Completing Him Challenge One! Our Dating Story

The first challenge in the "Completing Him Challenge" at Women Living Well is this: June 14 – Post Pictures from your dating days (or tell us all about it!). Think about one thing you used to do or have as a couple that you have lost in the shuffle of life. How can you regain it?

So here we go!

Elvis and I met in our first year of nursing school. Since there aren't many men in the nursing program, I'd say maybe 5 or 6 in our class, it was pretty easy for Elvis to stand out. I remember seeing him for the first time in the cafeteria, I had heard his name mentioned before, but never actually saw him, until we passed through and saw him sitting with some girls we knew. I remember clear as day asking my friends Nathalie and Angela "Who IS that?!" I think they knew immediately that I was interested. Thankfully Elvis and I were about to have a lot of opportunities to get to know each other, including a nursing placement at the same nursing home where all my fellow students, and even my nursing instructor would play a role in helping us come together! I was a nervous and giddy wreck every day at school trying to find ways to talk to him. He was shy, very shy, and didn't do much talking himself.

For our first date, I got up the nerve to ask him to a group movie date, and wouldn't you know it, the rest of the group suddenly couldn't make it, and it was just us. We saw The Rookie, and held hands. I remember feeling dizzy when his hand touched mine for the first time. I was 21 and ready for a serious romance, and though it was just our first date, I knew he'd be something special.

We snowballed from there, quite fabulously. Before we knew it we were a pretty serious item and I couldn't have been happier. I loved meeting him for our dates, sometimes we met in an in between location since he lived about 45 minutes away, and sometimes he came to my front door. Each and every time I was elated to see him walking toward me, when he came to our house, I met him at the door, sometimes I was so excited I'd meet him in the drive way.

We traveled together, which has always been an exciting part of my relationship with Elvis. His desire to get out and go places has been infectious, and traveling with him was the first time I went anywhere save for school field trips. We went to Niagara Falls, and Florida, and most memorably, St. Augustine, right after we were engaged. We always find new adventures to go on, I love that about us!

Here we are while dating in Niagara Falls:

Here we are at my best friends wedding, a year before our own:


Here's our time line. We started dating on April 21st 2002 (we were 21 at the time)
We were engaged on June 23rd 2003 (we were 22 at the time)
We were married August 7th 2004 (we were 23 at the time)
And the rest is history!

I'm saving the wedding pictures/story for a future post, but part of the challenge is to think about something we had while dating that we lost in the shuffle of life. I think it's the excitement. That sounds sad, but it was entirely unintentional. We used to be thrilled at the sight of each other, we used to get excited to see one another, it was the best part of our days, the days we saw each other that is, and the days we didn't see each other will overflowing with anticipation. I have been trying to recreate that excitement, and make Elvis feel that, by meeting him at the door like I used to. I'm still working at it, but I can feel the pay off already!

I'm loving this challenge, and I can't wait to see what God can do in my marriage!

Now I'm off to read some of the dating stories by other bloggers!

Katie