Amore' and Her Other Half

To start things off, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about my other half andme. C is a second-semester junior in college. I just graduated. He's working part time at a church, as the Youth Worship Coordinator. I work technically part-time, though it's 40 hours a week, as a Web Traffic Analyst for a media company.


We met in high school. Our parents have been friends for 16 or 17 years. We didn't get to know each other, though, until we were both in the senior high youth group at our church. We went to the same school, and C would start to show up near my locker between class changes. He was a sweet guy, even if he was a freshman. We became good friends, and though I got the impression that he liked me, I was scared off by the fact that I was a junior and he was a freshman. Roll another school year over, and in October of my senior year, my girlfriends trapped me for a relationship intervention. Though I bold-face lied to them about my feelings for C, they saw right through me (they always do!). Soon, they had me confessing my feelings for him, and before I got out of the driveway that night one had called C to tell him that I, indeed, "liked" him. (Can I get an "Amen" that we're not in high school anymore?!)


Within a week we had our first date (and first kiss). The rest, I suppose, is history. I went away to college the next August. We spent four academic years in a long-distance relationship. While we tried to see each other every couple of weeks, schedules often forced us to wait up to four weeks between visits. That may not seem like a big deal, and I know couples have spent much longer durations apart, but it was tough.


Finally, in May of 2008, I graduated, and moved home to be near the love of my life. We'd been talking marriage for years at this point, but we knew we were really getting close to the big day. We set a date before he proposed, and we even booked the church! He insisted every time I asked that he hadn't had time to get to the jewelry store yet, so I sat waiting, sure it would take weeks to get a ring sized down to my tiny 4 ring finger.


After C had been gone for a week, he took me to dinner. I, of course, harassed him about going to the jewelry store, and he apologized for not having time to get there yet. After dinner, he suggested wandering around one of the many beautiful parks in West Knoxville. Though it was hot, we decided to investigate some new piers at a park near my house. Out on one of the piers, I was staring at the water when I felt a tap on my hand. When I turned around, C was on one knee with a ring box in hand. He asked me to marry him. I cried and said yes!


We told our parents, my sister, and then began a long night of calling our friends and relatives. I was actually going to be able to plan a real wedding...my wedding! Talk about bliss...





C&A in November of 2003. We'd been dating for a little over a month. Look how little!








-Amore'