Love Stories: Long Distance Romance

I met Kurt on March 12, 2009.

The weekend we met was also the weekend of our first date, that Kurt met my entire family and that we decided to embark on the crazy up and down journey of long-distance dating.

But to start at the true beginning of the story, we have to go back another five years. Kurt and I were in highschool, he living in Chicago and me in Tallahasse, and we came across each other on Myspace. We became “friends” for the trivial reason of liking the same musical artist, and as Kurt always adds, because he thought I was cute. And that’s where it all began.

For a few years we were simply "friends" and interacted very little. Eventually I deleted my Myspace and moved on to bigger and better things, a.k.a Facebook. Kurt followed suit later and decided to search for a girl who he vaguely remembered was cute and went by Michaela Rae. He found me and sent a short message, something along the lines of, “I think I remember you from Myspace. If not, then no worries.” I remembered him, and although I thought it a bit strange, added him anyway. Again, for a long time we interacted very little.

But in 2008, politics sparked more conversation. We love our politics and enjoyed commenting on each other’s links and statuses. We began talking even more in early 2009 - a couple Facebook chats, a few messages. Then phone calls. Then I freaked out. I’d never met this guy! And what scared me more was that I actually really enjoyed our talks. After telling him we shouldn’t talk as much he asked if we could write. I agreed, and a few days later I received a package in the mail. It was a diary, and on the first page Kurt had written a letter. He explained that we could send the diary back and forth, filling it with letters our letters. Talk about bold! And romantic! Long story short, we didn’t stop talking. I told my parents about him and they calmly suggested we meet (what??). So a month and a half after we began talking, Kurt boarded a redeye flight from Los Angeles (where he was attending college) to Jacksonville.

Neither of us got much sleep that night.

When I walked into the airport he was there waiting for me. We hugged and said a couple awkward things and then I quickly blurted that I needed to pee and ran to the restroom (attractive right?). I did need to, but I was also so overwhelmed that I needed to breath. But our first few hours together eating lunch and sitting on the beach went surprisingly well. He was just how I had imagined him to be.

That night, Kurt met my entire family. And they liked him! The next day we went on our first date to an Italian restaurant, and by candlelight, while holding hands across the table, we talked about everything imaginable. Looking back it’s all a bit of a blur, but I know those couple days were easy. I felt like we were friends. We enjoyed each other just as much as we’d anticipated.

At the weekend’s end, we decided to continue dating, even though it meant long distance. And for 15 months, while finishing our undergraduate degrees, we did. We found ways to visit nearly every month. The saying, "where there’s a will there’s a way," became very true for us. California, Illinois, Florida, Virginia, DC, and Kansas – all of these and more were the places we managed to visit one another.

After graduating, I packed my little car and moved cross-country so we could live in the same city. It was a big adjustment but definitely worth it. We loved living a couple blocks from each other and being able to build mutual friendships, go to church together and do all of the other things we couldn’t before.

Five months after moving, while visiting the beautiful city of San Francisco, Kurt asked me to be his wife. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. And on May 29th, 2011 we married in Florida. Another day we look back on and can hardly find a thing that we didn’t love about it.

Our entire relationship has been one big adventure and I know there’s still so much more ahead.

Michaela Rae, from www.michaelaraej.blogspot.com

♥

See the previous Love Stories here! If you would like to submit your story, please see our Ruche Blogger Family page for details.

P.S. Have you seen our wedding annoucement yet?

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