Carl and I celebrated our 19 year wedding anniversary yesterday.
19 years - holy jolly Christmas nuts that makes me feel so old.
I was a child bride... OK not really, but I was 22 when we got married which by today's standards is pretty young.
It makes me feel less old when I look at it that way, so let's just go with it alright!
The kids asked me yesterday about how I knew Dad was the one I wanted to spend my whole life with? It got me reminiscing about pivotal moments in our relationship and I have to say it is hard to pick just one 'aha' moment because I think there was a part of me that just always knew I had found my soul mate in Carl.
Ironically when I first laid eyes on Carl, I was 16 and he was your typical bronzed surfy dude. I pulled up at the beach in my girlfriends car and Carl was standing on the bonnet of his panel van looking at the surf... predictable much?
I was all "pwhoarrr" and I turned to my girlfriend and said "that there is my future husband".
We started out as great friends and eventually got together a year later when we were both (kinda) single or at the end of other relationships. We dated for about 10 months before I had a massive brain fart and decided I was too young to get serious and broke it off with him.
On the day of what would have been our 1st anniversary as a couple, I was at work at an animal hospital where I was a vet nurse. I had been thinking about Carl a lot and regretting my decision, but I was also far too proud to tell him that.
My pride has always been a big issue with me.
Damn pride.
I was called to reception to find a huge bunch of flowers had been delivered to me... from Carl, and a card about how he wished things were different with us and that we were celebrating a year of being together rather than being apart.
I think it was that moment, that precise moment in time that I knew I had made possibly the biggest mistake of my life and I needed to tell him how I felt.
What played out from here was like something from a soap opera.
I left work and drove straight to his flat down at the beach. I practiced what I was going to say the whole way there and in my mind I had this image of how he would sweep me into his arms and all would be good with us.
However, when I got to his place, his flatmate told me he had left only an hour earlier to go away to QLD for a couple of weeks with friends... friends that included a girl who I and everyone else knew was keen to take things further with Carl.
We didn't have mobile phones then and the wait for him to return home was nothing short of agonising.
But he did return, and I had my chance to explain just how wrong I was and how he WAS the one, the ONLY one I wanted to be with.
Fortunately, he still felt the same and from that moment forward, we were inseparable,
We took ourselves off to Fiji where we talked about our dreams for the future and we agreed that "if" we ever got married, we would return to that island for our honeymoon.
When we got home, we moved in together and the rest my friends - is history.
We did go back to that island for our honeymoon, and despite all the people who told us we were silly for getting married so young... we just knew in our hearts that we had found each other for a reason.
He was my one and I was his and we didn't want to waste single day of the rest of our lives without each other.
And so last night we toasted to each other, to our love, to the family we have created together and to finding that one special person who totally completes you.
Ok you lovers, tell me your story
Have you found 'the one'?
How did you know, that he / she was 'the one'?
Make my ears leak with your stories as I am an absolute sucker for all things love.