The Moment I Knew We Were Meant to Be

Today is my husband’s birthday.  I know how he feels about me sharing personal details about him or any of us online (call it an occupational hazard) but there I said it:

“Happy Birthday my Love”

I’ve been blogging since May 2010 and I have hit every birthday of those I love the most – my Sister, Sugar Plum, Bugaboo, Sweet Pea – and I seem to celebrate their day by telling them how much I love them on this very blog.

Everyone except my husband.  This is the first birthday he has had since I started blogging. 

I had it all planned.  What I would say, what I would write, how I would tell him “I love you” and then I lost my wedding rings.  Well not really lost them but took them off last night and put them in a location where I don’t usually put them.  Then this morning when I went to put my rings on I couldn’t find them so I went to work without them.

I knew they were in the house somewhere so I wasn’t worried about finding them (especially since I live with someone who is trained to search for things) but it really bothered me to be without them.

It bothered me that my fingers were bare and that those who didn’t know I was married may assume I was not and that those who knew I was married may assume that soon I might  not be.

But of course, my husband found them and with a quick trip home at lunch I was visibly married again.

Though it may make me sound materialistic please know I am just sentimental when I say that my rings mean so much to me.  They remind me of the day my husband proposed, the day we were married and the day I gave birth to our son.

They also remind me of the moment I knew we were meant to be.

It was just before we were married.  We were young (23 to be exact) and the big day was a few weeks away.  I remember we were in a grocery store aisle and I had just come from the jeweller where he had shown me my soon-to-be husband’s ring.  It was a fairly plain white gold band with a little bit of detail.  I went by myself to the jeweller because I wanted to surprise my fiance with engraving the inside of his ring which will forever read:

With all my heart

It was – and still is – something we said to each other not often but when we meant it the most - I love you with all my heart.  Though, we never actually considered it “our thing”.  On a whim, I included an inscription of our wedding date because I remember when I used to ask my grandfather how long he and Grandma had been married he would take his wedding ring off and show me the date inscribed on the inside and would joke about needing a reminder in his old age. 

That day in the grocery store, debating over which cereal to buy, I had seen my own wedding ring at the jeweller.  I shouldn’t have because it was meant to be a surprise and I’m pretty sure in the almost ten years we’ve been married I’ve never told my husband this, but I saw the inscription my husband had chosen for me. 

Not realizing it was a surprise, our jeweller had kept our rings in the same box and after inspecting the engraving I had ordered for my husband’s ring I picked up my own wedding band and went to place it on my finger.  Then I saw it.  The surprise engraving my husband had ordered for me:

With all my heart

Followed by our wedding date.

The saying was not one of our official “couple-isms” and the wedding date… well… he could never had known how important it was to me because of how much it reminded me of my grandparents. 

He could never have known and yet there it was.

Our rings, in one box, side-by-side with the same inscription, word for word. 

As I stood in the grocery store aisle I couldn’t tell him that I knew.  I didn’t want to spoil his surprise but as he grasped my hand, I remember almost bursting at the knowledge of how similar we were.  How much we equally wanted a life together.  How much we were just meant to be.

I will never forget that day in the grocery store just as I will never forget the day we said “I Do”. 

We may have been young.  We may have been rushing.  We may have been making a mistake according to some. 

But we could never be more right for each other.

Happy Birthday My Love!  I love you forever and always with all my heart.