MY VALENTINES STORY

Valentines is just a few days away.  I got my first kiss from my husband on Valentines Day, 1998.  I never get tired of telling our story and my kids never get tired of hearing it.

I met Fred for the first time in 1993.  We had the same set of friends from church but we never met prior to this.  The reason is that I became a Christian in 1984 attended a northern branch of the church (Yigo Assembly of God Church).  A year later, some of the kids at the central branch of the church (Teen Challenge - now known as Saint Paul Assembly of God Church) befriended me and invited me to start attending the youth group with them.  It wasn't until early 1986 that we moved to the central location to join the youth group there.  By this time, Fred had already left for Hawaii to attend college.

We were like two ships sailing in the night;  I left for college in 1987 and he came home to visit family.  The following year, we were both on island but Fred was only on island for a few days before he had to return back to Hawaii for a family emergency.  I graduated from Biola University in 1991.  I loved southern California and decided not to return home.  However, God had something else in mind for me, and I eventually made my way back to Guam in 1992.  This was the year Fred graduated from Willamette University's Law School - he slowly made his way back to Guam - real slow - he didn't get here until about six months later.

We met for the first time at a bible study that was made up by friends we both knew since youth group.  I knew his mom and his sister - but this was the first time I had ever heard of or seen Fred.  Yes, if you are keeping track of my time line - I met Fred for the first time in 1993.  We became good friends and I started to admire his strengths, his character, his desire to serve God, and his great smile.  So with the great advice of one of our oldest and dearest friend, Paul, I asked Fred out for the first time in 1995... and Fred said no - "I just want to remain friends and don't want to confuse our relationship."  For some strange reason, this understanding drew us closer - encouraging each other to seek God first in our career decisions.  So I thought perhaps he was now seeing me in a different light and in 1996 I asked him if he'd like to be more than just friends.  I was almost certain he felt the same way, but the words that came out of his mouth was not what I wanted to hear and once again he said no.  That should have been enough for me to walk away from the friendship right - after all he rejected my offer twice already.  But we were friends and I valued that more than anything - the relationship was built on the common ground that God was the Lord of our lives and that we wanted to serve him - it was built on friendship.  So I stuck around.  And again - we became even closer - sharing the need to join a prayer team to pray for the leaders of our church, the leaders of our island, and our unsaved family members.  And in 1997, I asked him for the third time... he said no.

-like fireworks in my head -

He left for Hawaii in the fall of 1997 and then flew off to Washington DC for work - so he was away for almost six weeks. This gave me time to work on separating myself emotionally from him.  But when he returned, I again sensed we were even closer.  Valentines was coming up and I wanted to spend it with him - so I asked him if he could go with me to chaperon a high school dance - no threat of romantic understanding - safe - so he said yes.  But the night before this, we caught a movie.  This is nothing new - we always catch a movie - but this time his hand rested on mine and it stayed there the entire show - it was the worse movie I have ever watched but who cared - he was holding my hand.  The movie ended late - we didn't care - we didn't want to go home.  It was just a little after midnight when he finally sealed the evening with a kiss - it was like fireworks in my head. - Our first date was the George Washington High School Valentine's Ball (we were chaperons).  My first flowers were bought at a grocery store because by this time he had already stopped at two different floral shops unsuccessfully - the sympathetic florists tried to help him - but I'm certain that the tears that rolled down their faces were from laughing so hard. But for me - it was all perfect.  Who cared where it happened and what he gave - he finally said yes.  We got married a year later.  Now we have three beautiful girls.  Can't complain.