I, for one, am glad they decided to get hitched!

It's amazing that this guy could fall in love with...

...this girl (the one on the right, mind you) and together, create...
THIS.

   Yep, we're grateful, mom and pop, that you guys met and fell in love and decided to have...US!

    Oh, did I mention that today was my parents' 37th wedding anniversary? Wow.  What an amazing accomplishment!  In a time when most people seem to take the path of least resistance because it seems easier, or because they grow tired of continuing to learn how to love each other--you guys stuck to each other.  And honestly, I know you are more in love with each other now than you were 37 years ago.  And (Jenna, plug your ears) mom has hinted to me more than once that they are still pretty hot for each other...And that's all I will say about that.  

   Anyway, some things you may or may not know about my parent's relationship:

•   When my pop first laid eyes on my mom, he went home and told his roommate that he had "met [his] mate for life."
•    When my mom first laid eyes on my pop, he had just gotten in a motorcycle wreck and had blood dripping down his arm.  My mom got the impression that pop was this sexy daredevil (just a little different from the actual Oxford, PA farm boy that he was), and fell in love with that image.
• When my parents first talked, my mom was getting over a bad case of laryngitis, so had this throaty, sultry voice.  Pop was instantly taken by it.  Unfortunately for him, she got better and returned to her usual dulcet tones of speaking.  
  
• My pop broke up with my mom the day she got to Delaware (after she had left all her friends at Dickinson College and transferred her undergrad for the sole purpose of being with him as he pursued his grad degree at U of D).  He told her he had "met the Lord and had no use for women anymore."  My mom was very hurt, to put it lightly.
• My pop was all geared up for a traveling prophet to give him visions of grand ministries in far off places, and turns out the prophet just got one thing for pop--a Bible verse, actually: He who finds a wife finds a good thing and receives favor from the Lord.  Pop was like, Oh...and had to quickly turn his being-God's-man plan into the new and improved being-God's-family-man plan.  This is where my mom came back into the picture (thankfully for all of us, I gotta say--and pop would say the same). 
• When my pop asked my mom's father for his blessing to marry my mom, his first response was, Well, I guess I can't shoot you. This was back when my parents weren't altogether sure that my very wealthy, very Italian grandfather was not involved in the mafia.  Yeah, pop was a little scared.  
• My mom's parent's actually did disown her (but luckily didn't have pop killed) when she decided to go ahead and marry pop.  My mom walked down the aisle in a $12 dollar gown that somebody made her (I think it was her sister...), while my pop wore an unfortunate white suit jacket (why, pop, why?!). Oh--and pants, too. The way my mom tells it, pop cried like a baby throughout the whole ceremony and mom was more than a little embarrassed by his display.  They celebrated with a good old fashioned pot-luck dinner provided by the kind ladies at Emmanuel Baptist Church.  I think they may even have honeymooned in Jersey, but I could be making that up.  Oh, and mom's parents did eventually start relating to them as family again--I think it had something to do with Josh coming into the picture and them wanting to know their grandson. I mean really, who wouldn't want to know Josh?

 

    So, there's a microcosm of their beginnings the way I understand it.  I may have gotten a few of the details wrong--especially since the one time I do remember them sitting all of us kids down in the living room to, as they put it, learn about their story (if you know my mom, you know she's really into history), all of us fell asleep before they finished rehashing it for us.  I vaguely remember them having to wake us up to put us to bed...Hope we didn't hurt your feelings, guys! But, let's face it, your story is wonderful, true, but involved!

     Happy Anniversary, Mom and Pop!  Here's to another 37 years...