Our Story, Part 2

Yesterday, I shared the story of how Scott and I met.  Part of our story is that we had a legal marriage AND a wedding.  I thought that today I would explain why we did both.

It's all because of this beautiful girl:

 

This is a picture of my stepdaughter, Amber.  At 18 months, Amber was diagnosed with Epilepsy.  Through many years of doctors and hospitals, her official diagnosis was Severe Intractable Epilepsy.  Essentially, this means that her form of Epilepsy could not be controlled with medication.  By the time I met Scott, Amber had to be put into her second or third medically induced coma to stop her seizures. 

 

The moment Scott introduced me to her, I loved her.  She loved shopping, "bling", and Scooby-Doo.  I knew things with Scott would be serious when he allowed me to go with him to visit her in the hospital.  He had never taken any other girlfriends with him before.

 

As the years progressed, Amber was spending more and more time in the hospital about 2 hours from our home.  When Scott proposed, we were going to wait a bit before getting married, but something was telling us we needed to grab an opportunity to get married with Amber in attendance.  After a few other options didn't pan out, my friend Leann was able to help.  Her husband's aunt is a magistrate in a nearby county in Pennsylvania.  She agreed to do a marriage ceremony for us, even if it had to be spontaneous, and she was also willing to come to our home to do it!

 

On February 15, 2010, Scott, Amber, and I got dressed up and headed to the next county for our legal marriage ceremony.  We each told only a couple of people, but I didn't want any one in my family to know.  I still want my wedding day to be my wedding day in everyone's eyes.  My friend Leann was our only witness.

 

 

 

We just had a basic ceremony and didn't even exchange rings.  Just the judge, ourselves, Amber, and Leann (who ended up being our photographer).

 

 

 

Our decision to have our marriage done legally with Amber there was a good one.  On our wedding day on August 7, 2010, Amber was in the hospital in a medically induced coma.

 

 

We wanted to have a wedding because we really wanted to celebrate with our friends and family.  It was bittersweet because Amber couldn't be there, but we really did have an amazing day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It turns out that our decision to do both things was very wise.  On September 2, 2010, Amber passed away from complications of epilepsy.

 

Losing her was a devastating blow.  We went from the joy of being married to the lowest of lows.  Marriage vows state "for better or worse," and we certainly started out with a lot of worse.  But we have grown stronger through it all.

 

Not a day goes by that we don't think of Amber and miss her.

 

I know that this post has a major does of sadness mixed with a lot of good.  But the sadness is a huge part of our story.  Now that I have gotten to know some wonderful people in the blogging world, I wanted to share our story: the good and the bad.  Both parts make up the person that I am and the couple that we are.

 

Our Story

I realized that I've never shared my "love story" with my blog readers.  Since today is Valentine's Day, and now that I have actual real followers, I thought it would be a great time to tell you how Scott and I became Mr. & Mrs.

It all began in May 2006. 

Well, maybe it began earlier than that.  Scott and I grew up in the same town.  We went to and graduated from the same small school (although, he graduated in 1995, and I graduated in 2001).  Scott's older sister was a friend of my aunt's growing up.  She attended my church, and I had known her my entire life.  We were so close that I used to refer to her as "my other mother" and I was her "other daughter."  Earlier that year, she moved out to Oregon with her daughters to get married.  She asked me if I would fly out to sing at her wedding.

And THAT is where things really began.

Scott's mother is terrified of heights, and therefore, deathly afraid of flying.  His stepfather feels the same, and he flat out refused to fly to Oregon.  Because he didn't want his mom to fly alone, Scott got on the plane instead.

When they first arrived in Oregon, he just assumed that I was a friend of one of his nieces.  Soon, he found out that I was actually there from Pennsylvania to sing at the wedding.  He didn't think much of it...until he heard me sing.  :)  That's how I won him over, friends.

This is me at the wedding rehearsal...it seems to be the only picture I have from the wedding on this computer.

After the wedding, we went out with another couple that was part of the wedding.  We had a great time!  VERY early the next morning, I went along to take Scott and his mom to the airport.  I didn't have anything to write on, but I told him my number.  I totally expected him to forget it.  My flight didn't leave until the following day, but we had about a 6 hour drive to Portland to fly home.  While I was still in the Portland airport, my phone rang.  It was Scott!

The rest, as they say, is history. 

Taken in the summer of 2006

 

At my friend Lindsay's wedding in May 2007

 

This picture makes me laugh.  This is from a wedding reception in October 2008.

 

Ocean City, MD Summer 2009

 

Our legal marriage ceremony on February 15, 2010 with Scott's daughter, Amber

 

Our Wedding, August 7, 2010

 

At the Absinthe Lounge in Dallas, Texas in May 2011

 

At Medieval Times in Dallas, Texas in August 2012

 

There is certainly A LOT more to our story.  I'll share more tomorrow....it's our anniversary! :)