An Arranged Marriage

Kevin and I often tease that we had an arranged marriage.

We kind of did...

Here's the story of how we met:

1986ish

Our mom's became friends at church when we were five.

Kevin's family just moved to Evansville, IN from Indianapolis when his dad finished medical school. 

Our moms got together with a few other moms and started a Wednesday play group where we would meet at different parks in the area with lunch each week.  The kids would play and the moms would visit.

We went to each others birthday parties, family gatherings and church activities.

Our moms would tease that Kevin and Whitney should get married (save Kevin for Whitney or save Whitney for Kevin) and we would say GROSS for years.

Until, JUNIOR HIGH...

My aunt was the school secretary and I wanted to be an office helper during my study hall.  Silly job, but I was anxious to get to run errands for the office.  She asked me to pick two people in my study hall to do the job with me.  I picked one of my good friends and Kevin :)  I figured I could force him to hang out with me this way.  

He studied hard and seemed to barely even notice me.

We always had a good time together and he'd always convince my friend and I to do the jobs so he could work on his homework.

He later told me that thought he'd randomly been selected for this job.

Boys are clueless :)

We were friends, talked every day at school and he was super focused on school, golf, basketball and track.  I'm not so sure that he knew I existed, but he claims that I was always on his radar.  He liked to tease me about other boys and give me a hard time.

Moving on to HIGH SCHOOL.

Same home room.

Lockers near each other.

A few classes together & both signed up for French

(no coincidence... I knew he'd chosen French so I copied him :)

We saw each other daily and at church.

Always had fun together, had a few classes together and finally started dating junior year.  He was a pretty serious student which paid off with his eventual valedictorian status.  I enjoyed school, always did well and loved being around my friends.  We had some mutual friends and both had nice groups of friends to hang out with.

We went to dances together (Santa Switch & Prom)

and went to a few with other people 

(which ended up being silly because we'd always annoy our dates and find each other).
We passed each other a tons of notes and he always asked me out on dates.
He'd open my car door for me and was always a perfect gentleman.

I went to his golf tournaments and followed along in his gallery.

He'd drive by my house and I'd just happen to be in his neighborhood.

He'd come to Ponderosa and visit me while I was working.

 We'd go to movies, stroll around Blockbuster, go for walks, go to Sonic, hang out with our families and spend lots of time together.
He saved up his money and bought my a diamond heart bracelet and diamond earrings.  He would leave flowers on my front porch and send flowers to my work.

We graduated in 2000 and had a fun summer together.

Then reality hit.

It was time for us to leave for college.

We went to separate colleges four hours apart.

He headed 6 hours north to Notre Dame

and I headed two hours north to Indiana University.

We were confident that we could make things work and neither of us were interested in dating other people.

We didn't have cars so we burned through PHONE CARDS like crazy.

Our cell phone plans only covered certain areas in Indiana so we did the best we could.  It's funny now to think of phone cards and cell phone plan maps - my how far we've come with our smart phones!!  We were kind of isolated in our own towns without transportation so we made the most of our holidays visits home.

I even talked my Dad into driving up to get me (2 hours), driving up to Notre Dame (4 more hours), picking up Kevin and then driving us both (6 hours) home one weekend.  I was so excited to visit him at ND!!  Then, Kevin got food poisoning from Wendy's chili about half way home.  He turned a funny shade of green color and I warned him that no one throws up in my dad (police) car so to be sure to speak up if he needed to throw up.  He finally did and we spent a good chunk of time in a DQ parking lot while he hung out in the bathroom.  Poor guy.  Sure is a funny story years late :)

We sent TONS of SNAIL MAIL and packages back and forth.  We kept Hallmark in business with all the lovey dovey cards we were buying.  I always sprayed my cards with my perfume.  He'd pick up Notre Dame gear for me in the bookstore and I'd send him snacks, books and silly little things.

 We picked back up where we left off early on in our college careers and started dating seriously about halfway through college.  We visited each other and always talked often.  We both had cars and we'd sometimes ride home together.  He'd go out of his way to stop in at IU to pick me up and go out of his way again to take home back to school after our weekend was done.

I moved home to start my student teaching and Kevin proposed to me on Christmas Eve 2003.  I was surprised, but knew we'd likely get engaged that semester.  He'd done his research, knew my ring size, surprised me with my ring and couldn't have picked out a more perfect one.  We didn't see each other as much this semester because of wedding planning, him applying to PhD programs, traveling to interviews and being 6 hours apart.  We talked on the phone often and the semester few by.

We got married on July 24, 2004

and have had a wonderful life ever since.

Well, now I'm all sorts of nostalgic and am glad that I took the time to write our story down!

Thanks for reading :)

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