Wrote: 3/2002
    Okay, well our love song begins almost eight years ago.  We had been friends through our sophomore year of high school and really helped one another out.  We both needed a good friend, someone we could talk to and trust.  We went out cruising for guys...hahem and just had a good time together.  Somehow, something toward the end of that year brought two sixteen year olds closer together.  We didn't know why and we didn't even understand it.  To be honest, we weren't even totally sure if it was right.  We had been raised just like everyone else to just automatically assume that love was to be between a man and a woman.  But something had changed for us and even if we wanted to, we couldn't stop it.  We had talks about whether or not our feelings for eachother were right and in the end, we said only time will tell and only HE will tell us if we are meant to be together.  All we knew was that we had never been more happy and in love with someone in our whole lives.  Sure we were only sixteen, but we just felt that this was the real thing.  We loved eachother with all of our hearts and decided that we would throw caution to the wind and listen to our hearts because if we didn't, we would have always wondered, what might have been.  

   
    So the summer after our sophomore year began and we got to be the best of friends.  We could talk about anything...and as it turned out, laugh about EVERYTHING!  We just had so much fun together.  Our future was looking bright.  We knew that there were going to be obstacles in front of us because of the society we were living in, but when you're young and in love, nothing matters.  Then, on June 20, 1994 we had our first kiss.  It wasn't the easiest or best choreographed kiss, but one thing was for sure, it electrified our hearts.  Finally, July 9, 1994 had arrived and our lives would change forever.  Down on one knee, (cheezy, we know...but romantic...hehe and effective ;)) with the song "After All" by Peter Cetera and Cher playing in the background, ( click here to listen to song ) Audrey asked Jessica if she would officially be her girlfriend.  It was followed by an immediate YES!  We danced and just held eachother...and Jessica cried (of course) :)!  Our first "official" date came that very night.  It was to be milk and cookies and a late evening talk (we know what you're going to say...and please don't LOL).  Neither of us wanted to move too quickly.  This meant too much to us and we wanted to do it right.  We have to admit, that we still weren't sure if this would ever work or even if it was supposed to work, but again, we left it all up to the Big Guy in the sky.  However, there was one catch in this whole beautiful summer and  perfect future ahead...Audrey's family was moving over a thousand miles away and we had to decide if our love could last two years apart...not to mention they were the last two years of high school apart.  We had just fallen in love and were now being separated.



    Like many couples who decide to try the strenuous journey of making their love work across the miles, we gave it a go.  We promised to write one letter a week for the entire two years and write in an everyday journal/letter about what we did or were feeling that day and it would be mailed at the end of every month.  We just knew that communication was the key to surviving two long years apart.  If we could get the frustrations of being apart out on paper, we might have a chance.  We also, as our parents could definitely attest to, made lots of long distance phone calls.  With communication, came trust.  We had to believe in eachother's love and trust in them to be loyal.  Through all of this, Audrey hadn't told anyone about this secret love and Jessica had only came out to two very close friends.  We had to keep our love going across the distance without letting our families know because we feared not being allowed to see or talk with one another if we did.  Somehow, our love was true enough to last the test of time apart.  They were a difficult two years, but we just counted down the days as we took them one at a time.  Once we made it, we decided to go to college together at Washington State University.  It would be our first time together and living together all at the same time.



    After being apart for so long, we thought that being together every day was going to be perfect harmony.  Ha ha *cough* *cough*  Don't get us wrong, we had a blast our freshman year of college and fell more in love than ever, but if there was one thing in this relationship that we regret, it was moving in together right away.  Our whole relationship we had either been completely miles apart or living together and so we never really got to have the excitement and nervousness of dating.  We never got to walk eachother home and have the awkward kiss goodnight.  We did and still do try to keep it as fresh and alive and spontaneous as possible, but there is still a small void.  Now that we have been together for close to eight years, we probably won't get to have a "traditional" date, but we still go out on dates or create some at home.  And although we wish we could have dated more, we wouldn't trade what we have now for anything.  We are big cornballs who still celebrate every month as an anniversary, because we know how hard it is to make it through a day, much less a month or even a year and we don't want to take it for granted even for a second.  We did eventually come out to most of our families and to pretty much all of our friends.  ALL of which have been very supportive of our relationship, even if they did not agree with it.  We were very lucky to have such a positive experience  from all of them and we hope they all know we appreciate it more than they'll ever know.  For those in our family who don't agree with same-sex relationships, we hope that we can change their minds about relationships like ours, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but hopefully someday.  Not by necessarily being an activist to them, but by just standing the test of time and all the while showing them that a love like ours can be and is a love like anyone else's.....true!  We are very proud to be who we are.  Nothing should matter when two people are in love.  Love is love and happiness is happiness wherever you find it.  We are who we are not because we chose to have intimate relations with someone of the same gender, but because we fell in love with someone of the same gender.  We weren't looking for it, we wouldn't have chosen it, but it happened and we will never regret it and would not do it differently because we are happier than we ever thought we could be.  



    Today, we are more in love than ever.  We believe with everything in our soul that this is where we are supposed to be.  It was important to us that God show us the way, even if it wasn't toward eachother and we feel that he has.  On our one year anniversary, we went and sat together in church and listened to a wonderful mass and prayed to the Lord that if this wasn't what you had meant for us, just show us the way.  He kept us fighting for one another and believing in our love.  Every day that passed by, the feelings of two young kids unsure about their love disappeared and two proud women surfaced.  On our last "big" anniversay of seven years, we went into that same church, this time there was no mass and it was empty.  We just knelt down beside eachother with only us and Him in the room...but this time we didn't ask if our relationship was right or if we were meant to be together, we simply said thank you and that we now knew.



    We are living happily in Idaho with our cat Sneaker.  We are still best friends and even more, eachother's soulmates.  We find ourselves constantly laughing and finding ways to give eachother surprises.  We talk about anything and everything.  Even more than trust, we have seen that communication is the key to making this all work.  We still sit around now and then and read through those old letters (some of which were over 20 pages front and back YIKES!) and remember all the mountains we climbed just to be the ones to say "I love you" to eachother and to kiss eachother goodnight everyday for the rest of our lives.  We knew then and even moreso now that the road ahead is not going to be as easy for us as for heterosexual couples, but we also know that our love is worth all of the obstacles.  Today, we wouldn't trade any of this to be in a "traditional" relationship even if it meant being able to be legally married or having it be easier to have children.  We will get married and we will have children, we believe it in our hearts and although others may doubt us, we would tell them to go sit in that same church and find out for themselves.  We believed we would make it through two years apart and we did.  We believed in eachother's love and here we are still together and happier than ever.  We will tell our children someday, to never stop believing in your dreams because we are living proof and "they" are living proof that dreams do come true.