Matt and I had our first date on April 1, 1999. We met each other at the local mall and the moment we layed eyes on each other it was like two souls connecting. We knew that night that we would spend the rest of our time here on earth together. We lived two hours away from each other and both had busy lives so we didn't get to spend much time together. We spent weekends together and met for dinner on Wednesday nights in Deptford, NJ. The one and only time I had a doubt about our relationship, mainly the distance part, was a time when he was at the ATM machine and I was sitting in the truck and just thought to myself, "I can't do this, long distance relationships never work out I'll tell him tonight." Well he got back in the truck and said, "close your eyes." I closed my eyes and when he told me to open them again he was holding a ring box and inside was a gold band with diamonds and rubies on it with the words, "I love you" cut into the side. I glanced towards heaven and said to God, "alright, I got your sign." That was the last time I ever had a second thought about us. My grandmother and mother always used to tell me that if a man really loves you he would drive as far as he had to go to see you. I always just kind of nodded at them to get them to stop talking and let it go until one Wednesday night when Matt and I were supposed to go out to dinner. My parents had the car and were late getting home. It was about the time that I should have left to meet him. I called his cell phone and he said, "it's alright, I'll meet you in Vineland," (which is a lot closer to me than him). Twenty minutes later my parents still weren't home and I called him again. "It's okay" he told me to get me to stop crying, twenty minutes after that he pulled into my driveway. On a Wednesday night, after an eight hour work day, he drove two hours to my house just to take me out to dinner. I guess sometimes when your parents and grandparents say something to you, you should listen to them. Every moment spent together was cherished, and every moment spent apart got harder and harder. We hadn't been together long but there just seemed to be no way to live without each other anymore. So I quit my job and left all of my family and friends and moved to Pennsylvania with him. We adopted two kittens who have become our greatest joy and now are just counting the days until our wedding (there aren't many more to count either!) To see pictures of our cats click on our kitties link and to hear our engagement story or follow my wedding journal click on the link below.