In honor of our anniversary, I thought I'd share a little bit about our story--a short version and a longer version. (Believe me, there's an even longer version--LOL!) I wrote both of these a while back for various things.
Lookin' good! Circa 1994It was 1989. No, really, it was. We met at a church youth conference when we were in high school. I had big hair. He had big glasses. I lived in Tennessee; he lived in Georgia. We were pen pals for years and years ... through the rest of high school and part of college. We both moved. A lot. But I would send a Christmas card to him at his parents' address. One year after the holidays--and soon after he acquired a Sprint PCS cell phone with a nationwide plan--he called me out of the blue. This was 2000/2001, I believe. We started talking regularly. We had a few visits. I had moved to North Carolina; he was finishing up med school in Augusta. We met in NYC at Christmastime--I was there for work; he was there with a friend. It was magical! Through it all, though, we remained just friends. Although when I learned that he had kept all of the silly and uninteresting letters I'd written him--in order, in a shoe box, since 1989--my heart melted. It continued to melt up until my 10-year high school reunion. I asked him to go. He said yes! A year or so later, he asked me to marry him. I said yes!
New York, circa 2001Tanna and I met in 1989--yes, 1989!--when we were in high school. We were both attending
Fun In The Son (FITS), a youth conference in Panama City, Florida. He was with his church youth group from Riverdale, Georgia; I was with my church youth group from Piney Flats, Tennessee. We can’t remember exactly how we became introduced to each other--I think he might have been in my brother's small group or something. Anyway, we became pen pals. (My sister used to make fun of me because every time we went on a trip, I always tried to collect a pen pal or two. I loved writing and receiving letters via the United States Postal Service--still do, in fact.) Anyway, Tanna was one of the pen pals I picked up on this particular trip. And he turned out to be the best!
So Tanna and I exchanged letters for the rest of high school and part of college. I always enjoyed reading his letters from Georgia; they were witty and thoughtful--NOTHING like the lame, shallow notes I sent him. Over the years, we kept in touch intermittently. He went away for college and then grad school and then med school. I moved around a bit myself. A few years may have gone by with little or no contact, but I did try to send him a Christmas card at his parents’ address each year.
Then, one day soon after Christmas of 2000, I got a phone call. It was Tanna, and he had received my Christmas card and letter. (By this time, I had started including an annual update in my holiday mailing.) Tanna had gotten himself a cell phone, and he had a nationwide calling plan. As a result, we started talking on a regular basis.
A few months later, Tanna and some friends of his drove to Tennessee for a visit.
Les Misérables was playing in Knoxville, which is near where I was living at the time. We all made plans to go see it together. That night, after the show, we were chatting in my living room. (Funny story--I had actually just moved to a new apartment
that very day. I was so exhausted!) His friends asked Tanna and I how we met each other. I began telling the story of how we knew each other from the youth conference, how we were pen pals, etc. I then looked at Tanna and said something like, “You know, I think I still have some of the letters you sent me around here somewhere. I have no idea where, though. … Do you have any of my letters?”
He looked at me with the straightest, most serious face and said, “I have all of your letters.”
I have no idea who said what next, but I do know that my heart skipped a beat.
A few years later, after we had started dating, I asked to see the letters I had sent him over the years. Sure enough, they were in a shoe box, in order, dating from 1989. (There may be one missing, but still ...) I have a handful of his letters. You better believe I went searching for them!
Who knew that we would eventually be married one day? (Well, God knew--He brought us together, after all.) It happened on Friday, April 30, 2004, to be exact! It was one of the most wonderful days of our lives!
Circa 2004
Love never fails.
I love how you can see the image of Christ from the stained-glass window reflected over us in the photo. 
We did it!
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Reception time!
Yummy ... cake! I wish I had a piece of that cake right now. Well, maybe not THAT cake--but one like it. (We didn't even save any to eat on our first anniversary. Although we did save a bottle of wine that was in the car we took from the ceremony to the reception.) 
The best DH ever! (For me, not for you! ;o))
See ya later!
