Gabre and Lisa:
Who would have told me that the boy who lived 10 minutes away from my hometown would be my husband today. The teenage boy who would come to my house parties, visit my brothers, and a best friend of a family friend would be Lisa’s husband of 18 years today! How did we choose each other? It’s a long journey but these were the initial signs, the signs that made me fall in love with my husband! My love destiny!
Home: It was one Sunday afternoon, the day after my daughter’s 4th birthday, when I first saw him. I love the beach, I grew up going to the beach on Sundays after breakfast. So the beach is my spot, and it was were I met him. Sitting alone drinking a Red Stripe beer & ordering his Escovitch fish with festival! Yep, you guessed right..I grew up on the beautiful island of Jamaica! He reminds me of my roots.. he is my home.
Confident: Hmmm… I thought a man who has no problems being with himself. I told my girlfriend that I’ve never seen that before. He must be waiting for someone. But no he’s really eating by and with himself. Great quality! We didn’t exchange words but we exchanged glances! He too noticed me and my daughter. Today, he’s still okay with being by himself to reflect, reminisce, and recharge. He loves himself!
Helpful: So my best friend, her son, my daughter and I, were leaving and he said as we walked by (my daughter on my hips & a beach bag on my shoulder), “Do you need some help?” “Sure!” I said as I kept walking. Which is really who I am..the girl who needs help but does her thing anyway. He’s still kind and helpful to so many. He’s my superhero!
Persistence: Of course he was all we talked about as we drove home. However, I didn’t expect to hear from him because we did not exchanged numbers, and I had a daughter. Yep, I didn’t think that I would be dating anyone seriously after already having a child from a previous relationship. That night the phone rang ( house phone), it was him. He had gotten my number from a mutual friend of both of ours, a friend who we both considered another brother, a friend that sealed the deal, a friend that became our daughter’s godfather, a friend who was in our wedding party, a friend who was gone too soon. My husband purses me weekly, and he wins me over every time.
Driven: We went on a date the next day, then the next, then the next..We were inseparable. We talked, laughed, partied, and became really great friends within a really short space of time. He had dreams and high expectations of himself. He was already an entrepreneur and wanted to grow his business. He has been a business owner ever since he was 16 years old he told me. Today he… we are continuing the journey to fulfill his life long dream very soon.
Loyalty: We found out that we both had strong ties to our family. That we both loved our moms and had the utmost respect for our dads. Our siblings were just as important so it was very imperative that we met each other’s family. It turned out that he was already a friend of my brothers’ and that his brother was a friend of my sister’s. So that made it so easy when we had to share the news of our pregnancy. This was his first child, we were not together long enough for some but we felt as though it was meant to be. He was already showing how much of a great dad he would be with how he treated my daughter. Most everyone in our families were happy and for those who weren’t, we didn’t care. He was going to take care of his responsibilities no matter what, and he still is.
Our journey to marriage was a lot different from what society said it should be but it worked for us! It was real, chaotic, fun, empowering, life changing, humorous, and most of all what we wanted! Myself and my current florist planned and design our wedding. It was exhausting and I will never encourage anyone to do that to themselves. I really didn’t have time to rest, so my wedding was exhausting my eyes were red & the hook on my dress was broken. I didn’t notice until I saw my wedding photos. No one told me.. no one knew how important it was to fine tune every detail of the wedding day. I really didn’t enjoy my wedding day but thank God for great photography and a full recap from my guests the next day!
“When people show you who they really are the first time believe them.” Trust your gut, pray about your choice, and know that you get to choose your love destiny.
lovedest 