8 years already?

some of you may already know about our "story". others may not, so i will give those of you a quick history. 

i moved to pennsylvania at the end of my freshman year in high school. i left behind lots of friends, so i was not happy to be there. towards the end of freshman year my mom encouraged my sister and i to join a small group through the local church. thankfully, church has been a common ground throughout all my moves as a child, so i thought, why not? 

...i can hear stefano mocking me in my head as i am about to write about the first time that i saw him..."he walked in to bible study late, so he made quite an appearance. he was wearing a red soccer jersey, and his smile immediately caught my eye. i remember leaning over to a friend and commenting on him, and giggling like high school girls do". 

over the course of the next year our friendship grew stronger and stronger. we began serving together through our church and going on retreats, as well as seeing each other on a weekly basis at small group and church. 

on a cold weekend in february we served together in upstate new york. our high school group cooked and served all of the meals to another group that was staying at the camp, and it was during that weekend that we realized we had deeper feelings for each other than we initially thought. i firmly believe that you really get to know someone when you see them serve others. stefano claims that i was attracted to his amazing ability at flipping hundreds of pancakes with such skill, but who knows. ;) 

we began officially dating two weeks later. 

a couple months into our relationship stefano moved with his dad to baltimore, but stefano continued to visit his mom and i a few weekends a month. at the time i thought it was the end of the world... but God of course had bigger plans. just as we were getting used to him being in baltimore i found out that my family was moving to texas. 1,500 miles away. yee-haw. we stuck out the year-and-a-half of dating long distance and we decided to stay in texas for college. 

throughout college we continued to serve on mission trips together, made long lasting friendships, and matured in our relationship. 

despite where we moved or the challenges we faced we continued to collect our memories: old love letters, pictures, etc in an old trunk. every few months we open it up, read the countless letters, laugh at the old pictures, and reminisce of how far we have come as a couple. pouring over the letters is like a diary of our relationship. it has given us a perspective on how God has taken such care and love in the little details of our lives over the years. 

so on our 8 year anniversary, we ate donuts, drank coffee, and recounted the history of our relationship. it is such fun!