Pages

Our Story

I don't think I've ever told a single story as many times as I've told this one. I can't say that I mind it, I actually enjoy it thoroughly, but it's just funny to me. 

Michael and I have known each other for 12 years. That is a LONG time, especially when you're only 19! When I was six, my dad was accepted into Creighton Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska. I was pretty ticked that we had to move all the way across the country, leave all our friends, family and church, but it all worked out wonderfully. We met in our first grade Sunday school class. He saw me first, as he likes to remind me. Our moms eventually met through the church nursery, became great friends, and we were invited to join the homeschool group that was at the church. Over the next few months, our parents got closer and we started to go to each other's houses more often. I thought he was the cutest guy in the world and had a big (well, big for a six year old ;)) crush on him. This was life for the next four years. We got to see each other multiple times a week and I always loved it. 

Here we are back in 2001ish. We don't have any old pictures of just the two of us. I blame it on our mothers :P Michael is in the upper right hand corner (with my monkey brother) and I'm in the second row on the far left. Such babies :)


In 2002, we had to move back to California because my dad was finished with medical school. It was super hard on me, but we kept in touch. I remember that he called me the first night we were at our new house. We didn't really say much, but I was thrilled that he called. Over the next few years, we stopped talking for a while, but he called at least 3-4 times a year. When we were about 13ish, we started instant messaging a TON - hours and hours every day. He would call every so often and I would always get super nervous. We would have all these long awkward silences and eventually just hang up after a while. My family made two trips to Nebraska, in the next five years. Michael and I would play games and hang out with Maddie and Bethany. 

When I was 16, his entire family drove out to my house here in Fresno. Michael could drive at this point, which made things more fun. We would get in the car with the girls and go random places. We spent some time in Yosemite and went to Carmel for the day. Bethany and I flew out to see them shortly after this. It was great to see him so soon. 

After that visit, we talked A LOT. We would instant message even more, and he would call me at least a few times a week. Our conversations were getting less awkward, thank goodness. 

He came out for a visit in August of 2008, right before my 17th birthday. We hung out together, played games, went to see movies, stuff like that. One night, he asked me if he could talk to me. So we went down to the basement and he told me that he'd been talking to my dad and had asked him for permission to put his arm around me and hold my hand. My dad said yes, as long as it was ok with me. I said that it was fine with me, so we sat there awkwardly and held hands for like 30 seconds and then called the girls down so that we could watch a movie. After talking with my parents, we started to "date" officially.  I put "date" in quotations because it's not exactly how other people may view the "dating" process. We have been dating for the purpose of marriage. He would not have approached my father if he had not intended on marrying me, and I would not have consented to dating him if I had not intended on marrying him. He was my first boyfriend, and I was his first girlfriend - exactly how I had wanted it to be since I was a little girl. 


When we first started dating. 


Thus began the 3 year long distance relationship. Since then, any time I have more than a week off of school, I've been able to fly out to see him. He headed home the night after we started to date, and I got online right away and bought a plane ticket for November. I spent Thanksgiving in Ohio with Michael's extended family (his parents, sister, brother, grandparents, 8 uncles, 8 aunts, 15 cousins) which was AWESOME! He came out the next February by himself, I flew out in May for his graduation, he flew out with his brother and sister in August for mine, I was back out in Ohio for Thanksgiving, my entire family went to his house for New Years,  I went out for Easter break, then surprised him by visiting the week between spring and fall semester, then I came out on August 6th, 2010. 

On August 6th, 2010, I arrived in Omaha. As usual, I was exhausted, but too excited to even care about that.  We walked out to the car, and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Dinner was delicious :) Then we went to the mall and just walked around for a long time. We went to Borders and looked at basically all the books, movies and cds. We went to Dollar Tree just to see what they had, and Michael's phone started to ring. I started to reach toward his pocket to get the phone and he freaked out! It turns out that the ring was in that pocket and he didn't want me to find it :) It was funny! I didn't really think anything of it, and continued to look around the store. After we finished up at the mall, we drove around Michael's old neighborhood. We looked at his old houses, played on the playground that we used to play on together, and discovered some awesome new playgrounds that were so amazing and fun that they wouldn't even be legal here in California ;) We got some yummy smoothies after that and started to head home. As we pulled into his neighborhood, he said that he wasn't quite ready to go home yet, so we drove around the block. We stopped at this pretty little hill behind his neighborhood "the romantic spot." I still was clueless and followed him up to the top. When we got there, he held me and we talked for a while. He kept asking me if I was having a good night and telling me that he wants me to have the most amazing night ever! I was STILL clueless! After a while, he looked me in the eyes and started to talk to me. At this point, I was starting to catch on, and I started freaking out (in a very good way) and I'm sad to say that I can't remember what he was saying! How terrible is that?!? Anyway! He got down on one knee and said "Amanda Catherine Wilson, will you marry me?" I said "YES!" and I think I said "Are you serious!" probably a hundred times! I was SO thrilled! And I still am ;)



My ring! :D