Superman to the Rescue Part 1...{SEEing ME}

Tomorrow is our anniversary...We will have been married 19 years...Although I've known him since we were teenagers...

I was one month shy of my 19th birthday when I first met him.

He was working as a volunteer and was sitting in a circle with a group of little elementary school children.  I remember that he had them laughing and captivated by whatever he was saying as I watched him from across the room.

I was the hot shot college girl who had just finished her freshman year...and he was a lowly senior who had just graduated high school a few months prior.

I was actually a member of a traveling team for my college. We were finishing up our summer long travels...and our last week put us in his home town.

With an entire year of college under my belt I felt very knowledgeable and finally felt like an "adult"!  I was infatuated with our college team leader and when I saw the guy across the room, it was more of a "sweet" memory, since I was studying to be a teacher...I mean, come on, any guy who can handle hangin' with little children for a considerable amount of time and not get bored or go crazy, was alright in my book!

Fast forward a month, and he's on the same college campus...

I see him from across the way and I recognize him...and I go barreling toward him with arms wide open...because, even back then, I obviously had no inhibitions when it came to extroverted social encounters!!!

Thus began a rather unorthodox relationship...we became best friends...we each dated other people, but, always seemed to make time to hang out together.  I wasn't huge into the dating scene....at that point I was still sorta into my "team leader" but, really, as a child coming from a long heritage line of broken marriages, I wasn't keen on getting too close to anyone anytime soon...best friends and big brothers suited me just fine!

And he fit that roll perfectly...although I should have recognized that no other "friend" wrote me a note every single day and left it in my post office box for me to find after student teaching...but, ya know...with me being clueless half the time anyway, I just chalked it up to "niceness"

My first college years are filled with incredible memories...I wish I could say that studying was at the top of my "to do" list, but my "social tendencies" started to flourish during that time...therefore, I put a tad more energy into "after class" pursuits rather than worrying about that grade point too much.

It seems like a storybook ending doesn't it?  If it just continued in this way and ended sweetly with a cherry on top...well, that would have been something!

Life has a way of not exactly turning out the way we expect however...

I flew off to Australia for the summer after my Junior year.

He sent me off with a slew of notes to read each day (because even then he knew my love language and I was totally oblivious to his schemes)

It was a summer of singing, traveling, koala holding and kangaroo poop finding...meeting incredible people, and eating really unique foods!  I loved every minute and since it was during the era of "no cell-phones", I only was able to call home perhaps once every 2 weeks or so (you paid by the minute back then)

Let us NOT discuss the fact that this "dates" me in so many ways...we can just pretend that I'm still a young college girl...at least at heart?

When I stepped off the plane back onto the U.S. soil, I didn't realize that from that moment, my life would change forever...

For those that might not know...I'm the oldest of 4 children.  My brother and I are rather close in age, but then comes a sister, Sarah, who was 7 years younger and then the youngest sister is 12 years younger than me. Disembarking the plane, I saw my family waiting for me at the end of the runway (remember those days when you could go through security and wait for passengers??? there I go, "dating" myself again, nevermind the actual date on the flier above)

Everyone was there, except for Sarah...

They hadn't wanted to try to find me as I traveled around Australia...knowing I'd be home soon.

My 13 year old, little sister, Sarah was in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. (This is a part of another whole story that is hers alone, of her life, her impact on others...but suffice it to say, this portion became part of my story too)

I can't even go into all manner of emotions that swirled in those moments...but, I knew that this was and continues to be a defining moment in my life...a chosen pathway of sorts...

And at that moment, Anthony's role in my life took a huge leap (especially for a 19 year old guy) and he has never backed away or wavered in the face of adversity in all the years that I've known him...

read PART 2 HERE