Marriage Monday - The Crazy Way We Met

(ABOVE: Jason and I on our wedding day - June 19, 1999)
(ABOVE: Jason and I - before we were married!)

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Welcome to Marriage Mondays!I found this great site through Heather at Faithful Froggers ... (http://www.faithfulfroggers.blogspot.com). Pop on over to both of these great sites, site back, relax and read some true love stories!
Now how about I give the Cliff's Note Version of how Jason and I met each other. We didn't actually 'meet' one another until 6 months after we 'met'. Confused yet? Well lets travel this roller coaster shall we? It was September 21, 1997 and a lonely college girl was sitting at home in her room surfing the dial up Internet ... remember dial up? I digress ... well I was im'ing some people on AOL version 2.0 and someone happened to send me a message ... his screen name was HORD420 ... Mine was Sm!lesAlot420 ... we had similar screen names and similar tastes on our profile. We were both engineering students and interested in a lot of the same activities as well. It was a pretty nice online chat and for some UNKNOWN reason I decided to 'walk on the wile side' and ignore all the news warnings and gave him my phone number. GASP! Well he actually did call and thus began the endless late night phone calls and endless conversations about what we wanted in life, where we wanted to be in 5 years - 10 years etc. This relationship went on like this for 6 months. We finally planned to meet in real life during spring break from college. My dilemma though was where was I going to have him stay - my parents had NO idea I was even talking to someone on the Internet ... what was I supposed to do - walk in the house with some guy and say - this is Jason, he's from Minnesota and we just met ... Yeah, that would have went well! So instead of telling the truth (that does set you free you know!) I decided to tell my parents I was going to New York City with friends for the week. When actually I headed to the airport to meet Jason for the first time. It was pretty stressful and exciting all at the same time ... I was SO nervous - but I knew him instantly and he knew me too! We hugged until our arms hurt and we kissed as fireworks went off in my head. I had flocks of butterflies in my gut for hours it seems. It truly was a magical meeting for us ... now fast forward ...
The end of Spring Break came and I knew I wanted to be with Jason with all my heart - I knew I wanted to move away from New York ... I wanted to get away from the grunge, the low paying jobs and the lack of jobs available for my education ... I never thought about the heart break I would have when I left my family though! Not a good move on that end ... Jason and I spent the next few weeks planning on me moving to Minnesota - I finally told my parents what I was planning on doing an did know it crushed them (as well as my sisters and niece and nephews!) It was a gut wrenching feeling and to this day it hasn't gone away! But I knew in the long run the move would be the best decision for me and growing up was never meant to be an easy thing! So in May 1998 Jason booked a flight for him to fly to NY and pick me up ... he found an apartment for the two of us and together we started our lives in Minnesota ... I moved her May 17, 1998 ... almost 10 years ago! It has been a wonderful 10 years - not without tears and screams - but I would not change a single bit of it ... Because of Jason I grew up, I have experienced things I never thought I would or could and because of him I am a MOM. We were married on June 19, 1999 in New York and that was one of the best days of my life - now I spend my days adding more 'Best Days' to my memories ... What a Crazy Way We Met ... Have a blessed day!
Love ~ The Clark Family ~ Rebekah, Jason and Jaden TOO!