How We Met

I often get asked how my husband and I met. This question is usually after I let people know that I am a Colorado native. It is usually asked with a "why in the world would you move to Iowa?" type attitude. (I often ask myself that same question.) Here is the story of how my husband and I met.

I arrived back in the States, after living in Russia for a year and a half, in June of 2004. I moved in with my parents and really hadn't figured out what I was going to do. I think the ultimate goal was to move back to Russia, so I just took a retail job and I started saving some money to move back. In September of that year my sister called me and told me that her husband was going to be transferred back to Colorado. She wanted to know if I would come and live in the house that they just purchased. This house just happened to be located in Des Moines, Iowa. They didn't want to sell the house just yet because they needed to build up some equity. I said sure, but I would need a job. She said that I could have hers. Hmmm...I'm thinking the Lord was at work here...

I moved to Des Moines, Iowa on November 1, 2004. I still had the intention of moving back to Russia in about a year or so. My plan was to live in my sister's house while they built up some equity and then they could sell it in a year and I would move back to St. Petersburg. My sister and her husband moved back to Colorado right after Thanksgiving and I was living alone in a new city. This might scare most people but I really like moving around and meeting new people, life is more fun that way. I started attending a church that was about a mile from my new home at the beginning of 2005. On January 23, 2005 I met my husband for the first time. I had actually seen him singing in the choir and I honestly had the thought: "He's kind of cute, but he's probably married." He came over and introduced himself to me and sat next to me during that particular Sunday school class. We chatted for a few minutes and that was the end of the conversation. The next time we talked wasn't until the middle of February when the singles group went on a ski trip. By this time I had my eye on him and thought that maybe some day in the future we could get to know each other a little better. I really had no intention of dating him, I just wanted to get to know him better. During that ski trip I got to visit a good friend of mine from back home. I told her all about him, but didn't really want to make a mountain out of a molehill and pursue a relationship with him. I should also mention that at this point in time I had sworn off dating for a year. I really didn't want to get involved with anybody when I was just going to go back to Russia. After the February ski trip we started talking to each other a bit more, but it was always with a group.

The week before Easter there was a knock at my door. It was 12am and I was already in bed and asleep. I didn't get up. Then the motion light at the front door kept going on and off. I was a little bit nervous. I called the only person I knew that would be up: my soon to be husband. After an awkward conversation with his housemate, whom I hadn't met, I finally talked to my soon to be. I explained the situation to him and he came right over and took a look around. There was no one out there.

Easter Sunday came and I thought that it would be a good idea to have some of my new friends over to watch a movie. I hadn't had anyone over since I moved there. Everyone came over including my soon to be. While everyone wanted a tour of the house he just sat on the couch and really didn't talk to me at all. I was kind of disappointed. But I soon got over it because I reminded myself that I had sworn off dating. Later on he told me that he didn't want it to look like he was too interested in me, because he really was.

On April 24th my soon to be and I had a long conversation. I'm not entirely sure what the conversation was about, but he did tell me that he "wouldn't be opposed to dating me." I still really don't know what he meant by that. Whenever I ask him he just says: "Why does it matter, it got the job done, didn't it?" A couple of days later we went out to see a movie. There is still some speculation as to whether or not this was our first date, but he did pay for me and it was just two of us...(he doesn't think it was a date) On April 29th it was official, we decided that we would start dating and see where that led us.

Now is where you will have to fasten your seat belt, it's a fast ride...

After we decided that we were going to start dating we spent every moment we could together. On May 8th he told me that he loved me and that he would do anything for me, he also said that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. If you are counting that was 10 days after we started dating. While this wasn't exactly a marriage proposal, it was him letting me know that he planned on marrying me. A few days later I agreed that I too wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. During that conversation he told me that he wasn't sure what kind of ring I would like and if I would be willing to pick out my own ring. I asked how much I could spend, he told me, then I really had fun picking out my own ring. We aren't really romantics and I really hate surprises so this worked out well for us. I officially got my ring on June 20th. I would've gotten it sooner, but there were several things that were going on in our lives at that time and that's when we finally got around to getting the ring. We were married on October 29, 2005. I wanted to get married in September, but due to people being out of town and other things going on we had to get married in late October.

While I don't absolutely love Iowa, I do absolutely love my husband. He is a sweet, wonderful man, and I'm glad that we get to share our lives together.