For the love of ... LOVE!

I'm linking up with the Oklahoma Women Bloggers once again today! Our post challenge today is to write about our favorite love story!!

Growing up, I didn't have many examples of lasting love stories. My parents were married and divorced two times! My grandparents on one side were divorced, on the other side- my grandpa passed away so my grandma was single. I think that seeing all the heart-break in the relationships role-modeled to me is what made me STRIVE for excellence in my own love story! 

My husband and I talked A LOT before getting married about what marriage and relationships were all about. Our pre-marriage counselor even said that he hadn't seen a couple more prepared for marriage than Tim and I.  Talk about a pat on the back, right??!!

See, one day we were talking about how building a relationship is like building a house. You HAVE to have all elements in place to make it work. Thinking of a house...

*You have to have a solid foundation to build upon. For us, the SOLID foundation is God. Our faith is very important to us. It was God that brought us together... so our entire marriage has to be set upon HIS foundation!

*Next, before you can build your "house," you have to have a floor, right? For us, our floor was a friendship. Tim is my very bestest friend. I can tell him anything...I can trust him with everything. Without nurturing our friendship... that is based on our foundation of our faith, our "house" would crumble!

(still following me??)

*Then, after you have your foundation in place, and you've laid the concrete floor, you can start building the walls. We agreed that the four walls of our relationship would be: 1- recognizing her needs; 2- recognizing his needs; 3- love; 4- respect. Without all four walls working together (they're all independent issues, yet fully reliant upon each other) your house will fall! 

*Finally, once we had our solid foundation of God, and our floor of friendship, and we were able to work together building the walls of love, respect, and mutual needs, we were able to finalize our "house" by adding the roof... roof is marriage. See, like I said, we talked a lot. We're both very analytical people... so this made sense to us. We couldn't just JUMP into a marriage. We had to make sure our house was strong before we could put a roof on top...before we could get married. If we had gotten married before our friendship was strongly established, the house wouldn't stand. 

Yes, I realize this may have been way too much thinking... BUT with the examples set before me of NOT great marriages, we needed to know that we knew that we knew what we were getting into. We didn't want to rush into anything that wasn't going to stand strong because we didn't take the time needed to build our relationship. We were together dating for nearly 3 1/2 years before our wedding, and while it seemed like FOREVER at times, I am SO glad we didn't rush! 

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Now, almost 11 years later, we're still happily married! We still say "I love you" before parting- whether in person or on the phone! We still kiss before bed every night. We always welcome each other home with a kiss & and "I love you!" The romance is still there! Tim is my very best friend- he has been for many years, and I am proud to say he will always be! Our's is a love story that I am honored to share with people.  I love this man more than anything... he is MY favorite love!  I love that he's my bestie... I love that he gave me four AWESOME kids... I love that he supports me in everything!

I love you, Tim - ALWAYS AND FOREVER!!!