Anniversary

On June 9th, Clint and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary.  The wonderful thing about it is that we were able to celebrate at the exact location where we first talked about dating.  For those of you who don't know our story, I will tell you.  During the summer of 2002 I was on the Germany Campaign for my second year in a row.  Clint was there visiting our mutual friends Ed and Courtney Cantrell, whom we now are working with in Chemnitz.  He was there for 2 weeks during the campaign and I was able to meet him and I thought he was a really nice guy.  After he left Germany, Ed and Courtney told me that he was interested in going on the campaign the following summer and said that the group should encourage him to go.  Courtney gave me his e-mail address and I e-mailed him to let him know that I thought it was great that he wanted to go on the campaign.  I told him what an impact it had made on me and how much I loved it there.  I also told him my plans of going back to Germany on the HIM Program after I graduated.  What I didn't know was at this point he was already thinking about going back on a more permanent basis as well.  We began e-mailing each other back and forth and really got to know each other.  Our friendship developed over the next year and I was able to see him occasionally when we had our campaign meetings every Sunday afternoon and sometimes he would come to Wilshire so I got to sit by him at church.  It didn't take long for me to really begin to like Clint.  He has such a fun-loving spirit.  Anyone who knows him can also tell what a kind and loving heart he has as well.  I really can't pinpoint exactly when I knew I had a crush on him, but I liked him for quite awhile before we actually started dating.  I was too nervous to say anything about it because I wasn't sure how he felt about me.  Little did I know, he was beginning to develop feelings for me as well at the same time and he didn't say anything about it for a long time either because he didn't know how I felt about him.  Well, when we went on the Germany campaign during the summer of 2003 we spent a lot of time together.  On June 9, 2003 we were walking with some other friends from a gas station nearby the Lutherhoehe, which is where we were staying.  On the way back we stopped underneath the Autobahn and a lot of the group was there looking at the beautiful view of the towns nearby.  Slowly, most of the group went back to the Lutherhoehe and Clint and I just stayed there, looking silently at the beautiful view.  This seemed like the perfect time to say something, but I had no guts in me.  :)  We stood there in silence until finally Clint said, "I have to get something off my chest."  I said, "Ok."  "I kind of like you," he said.  And feeling much excitement and relief, I said, "I kind of like you too."  I think at that moment we both felt a huge release from the tension we had been holding for not knowing how we felt about each other.  Not only that, but we felt like we were in high school again because of the way we said, "I kind of like you."  Ha ha.  It was great.  It was definitely a moment we will be able to laugh about for a long time.  After we confessed our crushes Clint said something like, "I was thinking that maybe we could go out sometime when we get back to Oklahoma."  I answered, "I would like that."  Relieved, we both decided to head back to the Lutherhoehe so no one would wonder where we were and on the way back Clint grabbed my hand and all was right in the world.  I will never forget that moment.  It was so sweet and so memorable.  It is so funny to think about how giddy we both were after that night.  As soon as we got back we both went our separate ways to talk to our friends about it.  Actually, I really wanted to tell Tracy Hankins about it when I got up to my room, but for some reason I didn't tell her until the next day.  Tracy knew all about my crush on him and she had been giving me advice for a while about it.  Well, from then on Clint and I were pretty much inseparable.  This year on campaign on our anniversary Clint was really sweet to me.  In the morning the entire campaign group has breakfast together.  When I was ready, I went into the kitchen and the only people that were already in there was Clint and Dave Christy.  I went and stood across from Clint on the other side of the table and Clint told me that he wanted me to sit beside him, so I went around and when I got to my seat I saw a little stuffed animal that was holding a heart and it said "I love you" and also a little glass heart shaped box with heart shaped chocolate in it.  Also, there was a note that he wrote me and a flower that he picked from outside.  I have to say that this past year has been the most amazing year of my life and I wouldn't change it for the world.  I am so completely in love with Clint and am excited about our journey here in Germany.

Clint and I celebrate our 1 year anniversary in Germany