becoming mrs. graham.

in honor of valentine's day, i though i'd share my love story with you. and of course, it is dedicated to the mister.

part 1: the chase.

kelly liked me for several months before i even thought about liking him. just being honest. he is 4 years my elder so i never had a clue he was interested - i was a random ex-youth group kid and he was the worship pastor. yes, i was 18 when we started dating. and just for clarification, i was out of youth group and well into college by the time we began our courtship.

we both worked at the same church. he was the contemporary worship guy and i was the youth group admin gal and in college full time. he often came into my office but i never knew it was because he wanted to talk to me. he says there's no way i couldn't have known that. i guess i'm clueless.

we both were chaperones on a youth ski trip during valentine's weekend 2004. we hung out the whole time and didn't chaperone any youth. hopefully everyone returned home in one piece. i started to like kelly. a lot. i still didn't know he liked me.

he asked me to coffee. i thought he just wanted to be my friend. there was no way he would want more. or, at least that's what i figured.

part 2: the "dtr" talk.

"dtr" as in defining the relationship. we had that talk and defined our relationship as dating. he was my boyfriend and i was on cloud n-i-n-e. he caught me.

part 3: the engagement.

notice that part 2 was especially short. that is because it was. we both knew after our first dates that i would be his wife and he would be my husband. after four months of dating {or courtship as we christians prefer to call it... : ) }, we were engaged in june of 2004. the planning began for our winter december wedding.

part 4: introducing mr. & mrs. graham.

and so we were married on december 19, 2004. we were head over heels. ecstatic. and in love.

the best part? we still feel the same way. and always will. and, we even love each other more today than we did then. so yes, love stories aren't just for the movies. well, this is most of our story. to tell you the rest of the story would require some major gut spilling on my part. i don't know if i have the guts for that. we'll see. check back tomorrow. {update: i had the guts... click here to read the rest of our story.}

in the meantime,

happy valentine's day {on sunday} mr. graham. i am so thrilled to be your mrs.

if you are in the middle of a love story lost, or are looking for your love story, keep trusting, believing and hoping in the greatest love story ever told.