Building The Love Shack

 

The Love Shack is all about Love, so I couldn’t let Valentines Day go by without a Love Story.

Once upon a time… No, really, it actually happened.

On Valentines Day twenty-one years ago. My children and my boyfriend,  were acting kind of suspicious.  I had been asked that day about six times what time I would be home from work. So, I knew they were up to something, but I pretended I didn’t.

That day was a busy day at work and so my day flew by. When I arrived home, my boyfriends car was not in the driveway. I thought that was a little odd and asked the kids, where he was. They took me down to the family room and there was a very large box sitting in the middle of the room. It was explained to me that in this large box was my Valentines Day Present and the boyfriend wanted me to open it when he was not there, in case I didn’t like it.

Now at this point I got more suspicious, thinking that maybe the present wasn’t in the box, so for fun, I decided to rock the box around a little. When I tried to move the box, it was a little on the heavy side. But I did manage to move it a bit.

The kids got very excited and wanted me to open the box.

I unwrapped the box, and inside the big box was my boyfriend. He was wearing a tuxedo and carrying a sign, “Will You Marry Me”. Inside that big box there was a dozen roses, a box of chocolates and my engagement ring. He got down on his knee and proposed, with the children standing there giving their approval.

I said a conditional yes. The condition was, First he needed to make two phone calls. He needed to ask my mother and grandmother what they thought. And so he called my mother who approved and then my grandmother who said ” If you don’t marry him, I will.” That made it official.  The Boyfriend was no longer a boyfriend, he became my fiance.

Dinner was ordering Chinese Food. The kids and him, set the table up in front of the fireplace. With the kids, including my son’s girlfriend, we had dinner and starting talking about weddings.

The kids were teenagers and since they helped plan the engagement, it seemed only fair that they should be part of planning the wedding. They were also asked that night if my son would be our best man and my daughter my maid of honor.

That night, everything changed in our world. The children were no longer my children, they became our children and we became a family.

There where good time and bad time. Hard times and fun times. There where money challenges, job changes and teenager challenges. There has been sickness and health.

We have covered all those things promised in the vows we took the next year and things that aren’t said too.

There have been disagreements and times when we weren’t so sure we liked each other. There has also been laughter and tears. There has been times when one of us had lost faith, and the other showed the one with doubt, where there was hope and how we had gotten through the hard times in the past.

Love is not an easy road. It’s a daily challenge to hang on to. But like the Love Shack, it needs good bone to build on.

Last week our daughter, the youngest turned thirty-three. I sat at the restaurant celebrating her birthday and listening to my family. I watched them laugh and talking to each other.  The way they are together. They love their dad (step-dad in not said in our house) and he loves them. They too have shared their lives together.

After we had a fantasy wedding, we celebrated our honeymoon, in lovely Jamaica. Since then, we have spent every Valentine Day on an island, just the two of us.

This year, we are doing something different. We are packing to go away today. This year we changed plans. For my fifths birthday, Husband took me on a Cruise to Panama.

The first night on the ship, we meet another couple for the Midwest of the USA. We became friends and have stayed in touch with them over the past five years. This weekend we are all flying to Miami to meet up and going on another cruise together.

Over the twenty years plus that we have been together, we have built a family, made many friends and now of course we are building the Love Shack.

 

This is our last adventure before we return to building the Love Shack. When we get back, it’s time to ordered the last of the building permits and then back to work for us and the Warriors.

We hope you have a Wonderful Valentine Day. May it be filled with love and laughter and memories.

We would also love to hear your Valentine Story

Happy Valentines Day… From the Love Shack.