pulled in the driveway. God clearly told me “You will meet your husband here.” I think this was God’s way of giving me his vision for my future. I was there awhile before I even met Jessy and I never even knew he worked there. I really thought all the men there were either happily married or bitterly divorced. I really thought the joke was on me, but then God brought Jessy into the showroom where I worked and the rest was literally history. To this day, they still talk about our whirlwind romance at the Christmas parties.
While I am enjoying memories, I want to write about our first date. We went to see Patch Adams, ate at Pizza Hut, and then I asked him to join me for Adoration. I was so bold back then, I leaned in close to him in the presence of Jesus and told Jessy “No one is as important to me as Jesus, he really is the Man of my life.” I wanted to know then and there if he was willing to let Jesus be the center of our lives. Well, I guess you can guess his reaction considering now that we will be celebrating nearly 14 years since that fateful first date in January 1999. Now on the second date we went to a Hockey game and had the ‘best seats in the house’ and it was remarkable. I remember thinking “Why is he not having a good time, he is not even talking to me?” I found out later that he was freaked out because a priest friend of mine was sitting a few rows over and was sizing Jessy up! Funny times. Without a doubt, it was the third date that I was completely and utterly in love. It was the most magnificent feeling in the world and I knew he was the one for me. It took us one month to proclaim this love to one another, and another month before we officially kissed. Oh, what a dream come true. I will never forget how hard it was to live in purity while waiting for our wedding night, but it was worth it. Not everyone thought we honored purity in our relationship, but we knew it and that is what counts. One final thought about that. On our wedding rehearsal night, the celebration was held at our new home that we spent months preparing and remodeling. I asked the priest if I could go to confession and we walked in to the bedroom that would be ours once we returned from the honeymoon. Our priest so the bed neatly made and as I confessed that I struggled with purity, he directly asked me “Who slept on that bed?” hahaha! My nervousness went out the window when I sincerely told him that neither of us slept on that bed ever!! Sweet relief and joywas felt the next day as we celebrated our love and pledged our future, our dreams, and ourselves to one another in Holy Matrimony!
