I moved to Arizona in March of 2003. I worked a few jobs here and there and in November 2003, began working with a company. My first day on the job we had to take my clients to Special Olympic bowling. I remember sitting there when this guy came walking into the bowling alley with his clients. My exact thoughts were “he’s hot, he’s married, he’s 27” (I was 20 at the time).

That same day, while sitting outside on the curb, one of my clients had an accident and this same guy took off his shirt to give to my client. Now, with the population I worked with (developmentally disabled), I had learned it was a predominantly female field. To see a man not only working in the field, but a caring man- I was smitten.

I gossiped to my co-worker about him who then gossiped to his co-worker. I came to learn that he was 19, single, and still very much hot in my mind. Our co-workers tried various ways to get us in the same location together (they came to our group home, we took the guys to get haircuts together), but we were both too shy to say anything. In fact, I was so childish, one day standing outside the office waiting for my ride to come get me, he stopped and asked if I wanted a ride (of course, I declined) and I was as giddy as a school girl all day long! He talked to me!

In December, I was working overnights, but got called in for a shift on December 13th to attend a Christmas party for our clients. I was told he would be there so of course, I was game to go!

A few co-workers were conspiring and he and I were avoiding each other. At some point, my number got passed to him and that was that. A little bit later, someone had him ask me to dance.

We danced to

I Will Always Love You

by Whitney Houston (tacky, I know). We went on our first date afterwards and have been inseparable ever since. That was December 2003. I can count on one hand the number of times we have spent more than 24 hours apart from one another. We were married in August 2005 and the rest is history in the making!