Hey, you! How are you today?
Yesterday, I wrote all about our wedding anniversary and the restaurant we went to. Today, I thought I would write about our love story a little.
The husband and I met in 2001. I was celebrating my 16th birthday and he came to my birthday party because he was a friend of my neighbor’s. We saw each other at the buffet table and I asked him how he was doing. I was not flirting, just being a friendly host. 😉
According to him, he fell in love at first sight. Which is why he left an unsigned note at the end of the evening. The 3 magic words.I love you. It took me a month to find out that he had written that.
At the same time, my mother was dying of cancer. She had been sick 8 years prior to that, but in 2001 she was diagnosed with a non-operable brain cancer. There was nothing to do.
The husband became my source of comfort. That part of my life is slightly blurry, but I know I made it out somehow because of him.
We eventually got together. I think I was just really looking for comfort and love. But he held on in hopes that this could turn out into something serious.
A couple of months passed and I finally realized that I loved him one evening in May. He was walking back home. I watched his back walking away from me and felt something pinch my heart. I didn’t want him to go home. I loved him and I couldn’t wait to tell him.
We survived college together. At first in different schools and then in the same. We broke up, remained buddies, and when we were done fooling around, got back together.
We started working and lived together. It was never really official until his mother complained that he was never home. LOL.
Then we learned that I couldn’t have children naturally, only to surprisingly find out that I was pregnant a couple of months later. We were 22-23 years old. We became young parents. With no clue, but working together to make it all work out.
We decided that for our sake and for our child, it was better to move to France. Transferring everything we had in the Philippines to come here in France was not easy and that included a 1-year separation from my husband and my daughter.
To make our plans come true, we married. I am the hopeless romantic type, but I knew that a big, white-dress, walk-down-the-aisle wedding was not for me. Instead we had a super simple wedding. A judge and surprised family members who thought they were coming to a simple dinner. Haha.
Two months later, I was taking my flight to France. It wasn’t easy being away from my family. But my mother-in-law was dying and I simply couldn’t ask my husband to leave her side. Baby girl can still remember vividly that year and her dear grandmother.
We’ve been living in France for almost 5-6 years now. Despite the difficulties of it all, the husband and I make it work. We’re finally at a moment in our life where things are stable. Which is why, whenever we argue and fight, I never give up. Anyone who’s married will tell you how much work making a marriage work is. Heck, some people abandon after a few fights. But I’m not a quitter and neither is my husband. I don’t judge people that separate or divorce, we all have our past and our own story. I know that ours is worth fighting for.
It’s not a question of having been through so much together. It’s much more than that. I love him. I get goose bumps when he touches me. I still have butterflies in my stomach when he comes home and I see him. I want to share everything with him and he’s the first person I turn to. Of course, there are times when he really annoys me and I feel like pulling my hair. But what I love best about the husband is the fact that I know he’s not too far behind to pick me up when needed. <3
There is a Celine Dion song that best relates how I feel about the husband and I. Loved me Back to Life, that’s what he did.
I was walking dead stuck inside my head. I couldn’t get out. But you stood by my side. Night after night, night after night. You loved me back to life.