Tomorrow (Friday, June 17th) is our five year anniversary! We have such incredible memories of our wedding day, and every day since then has been wonderful affirmation that we both made the right decision when we vowed to love each other forever. Marriage isn't always easy, especially living on little to no sleep (!), but I've never for a moment doubted my love and commitment to this man. Thank you, Scott, for loving me even when I'm difficult to love, for sacrificing your needs for mine (even though you messed up that part of our vows at the wedding!), for being such an incredible father to our children and for making me the happiest girl in the world. I love you!!!
Shortly after our wedding, our photographer asked us if we'd be willing to write down our story. She was submitting some pictures from our wedding to a magazine and needed our story to go along with it. Many of you already know all of this, but I just came across it tonight and thought I'd share how we met and fell in love. Enjoy! :)
Our Story - written in 2006
(Lindsey) Scott and I didn’t start dating until January of my senior year in college, but our story actually begins long before then. After graduating from a rural high school in New Hampshire (the same high school my dad had walked the halls of the early 70’s), I enrolled as a freshman at Gordon College, a small Christian liberal arts college on the North Shore of Boston. Although my parents had met at Gordon and been married for twenty-five happy years, I was not following their footsteps in hopes of finding a husband; in fact, boys were pretty far from my mind as I had never had a boyfriend before. I immediately made the best group of girlfriends one can have. We lived together for all four years of college, have been in each other’s weddings and will be there for each other as we start to
build families and lives of our own. I also was intensely involved in athletics during college. Being a member of both the Varsity Women’s Soccer and Basketball teams left little time to worry about boys. At the start of my junior year, all of my girlfriends starting talking about the “hot new transfer” who had just come to Gordon from Muhlenberg College. He looked like a nice guy, but I personally didn’t really think twice about him. His first impression of me wasn’t much better.
(Scott) My first recollection of Lindsey was during the final minutes of a women’s soccer overtime game on the quad. I walked out of class just as the game was ending and saw the star forward turn and rip a shot from outside the 18 yard line that tucked just inside the far post. As she hit the ground after the shot, she immediately popped up to her knees and gave an emphatic fist pump in celebration of her game-winning goal. My singular thought was: “Wow, that girl is intense.” Come to find out, the “fist pump girl” was actually the nation’s leading scorer for women’s soccer and also a starting forward on the women’s basketball team. As a member of the men’s basketball team, we traveled to all away games together and Lindsey and I got to know each other as friends and eventually I got over the intimidation of my first impression of her. Throughout the basketball season that year, Lindsey and I often sat near each other and talked during the long road trips, although romantic thoughts never entered my mind. In fact, by the end of the basketball season, I had begun dating one of Lindsey’s best friends and roommates. Our friendship grew over the course of my sophomore year (her junior year), but not once did I think of Lindsey as anything more than a good friend. Lindsey may contest this, however, as she saved an instant message that I sent her on Valentine’s Day 2003 in which I wrote, ‘Thanks for the spaghetti, you’re the best Valentine ever!’ In retrospect, she claims that this was a subtle foreshadow of what was to come, while I cling to the explanation that I was simply a desperately hungry college male expressing gratitude for a delicious and timely spaghetti dinner from a friend. Needless to say, our friendship remained solid over the course of the summer, through my breakup with her good friend and into the next school year where things really got interesting.
(Lindsey) Over the course the following year, Scott and I grew much closer. We shared a class together, worked on group projects and just enjoyed our friendship. On a bumpy van ride into Boston for a field trip, surrounded by our classmates, Scott asked me if I would ever think of him as anything other than a friend. Although he caught me off guard, I was definitely sure of my answer. “Scott, I know we’re great friends, but in all honesty I could never think of you as anything more. I’m sorry.” Part of the assuredness of my response was due to his previous relationship with one of my best friends, but I had also never allowed the thought of a relationship with Scott cross my mind. Yes, he was fun, we both loved playing sports and being outside, he’s cute, sweet, and kind, loves kids, his family and God…but ewwww….no way. My response to the question became well rehearsed over the course of the next few months as Scott frequently, and not so smoothly, broached the subject of “us.” While in the past I immediately ignored boys if I knew they had a crush on me, for some reason I couldn’t let my friendship with Scott get weird. So, I just casually continued to turn him down.
(Scott) Hope quickly grew into disappointment; disappointment into frustration, and then surprisingly, frustration into confusion as Lindsey continued to be my best friend, but occasionally sent out mixed messages regarding her level of romantic interest in me. It was not until Thanksgiving break when she was driving with her parents to Pennsylvania and talked for six straight hours on the phone with me as I drove home to Vermont. While she maintained that we were just friends, I had certainly never talked to anybody, not even my parents, for six hours in a row on the phone! When we returned to campus after the holiday, things were a little different between us, but Lindsey still held firm. The day before Christmas vacation began, I was finished with my exams and all packed up and ready to go home when I got a phone call.
On the other end of the line was a pitiful sounding girl who mumbled, “The doctor says I have appendicitis.” I hopped out of bed, quickly dressed, jumped in my car and drove to pick up Lindsey at the campus health center to take her to the hospital. I held her hand as we waited nine hours for the surgeons to be ready to operate on her appendix and as she was in this state of misery, I think I began to win her heart.
(Lindsey) Never before in my life had I seen such dedication and commitment from a person who was getting nothing in return. Although I might have opened up to Scott a little more after Thanksgiving, I had in no way opened my heart to him as more than a best friend. We had never held hands, let alone kissed, and in his mind he didn’t know if I’d ever actually come around and admit my feelings for him. As I lay in that hospital bed I realized that I had something so incredibly special. Here was a young man standing by my bedside when he should have been home with his family, sitting in a waiting room with my family who he hardly knew while I had my surgery, sheepishly helping me put my hospital pants on so I could practice walking down the hallway the next day, sitting with me, talking to me, loving me and getting no love in return. All of a sudden I realized that he was an amazing man. He was selflessly putting my needs above his own, putting his life on hold to make sure I was safe, patiently waiting for me to come to my senses and realize what I had been missing until now. I finally realized that this guy wasn’t going anywhere without me…and I didn’t want him to.
Scott and I dated for year and a half before getting engaged. We enjoyed getting to know each other’s families and homes, watching each others’ athletic events and graduations and falling more and more in love each day. On a beautiful June day, we decided to hike a local mountain together. We found a cozy nook in the rocks, and sat down to enjoy the incredible views. We could see hundreds of miles in all directions looking in the distance to the White Mountains of Northern New Hampshire and all the way over to the rolling Green Mountains of his home state of Vermont. Scott pulled the most beautiful ring in the world out of his pocket, got down on one knee and asked me if I would spend the rest of my life with him. I didn’t think he was actually serious, until I took one more look at the ring and tears of joy started streaming down my face. After enjoying the moment together, we skipped and jumped our way down the mountain, filled with anticipation of the future. Apparently, the article only wanted our story through the engagement. The rest is history. We worked together at Cardigan Mountain School for that year that we were engaged and then after getting married we started our new jobs at Proctor where we still work today. Hard to believe how different our lives are now with two incredible little boys and a house that is all ours (even though we haven't moved in yet!). I'm excited to see what the next five years holds for us!
You are quickly growing up from a little baby to a big boy! You can count up to about 14 and then start repeating random numbers again from that point on. You know many of your letters and when we read books you often have to flip back and forth between pages showing us matching letters or similar pictures. You are a very picky eater and would probably live only on yogurt, frozen berries, puffs and spaghetti if we let you! You just stopped nursing this month and even though it seemed like you would nurse forever if I let you, you made a very smooth transition away from it. You go pee on the potty often, but aren't yet showing much consistent interest in potty training. You are still sleeping in your crib and finally just this summer started sleeping longer stretches. You love to push your dolls and stuffed animals around in your stroller and sing them lullabies and you seem to be very excited about "Baby Goose" growing in my belly. Every day you put your head on my belly then pop up saying, "Baby Goose Hi!" with the biggest smile on your face. I think you'll be a wonderful big brother, especially since Camden has been such a great one for you. We are so proud of you and love you more than you will ever know. Happy 2nd Birthday, Micah Gray!
