Five years ago, as I boarded a plane to Greece, my dad made me promise him something.  He made me promise that while I was overseas for a study abroad in Greece, Israel, and Egypt that I would not fall in love.  He made me promise about three times before finally waving me off at the security line.  Needless to say, when I stepped back on Texas soil about three and a half months later, my dad breathed a sigh of relief.  His fear of me falling in love overseas and permanently staying there was finally put to rest.

While I didn’t technically break that promise to my dad, I had met someone who I thought might be a good fit in my family.  At this point, it was just a crush that I was curious about. Luckily for my dad, this crush happened to be a native Texan, too, so there was no need to stay overseas: he had already returned to Texas about two weeks ahead of me.  His name was Dylan.

One of the first things I did upon returning home was Facebook message Dylan and demand why he hadn’t told me his roommate slept in his underwear.  Dylan knew that I was traveling in a group for two weeks around Europe with his roommate and failed to tell me that little tidbit.  He had some charming answer and I had a sassy reply.  Eventually we started texting each other non-stop (at which point my parents were forced to upgrade our cell phone plan).  When school was to start back, I found out that he would no longer be going to the same school I was – which was rather disappointing, knowing that I had originally planned one of my classes to be in the same as his and that now I would probably never see him again.  He must have been disappointed, as well, as he invited me to meet his family and friends on my way to school.  His hometown was more or less on the drive to school, so I agreed.

After months of me stopping by his house to meet friends and family on my way to/from school and him driving to Austin to spend the day with friends/family, he finally invited me to a concert at the Fort Worth Stockyards with a few of his friends.  It was that night that we started dating, officially.  He’ll tell you we started dating a long time before that, which may be true.  He even tried to convince my whole family that we were dating before that just to get my reaction to the thought of us dating.  Dylan went so far as to sign us into a park as a married couple.  I absolutely ADORE this silly and spontaneous side to his personality.

I’ll skip the proposal story, as Dylan wishes he had a re-do card for it.  Of course, I said “HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD THAT?!?”  (You were expecting a “YES!” “OF COURSE” or “ABSOLUTELY” weren’t you?)

This week, we’ve been married for two years.  Dylan is still my best friend.  The one who makes me laugh.  The encourager.  The Mylah-whisperer (because we all know there are those days when you feel the urge to be wild stallion).  The sounding board.  The fun-seeker.  I have absolutely no idea where I would be without that man.

Dylan, I love you and am so happy that you’ve spent the last few years with me.  I am so excited to see what GOD has planned for our  future together.

– Mylah Renae