The real story of Anna and Ryan

I love this picture of Anna and I. It was taken a little over a year ago, Leyton wasn't quite a year old and Anna was pregnant with Ryder at the time...

Last week I told you how Anna and I met... Today I want to take the time to give you the real story of Anna and Ryan.

It really did start at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer Indiana in 2002-2003. Three of my roommates had a class with Anna, I think it was a Core class, but you'd have to ask her to be sure. That doesn't really matter, what does matter is that is how I was introduced to Anna Westwood! Over time they all made friends with her which lead to her and her friends coming over to hang out with us. It didn't take long for Anna to become the "it" girl on campus for all us. My roommates and I lived in a suite on the second floor of a dormitory that Anna, as well as almost every other student on campus, had to walk past every day to get to every single one of her classes. We would sit on our couch in our living room and watch out the window for Anna as she would walk past to class. Then we would scream out the window at her things like, "Anna Westwood, I love you!" Or, "Anna Westwood will you marry me?" Then like little children we would duck down below the window as if her and every other person walking past didn't know it was us professing our love for her.

Let me give you a little back story on me at that time. I had done a good job in my first three years of college creating a reputation for myself. I was a functioning alcoholic, meaning I was drunk most nights but was still able to get up and go to class, get my homework done and even make pretty good grades all the while. (I graduated with a 3.0) Along with my alcohol dependency I had gotten myself wrapped up in some other pretty ugly vices...

Back to our story. Anna and I were getting to spend a lot of time together as "friends." I had a girlfriend from home at the time, so to Anna I was a non threatening male. Since I had a girlfriend she didn't have to worry about me coming on to her... Little did she know that at this point I had fallen pretty hard for her. Anna was very tall, she was a college soccer player so she was in incredible shape. She had long blond hair and blue eyes! My favorite quality of Anna's though was that she was very head strong. She didn't allow anyone to push her around, she was very independent! I was sold... My relationship at home had been bad for a long time, so it didn't take long of Anna being around for me to throw in the towel on that relationship. After what I decided to be an acceptable grace period of being single I asked Anna to go out on a date with me. Remember, Anna was painfully beautiful, smart and didn't fall for stupid boys (like me.) But for some reason, that I credit God for, she did agree to go out on a date with me! Back then my roommates and I gave plasma for spending money. My mom and dad were shelling out a lot of money for me to go to St. Joe so I felt bad asking them for spending money. So the roomies and I found a plasma donation center that would pay us $55 dollars a week for our time. So twice a week, every week for three years we gave plasma for spending money. When Anna agreed to go out on a date with me I saved my plasma money for two weeks so I had enough to take her to Outback Steakhouse and to see a movie. We went to Merrilville to eat and see Anger Management with Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler. Since I did a poor job planning our time we had about an hour after dinner was over before the movie started. So I drove us to the theater and we just say in my truck and talked. The date was going pretty awesome, conversation came easy and we didn't run out of things to talk about. We had built a friendship before this so we were comfortable with one another. Comfortable enough that we even talked about some heavy issues during that time in my truck. Then after a while of great conversation Anna took her opportunity to tell me, "if you want me to take you seriously and continue going out on dates with you, you need to get your life right." BOOM! She laid it out there, if I wanted to continue seeing her, which I did very badly, I needed to clean up a few areas of my life.

Fast forward nearly 9 years to today and Anna and I have been married for almost 7 years. (November 27th will be 7 years) I took Anna seriously that night, the feeling of having her next to me was a feeling that I cannot describe and I knew that I never wanted that to go away. I wanted her to be mine, I wanted to take her off the market quickly before every other boy at St. Joe realized what I had and tried to take her from me. I fell in love with Anna very shortly after that first date, and my life has been so much better ever since. Today I am a strong leader of my household, I am a strong and loving husband and father and I am a strong believer in God and Jesus Christ and what they did for me. I am strong in all those categories because Anna is constantly whispering in my ear, "you are doing a great job," "you are an amazing leader, keep up the good work," "I love you." Behind this strong man is a beautiful and strong woman who helped make me what I am today. You see 9 years ago Anna saved my life so that Jesus could save my soul and I am so grateful for both of those things happening. Anna still do this day is breathtakingly beautiful, my heart still beats really fast when I get around her. I love her so much more today than I did 9 years ago when we started dating. I have said it many times and I'll say it many more, when it comes to Anna and I; I'm the lucky one!

Here is a little love song (my favorite) for my beautiful angle eyed wife.