1-28-2012

So it's kind of a weird story... 

I was engaged once before when I was much younger.  It happened to get rather close to the wedding and things were pretty much in place for once we were married.  We had gotten an apartment together that I was living in until the big day and we had purchased a car together.  I had already had one bridal shower and was going to have another one that night.  He called me at work and asked me to meet him at the apartment.  Of course I did.  He uttered the words, "I can't marry you..."  He had been to the Temple earlier in the day and it just didn't feel right to him.  He didn't know if the feeling was that he couldn't marry me now, or if it he couldn't marry me ever.  Not wanting to wait around to find out if it was just bad timing, I went home.  I moved back to my parents house, gave the car to him and went and bought something else.  It was a dreadful few weeks.  Thankfully my little sister Megan had just been born and I spent many hours holding her.  It kept my spirits up as much as possible, but the reality was, felt like life was over. 

 

Fast forward 14 years later... 

I now look back on that experience and am so grateful that he was bold enough to say those words to me that dreadful day.  It took a strong person to believe in what he felt and knowing how close we were to marriage, to have the guts to back out.  I have nothing but gratitude for his actions now.  I have even used this example in talking to the young women in my ward.  I talked about preparing for marriage and how important it is to be prepared and not just in love with the idea of marriage.  I have a life now that is more amazing than I ever dreamed possible.  I couldn't really be happier with how things have turned out.  The Lord was aware of the big picture, one I just couldn't see then.

 

After the break up and moving on, the only thing I ever heard about him was years later when I ran into a mutual friend.  This friend told me she heard he married someone else rather quickly after me.  She thought her name was Michelle.  So that is all I ever knew.  

 

Last year in school, Sky brought home a paper outlining the end of the year, the field trips and parties and who would be helping out.  One of the names was Mishelle Mitchell.  I was a little curious and asked Sky who the kid in her class was with the last name Mitchell.  She told me it was her friend Emma M.  Yes, it's the daughter to my ex-fiance and they are good friends.