Today I want to talk to you about the most important woman in my life. This would be my wife. She writes this awesome blog about wow stuff from a rogue's perspective. I believe I have shared some of her fan fiction concerning our characters, how they met, fell in love, etc.
Well, the real story of Therigwin and Daraia began before we even met. We both had a connection to a Christian Camp in Michigan, Camp Barakel. My family has been working at that camp for many summers and attended it as campers as well. My wife worked up there as a teen as well. It was during that summer that she met my brother and future sister-in-law. They came away thinking that I should date this girl, even though I was in a relationship at the time with another girl.
Time passed and I found myself at college and not dating anyone. And I met my wife through the drama department. Now I had my eyes set on another girl, but she was not who God had planned for me. We worked on a couple of plays and dramas together, helping out the local Christian High School back staging, cueing the actors and helping with the set. All the kids could see the chemistry between us, but we did not, we were just good friends.
I remember we went rollerskating, and I did not do that well, but my wife helped me out. It was at that event my brother and sister-in-law found out that I had met the girl from Camp. They told mom and dad and everyone started praying.
Well, I was still fixated on this other girl in college, but she turned me down for the formal winter banquet. This was the "valentines" day banquet the college put on each year. So, all my friends were going and I really did not want to go by myself, so I asked her. She said yes and I got the best shock of my entire night that night of the banquet.
My wife is what she calls a "low maintenance" person. She doesn't wear much makeup, keeps her hair in a ponytail, etc. Your basic good looking woman that doesn't demand much.
Well I still remember how beautiful she was that night. All her girl friends had done her up to beyond what she normally was. It took my breath away and I got this thought in my head, maybe this was the girl I should look at for my wife.
Over the next 3 weeks we did various dates and the more I learned about her, the more I was falling in love with her. I asked her to be my girlfriend at the end of that third date. She said no. Man what a blow to me. She told me I was on rebound and I was not truly interested in her and told me to be just friends with her.
Nothing like a challenge to get you more interested. Well I told her she was wrong and asked her what I could do. She knowing that I was very much into Knights, fantasy, and all that stuff, she told me that I had a quest, if I could figure out the one thing she would be my girlfriend. She figured it would take me a year to figure it out. So over the next few days I tried various things, from poetry, flowers being snuck into her dorm room by her roommate for me, starting daily devotional with her, and pretty much romancing her entire dorm. They all wanted her to date me, but she was firm, I had to do this one thing for the quest before she would be my girlfriend.
That one simple thing to do, was to kiss her. She believed I was too shy to try that, and in truth I was very shy and insecure. As I have shared in the past, my previous girlfriend from highschool was a mess and used physical interaction against me to manipulate me. She was really messed up and I did not want my new relationship based on anything physical until we were closer to being married.
Well, I remember the night that I overcame this fear and whispered in her ear, "Is it a kiss?" and saw the hope and panic in her face. I attempted to kiss her 3 times that night in her dorm, only to be interrupted by people walking by, including her "dorm manager or dorm mom". So I grabbed her hand and we went for a walk. We walked over to the seminary on campus where there was a pond and willow tree. Standing under that tree, I looked her in the eyes, bent my head down and kissed her. We prayed after that asking God to direct our relationship. It took me 1 week to complete that quest and win my wife over to be my girlfriend.
A couple months into the relationship, I realized that I loved her, really really loved her and I told her. She said that was nice and she just wasn't ready. Oh the heart break. Then one day while we were walking around campus talking about "The Corner on the Truth", she blurted out, "I Love You". I was the happiest man alive. I remember the exact spot on campus she told me, though the landscaping has changed since that time, I will always remember where she confessed her love for me. She was scared that it would not last over that summer, but it did. We both went to two different camps to work, but visited each other during the summer.
Our love grew and I found out of a tradition of how the guy proposes to their spouse in her family. It was by presenting a teddy bear. We were working on the fall drama again. She was the backstage manager and I was in the sound booth. My parents were coming up and I was trying to stall her as much as possible to make sure all was ready. She was a wreck worrying about her responsibilities and the play. Well the seminar was where the stage was at and I had my parents put the teddy bear all dressed in armor with a pouch around his neck in the spot we shared our first kiss on a blanket.
I was walking her over to the seminar when I said, hey, whats that over there. She thought it was a couple, but I dragged her over there. Now she knew that eventually I was going to be asking her, because we had already picked out her ring and I had ordered it, she just did not know it would be so soon.
I remember her words so clearly..... "I hate you" "I love you" "I hate you" ya, she was a bit stressed. We dug out the ring from the under the armor and I got on my knees and asked her to marry me. She said yes and the rest is as they say history.
So now we turn full circle back to the beginning of the story. Camp Barakel. That is where my wife is presently with my sister-in-law at a Women's retreat. She has been gone since Friday and while I am glad she gets to get a break from the family and renew her spirit, I really miss my partner, my helpmate, my love. She will be back later tonight and then we will celebrate our youngests 5 year birthday.
One of the things I did for her when she was gone was completely redo her UI and I will now share her previous UI and her new one.
Previous -
New -
