10 Years Ago Today ~ The Day We Met

It was ten years ago today, January 8, 2002.

I flew to the Little Rock airport to meet John - face to face for the very first time. If you don't know how "Our Story" began, you can catch up and read about it all here. Reading that will help with the rest of the story...

I exited the plane and made my way to the family and friend waiting area and there was John, with daisies in hand (my favorite flower). John had come to the airport to pick me up along with Jason and Angela. After leaving the airport we all went to lunch at El Chico. After lunch, Jason and Angela dropped us off at John's house in Conway and they went back home. John gave me a tour of his cute little house and gave me a few PEZ dispensers (which I collect). Later in the afternoon, we drove out to Mount Vernon to eat dinner and spend time with John's parents and Jason, Angela, Jacob and Isaac. It was a really nice, fun evening. John still says to this day that he was so nervous that day - too cute! As I just mentioned, we shared our first meal together at El Chico and John said he was so nervous he could barely eat. I don't remember being that nervous. I was surprisingly calm for some reason.

I was scheduled to stay for a week in Arkansas (staying with Jason and Angela). My flight back home was the following week. John and I were going to have a full week to get to know each other more in person, spend some quality time together and see where things would go. Well, to make a long story short, I never flew back home! I canceled my flight and decided to stay in Arkansas indefinitely. FYI, I did go back home to get some of my things at one point and I lived with Jason and Angela for a while.

I flew to meet John on January 8, 2002 and we were engaged within 3 months. When you know...you know! And exactly one month from today (February 8th) we will be celebrating our 9th anniversary. God is amazing in how He weaved our lives together in the way that He did in His time, not ours. We were both hoping and praying for that perfect person and not very patient in doing so, but as always, He had a plan for us.

When I think back to the fact that it was 10 years ago today that we met in person, I can't believe it. It seems so long ago, but yet seems like just yesterday. I remember that day so well and I know John does too. What's even more unbelievable is what has occured in our life together over the past 10 years. WOW ~ what an amazing, incredible journey! So many wonderful chapters in the book of our life shared together. I know this sounds so cliche, but our love grows deeper and our life gets better with each passing year. I fell in love with John 10 years ago, but I love him so much more today and I know that love will continue to deepen. And now we are about to be parents and share the experience of parenthood together ~ so exciting and so blessed.

I love that we celebrate all of the meaningful dates in our life together. We ususally go eat at El Chico every January 8th to remember our first meal together! That's where we will be tonight for our Sunday supper. We have a date planned to celebrate the day we met - face to face for the first time!

Until we meet again...
Mrs. John Ussery