21 Years! ❤🥰💍 Our Love Story

Grant & I have a unique love story that is fun to share. I thought that in honor of our 21st anniversary that we just celebrated, we could share our story. 😊

(I know it’s a long post today, but I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane as much as I did.) ❤

In 1999 I was living in Laramie, Wyoming. The year after I graduated high school, my parents were getting ready to go back to Suriname, South America and so before they left, they helped me move “home” to Laramie, to be closer to my grandparents. I did love living there, but also had a strong desire to be married. (A lot of why I didn’t go to college right after high school was because I just had a passion to be a wife & mother and it didn’t make sense to me to go to school since I knew I would never pursue a career. However, when I was 18 I REALLY wanted to be a flight attendant. If I had been old enough, I would have done that!) 😊

In 1998, Grant had moved from the Rockford area to Texas to be with his fiancee, who then proceeded to leave him, so he was also in a place where he had a strong desire to be married. He bought a computer and lo & behold, he met me! 😉

We met in a Christian singles chat room for 18-24 year olds. Remember the days of AOL & dialup internet? 😂😁 Grant posted one day that he was “seeking a wife” and I responded 🙋‍♀️.

We started chatting and then we spent a few weeks talking on the phone a lot (back when you had to pay for long distance!!)

At the time, I was planning a road trip to Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, & Arizona, then back up to Wyoming, to visit 8-10 friends I met in this same chat room 🤦‍♀️🙄😳 (I do not at all recommend this….I don’t claim to have made smart choices & I’m very thankful for God’s protection!!)

Right before I left on my trip, Grant says, “Why don’t you just swing over to TX on your way home?” It sounded good to me, so I did. 😊

I made it to Texas on a Thursday late afternoon, after driving straight through from Phoenix (about 15 driving hours, I left Phoenix around 9 pm & rested in my car a couple hours in the morning.)

We had our first “date” on the back of Grant’s pickup truck in front of the laundromat, eating McDonald’s. We had talked extensively since we met & Grant looks at me & says, “So, ya wanna?”

“Yes, yes, I do!” 😊❤💍

The next day we went to the courthouse to apply for a marriage license & learned that in Texas you have to wait 3 days to get married. So, we were married on Monday. 😊

While we would have loved to have arranged & had a nice wedding, there were several reasons we eloped instead (we didn’t have a lot of money; I didn’t want to move to TX, get an apartment that I couldn’t really afford; my parents were in South America & Grant’s family was in IL, to name a few.) We knew we wanted to be married, we had that commitment (which is what has helped us make it through the past 21 years, along with God!) and just decided there was no reason to put it off.

We always hoped to have a “wedding” at some point later on. We originally planned for it to happen for our 5th anniversary, but that was when Grant was called to active duty with the Army, so we made it happen for our 10th anniversary.

It was a very special time, (we had it on our exact 10th anniversary, which happened to fall on a Sunday). We had a “renewal of vows” ceremony & we got to take a honeymoon, (which we never got to take the first time around). ❤

My Dad got to walk me down the aisle, which was really special & something I had always regretted by just eloping, that he hadn’t had the chance to give me away & walk me down the aisle.

So, now we’ve been married 21 years!! ❤ We have had our ups & downs, but have worked hard on our marriage & only gotten stronger through the hard times.