LOVE at First Sight...

Happy Be-lated Valentines Day, friends and family! :)

Something wonderful happened the day after Valentines Day. My family got "heart attacked!" :D We are just certain we know who did it. Our Awesome Elders in the Hayden Second Ward! :) And man do we love them! I will have to find the photos of our door covered in hearts and come back to post them here. :)

Another wonderful thing is about to happen which is worth mentioning today. My mom is living in a nursing home far away. In a week a brother and I will go get her and bring her here to live with us. It has been somewhat of a mental transition anticipating the changes coming. But I love my mom SO MUCH. And I am SO EXCITED that she will be coming to stay with me and my family!!! :)

Now... a few words about LOVE... and about my sweet husband and our "LOVING" beginnings! :D

I believe that love is a VERB. It is about sacrificing for others and doing what it takes to make another happy - every bit as much as you work to make your own life happy. It is selfless and giving.

You can't have done that with someone you just met!

~ AND YET...

There are those who experience SUCH A CHEMISTRY OF ATTRACTION that the DESIRE to love them and be with them is there INSTANTLY.

My husband and I experienced such an attraction. :)

I didn't think it was possible until it happened.


Before we had even been on a date, the thought entered my mind and heart that I was going to marry him.

I was curling my hair, getting ready for a date with a 16 year old boy. I was barely 18. It was just a fun date with a friend. Anyhow, as I curled my hair I heard my 9 year old brother, Nathan, running through the house yelling, "Corine, a guy named Miles is here to see you!" I dropped the curling iron instantly. My quick reflexes caught it, but I dropped it again - and again - as I found myself repeatedly muttering with excitement...

"This is the man I"m going to marry! This is the man I'm going to marry!"

I DON'T KNOW HOW, BUT I JUST KNEW.

Boy was I nervous though!!! I was supposed to marry him! Like some premeditated expectation from another lifetime! Somehow I just knew it! :o ? ?

But here he was in my living room, at the age of 26..., while I waited for my "date" of the age of 16...

"Oh dear Heavenly Father, please don't let them meet! :o

"If he knows I'm going on a date with a 16 year old he'll never ask me out, and then how will I marry him? You can't let them meet, Lord, PLEASE!!!!"

My prayers were answered! :) 

Some of you may think it just an awesome coincidence, but my "date" was an hour and a half LATE. Miles and he passed each other in the driveway... as my date drove in, and Miles drove out. :) LOL Yeah, I know! ;D

Us, many years after marrying (we were skating on a pond with our kids, and he caught me when I slipped...
Special thanks to the kids for catching the moment on camera! ;))

By the way... I wasn't the only one with premature ideas... :)

On our first date Miles looked at me, pointing to me with his right index finger and saying,

"Some day, I'm going to marry you." 

I laughed out, responding as if he were joking,

"Yeah, right!"

But inside my head was whirling...

"He really means it...
He REALLY IS going to marry me!"

Trust me. It really did feel like love at first sight (or close to it), though I realized years later what love really was...

Miles and I were engaged after 2 months, and married after a "lengthy" courtship of two months (four months after our first date).

Instant love.

That was 25 years ago.

Sometimes I think we must have loved each other" before"... So much that "our song" (you know... the one that makes you think of each other, EVERY time you hear it) starts out, "I knew I loved you before I met you. I think I dreamed you into life." :) Yeah. I think of him every time I hear that song. EVERY time. Like clockwork... :)

Love at first sight didn't save us from challenges in our marriage. It didn't save us from unhappy moments, or struggles that resulted from selfishness and poor decisions... but the gospel of Jesus Christ has continually given us a DESIRE to CHANGE when we made poor decisions - or when we realized we're being selfish. It helps us to WANT to be kinder and more selfless. 

And you know what is awesome, we do! Every day we strive to repent of our own imperfections and to love each other unconditionally - despite how the other's imperfections affect ourselves (and despite how many times we BOTH mess up!). And every year we love each other more than we did the year before - and are delighted to find that IT IS WORTH IT!  :)

Recent photos, taken when we went out to eat as a family to celebrate our daughter's birthday...

Do you think love at first sight REALLY does exist? ;) ...just wondering...

Corine :D