I met the man I consider the love of my life one month after turning 16 years old. Looking back, it is no wonder everyone thought we were crazy. Donovan likes to say he married me young so he could finish raising me right :) Well, that is pretty much what we did; finish raising each other. We met at my first "real" job, Sportsworld (the local skating rink). Donovan was the DJ and I was the skate guard. Our pay was $5.15 an hour, and we worked our tails off for it. The first time we were formally introduced, I thought to myself he is cute but I would never date him. I really felt that way. Before I knew it, his sexy South African accent had me. I was falling for him but he was uninterested, I could not believe it. Not interested! I would get all dressed up on Fridays when it was time to pick up our paychecks and I would hope I ran in to him. Well, it must have worked because a few months later, He wanted to date but I was kind of over him by this point. He took me out to a nice dinner and formally asked me out to which I replied, you are a really nice guy but I am just not the girl for you. Well, he must have been praying, because I started to fall hard. Eventually, we were both on the same page and began dating Aug 27, 2005 (This was a few days into my senior year of high school and now our daughter's birthday) We will fast forward a year, Donovan proposed to me after a few miles of riding our bikes on litterly the hottest day of the summer. I was wearing spandex shorts, a sports bra and I was covered in sweat. After he asked me, I started to feel sick. I guess it was the nerves plus the heat because I started throwing up everywhere. Skipping over a few details, we rode our bikes back to the cars and I was fine the rest of the day. We got married May 19, 2007. I was 19 and Donovan was 21. We were clueless about the real world, but we loved God and we loved each other. Our first year of marriage, we both worked and we both went to school full-time. I only knew how to cook breakfast foods and the word budget was a new concept altogether. Fast forward almost 5 years. Now Donovan is graduated with a "normal" job and I am getting to be an at home mom while taking 2 online classes. This is so easy compared to where we have been. In the past, there have been times we did not know how we were going to pay our bills and every time, every single time, the Lord would provide. We have had anonymous checks show up in the mail, we have had people at church give us hundreds of dollars, and I have had people not cash checks I have written all because they said the Lord told them to do it. I have learned that getting married, no matter the age, if your goal is to honor the Lord first and foremost you can rest assure that you will be taken care of. Marriage is not hard because you are too young, marriage is hard because of selfishness; an expression you see more often in young people. One of my favorite pieces of marriage advice we received was "remember, marriage is not about each person giving 50 percent, but it is about both people giving 100 percent all the time." I am reminded of this when I am acting lazy, and sometimes I wonder how many more couples would stay married if they put as much thought and work into the marriage as they did for their wedding and reception.
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