Every Day is a New Adventure: Our Love Story

Chapter 1:

     Life is full of unexpected adventures, and I just so happen to be living one of the craziest adventures of my entire existence. About two years ago, I had my life completely planned to a tee, and absolutely NOTHING was going to change that. Stick to the plan, and your life will be perfect, I thought. Little did I know that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was going to change.

     I was 18 years old when my boyfriend and very best friend left on his LDS mission in February 2013. (Maybe many of you remember that post.) I had promised to wait for him. It was going to be a long two years, but we were planning to be married when he returned home. Everything was going as planned, but my life was going to take a quick and drastic turn without a moment's notice. At least that's what it seems like now... but back then, it was a long, drug out, relentless, and painful process that I thought would never end.

     Let's start at the beginning. I met Kyler when he came over to my house to hang out with my older brother. They were both 16 years old, and I was 11. Obviously, I was just "Corey's chubby little sister", so we didn't pay much attention to each other, but I do recall sometimes asking Corey when his new friend was gonna come over again. (I thought he was cute.) During high school they hung out quite a bit, but then they both went on their missions, and their lives for a while went separate ways. The next time I saw him was at his missionary homecoming. My brother had said that he was going, and I said I wanted to go as well. In fact my thought process was this: Hey I remember him! He was that one super cute kid. I wonder what he is like now... We finally got to talk to him when we went to the luncheon at his house following his homecoming talk. We talked for about 15 minutes, and then went on our way. I thought he was super duper cute, but I didn't really think anything of it. Fast forward a couple of years, and out of the blue my brother brings up that Kyler is going to be moving in with him as his roommate. The following Sunday (March 2013), I entered the kitchen when it was almost time for dinner, and lo and behold, this super attractive man was sitting at the dinner table. Being the obnoxious and boisterous human that I am, I went up to him and said "Hi! Do you remember me?!" He smiled so big and said "Of course I do, Heather!" Oh! Well then! Ever since then, he came over for family dinners and just basically became part of the family.
   
     Being used to him coming around only lasted for about a month, and then things started to get a little (a LOT) complicated in my brain. One night, (March 30th, 2013, to be exact... but only crazy girls remember silly dates like that!), I stayed up late with my mom and Kyler and just talked. I heard all about his life as he spoke with my mother about some of his very personal family history, and some huge struggles he had experienced. I just listened. I saw his reality in an instant. I was seeing this simply "cute boy" as now an incredibly strong, sweet, and amazing man. I was in awe at his strength, and at the fact that he had gone through what could classify as “Hell and back”, and STILL was this outstanding man! There was a light that shone through his eyes. A light and a spirit about him that just drew me to him; not just me, but my soul.

     

     Wait a second… Am I having….feelings for him?? No. No way…. But he is pretty cute… and really amazing… I may or may not have heard the song “Died In Your Arms” by Cutting Crew and stared for a little while.

     

     That night, when he left I felt like a little part of me had gone. I felt as if I had this new bond with him, and I didn’t understand. He wasn’t even talking to me, he was talking to my mom, and I was just sitting there at the kitchen counter listening. Yet, I felt this strange connection with him that I couldn’t shake off. This was ridiculous! My missionary had just left, so I convinced myself that I just KNEW that I WASTN'T having feelings for this guy, I was just missing male attention. So I decided to simply speak of this to no one, and lock it in a chest within a chest within a chest with, I don’t know, 7 locks or so.

     Days passed, and I was having a hard time being so confused and frustrated with myself. I went over to my brother’s house A LOT with my friends. I liked hanging out with Corey a ton! But there was always that longing to be near Kyler. One specific night, only a few days after I “locked up” my feelings, my friend and I went over to Corey and Kyler’s place. We were sitting on the couch watching a movie. I really don’t even remember what movie because I was a little distracted. But frankly, so was he, and it was all my fault. I made it a point to sit by him. I just talked to him, tried to be funny (found out we had the same sense of humor!), stole his rings off of his fingers and put them on mine, took pictures with him, took selfies of me on his phone and set one as his background, AND more. Yeah. I was being a flirtatious maniac, and I knew it. But I later convinced myself and him that I just had that type of personality. This flirting definitely worked because he was becoming so much more comfortable with me. I could feel that connection I had felt a few days earlier grow even stronger. We were bored of the movie (as if we were actually paying attention), and he said he was hungry and he wanted to go to Del Taco. He asked if anyone wanted to come with him and get anything. Shoot, I was nervous now, and I was so scared that people would suspect that I liked him if I went with him. I said nothing. But I was OVERJOYED when I heard him say “No one wants to come? Okay, well Heather, you’re coming with me.” OKAY!!… I mean, yeah sure. That’d be fun… I was excited, but played it cool. We jumped into his noisy black Camaro, and drove off. He told me to pick a song on his iPod. As I scrolled through the artists I saw Jesse McCartney appear on the list. “Um EXCUSE ME? You have Jesse McCartney?!” “Yeah…” he replied in a seemingly embarrassed way. I’m sorry, Kyler, but are you TRYING to make me love you? I played the song “How Do You Sleep?” by Jesse, and just sat there with a gigantic stupid smile on my face as we listened and drove with the windows down. He started to sing it. I melted in his passenger seat. NO. NOOOOOOOO!! He knows every word! He IS trying to kill me, isn’t he?  “Sing it! I KNOW you know these words!” he said to me. There he was, secretly slaying my heart one word at a time. We sang all the way home! Looks like I would have to put a few more locks and chains on that chest with all my forbidden feelings…

     After this, Kyler and I texted and talked ALL the time. We became pretty darn close, which made it even harder for me to ignore my feelings. That is, my feelings that I convinced myself were fake. I wanted to talk to him all the time! I wanted to be with him all the time. What in the world was wrong with me? I've never been one to feel like begging for attention from someone... Yet, here I am wishing I could follow him around like a puppy! Not even for attention, just because I constantly craved to be in his presence.

     One of the very important moments that I definitely would consider a starting point to our relationship was the night on the porch. You see, my family volunteered to move in with my grandma because she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and could no longer live alone. My parents, my little brother and I left our childhood home and moved in with her. Since that home was now vacant, my parents rented it out to my brother, Kyler, and another friend. This was hard living with my grandma who didn't even seem like my grandma anymore, and not having the same habits and lifestyle as usual. I was also struggling because I wanted to go on a mission, but I didn't know if I would be able to because of some health problems.

     I decided I wanted to go for a drive on a particularly hard night. I decided I wanted to drive over to my old house and just sit in it. I felt safe there. I texted Kyler and asked if he was still awake. I was so happy when he said yes! (and surprised since it was like 1:30 am) I told him I was having a hard time and that I was coming over because it made me feel better to be in that house. He was confused because I had been over there previously that day and had acted as if there wasn't anything wrong. I just had fun with everyone there. Regardless, he just told me that he was cool with that. I drove over and walked inside. I just sat in the family room on the floor and took everything in. Suddenly, I got a text from Kyler. He said he was sorry that I was having such a hard time and that he was going to sit outside on the porch to look at the stars, and invited me to join him if I wanted to talk. I was SO incredibly nervous. I didn't know if I could do it. Maybe I should just leave. What if I've been leading him on and now this will make it worse? I can't do this. I shouldn't do this. But I just couldn't bring myself to pass this up, even though I was having one of the biggest internal battles of my life. I heard the front door shut behind him. I walked into the bathroom and I just stared at myself in the mirror. You can do this, it's gonna be okay. Should you do this? Maybe you should just go home. No, I want to do this. I'm so scared.... Will you regret it if you don't go out there? Yes? Well then here goes nothing! I walked over to the door, put my hand on the cold metal handle. If you don't go now, you never will. I pulled the knob, and the door slowly creaked open as I creeped onto the porch. He turned around all snuggled in a blanket, and smiled that beautiful smile at me. I sat by him and we just talked. We talked about my problems first, and then we just kept talking. We talked about everything, and nothing; from movie making to our childhood. He eventually wrapped his warm blanket around me. We were sitting so close to each other, and my heart was pounding. Was this happening? We sat there on the porch sharing a blanket, saw several shooting stars, and talked until 4:30 am. There was never a silent moment, we both just kept talking. We talked, we laughed, we cried. I was in paradise sitting next to him and sharing such a memorable moment. This was when, he says, that he "really, truly, MADLY, DEEPLY started to .... like [me] quite powerfully."

     A part of me wishes I knew what The Lord had in store for us in the long run that night on the porch, but at the same time, striving to know the correct plan for us was all part of the wonderful journey that we now call love.

Our very first photo together.