Just another LOVE Story

One of my absolute favorite movies is Sliding Doors. In it, Gwyneth Paltrow's character is fired from her job and has to leave work early. She makes her way to catch the tube home... the movie then splits into two parallel stories. In one, she makes the tube, in the other, the doors slide shut forcing her to just miss her ride home. The movie goes on to show how such a miniscule moment in her life can alter the course of her entire future.

I love this, because the story of me and Brody is just like that. One small change, even one causing a delay of a few seconds and we likely never would have met.

That was 15 years ago. I've had this sweet man in my life almost longer than I lived without him.

In 1998, both of our church youth groups attended the National Youth Gathering for the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Mine from Cedar Park, Tx, his from Wisner, Ne. It was held in Atlanta, GA and over 25,000 youth from 49 states and 11 countries were in attendance.

On the first night, just after the first Mass Group Event, my friend Kerri and I came back to the Omni Hotel/CNN center where we were staying. We decided to grab ice cream then headed up the escalators to our hotel room for the night. As we were being lifted up, we heard someone shout "Hey! Don't I know you?". I turned, didn't recognize the boy or his two friends riding down the escalator, and shook my head. Kerri, sweet, talkative, outgoing Kerri, shouted back "Where are you from?".
"Nebraska!"
"I have Family in Nebraska!" We had arrived at the top and Kerri pulled me back down the escalator. "Maybe they know my cousins?" She told me.
So, there I was, being dragged down the escalator, to meet these three strangers. Kerri began to speak to them...
Turns out, they didn't recognize us. It was a very, very successful pickup line. Thanks to Tom, the boy who used the pickup line, I am here today with the life I have and love. One of the boys was a tall, skinny, bleached-haired, hysterical kid who I immediately connected with over a pair of green shoes.

There we are, together, on the right. Kerri is on the other side of Brody and the two boys in hats are Andrew and Tom, the other Nebraskans. The other three are friends from my youth group that happened to walk by. This was taken at the bottom of the escalators about 10minutes after we met. 

We hung out that night, just visiting and parted ways. What makes this story even more amazing is Kerri and I ran into Brody, Tom & Andrew at the escalators the next morning. We decided, two chance meetings must mean we should hang out more! So we did. We were together most of the Gathering. Something in Brody just drew me to him and when the last day of the Gathering arrived we were both heartbroken. We had breakfast together, he kissed my hand, and that was it... an incredibly strong friendship had to be severed after mere days.

Thankfully, this was the dawn of the internet era. Yes, you youngins reading this, there was no Facebook, YouTube or even text messaging in these days! We did send emails, but most of our communication over the next year was through letters, VHS tapes we made of our lives and MCI $.10 Sundays. Truly. We had to pay $.10 a minute to speak to each other and only one day a week!

He came down for a college visit the following Spring and invited me to his Senior Prom. Crazy enough, my parents allowed me to go! When he finally arrived in Austin for college, our lives intertwined and we haven't been apart since.

Five years after this chance encounter in Atlanta, we were married.

So, at the end of this month, to celebrate 15 years since Atlanta and 10 years of marriage, we are heading back to those fateful escalators. A long vacation, just us two. We will stay in the Omni where we met, eat breakfast together at the same spot where we did our last day of the Gathering, then head to the foothills of the Appalachians for a relaxing stay at a winery. I cannot wait to celebrate these moments with this man, and I cannot wait to see what life brings us in the next 15 years.