This is the moment that changed my life forever.....

NINE years ago today I met the man of my dreams! It wasn't love at first sight but it was pretty instant. It started at a bar called Cherry Street after a mutual friends' wedding in Galesburg, IL. It was late. He was a groomsman and at the bar with friends and other wedding party members. I was there with my best friend Jenny because my boyfriend at the time couldn't go.


He walked right up to me, with some liquid courage and said, " I think you are SO beautiful. What's your name?" After a rolling of my eyes, I looked at him and told him, "My name is Katie and I have a boyfriend of five years." In pure Brian fashion, he responded back with , "Thats OK, I just wanted you to know you were beautiful".


Within minutes we were chatting up a storm and discovered we had friends in common and from that moment on, we were inseperatable. We stayed up all night long, with Jenny, talking and laughing and telling stories and when Jenny finally fell asleep around 7AM and it was just Brian and I staring at each other, both of our heads spinning from the giddiness of meeting each other. I asked him, "What are you trying to do to me?" He simply looked at me and said, "Trying to get you to fall in love with me."

Hours later, I was driving home from Galesburg trying to decide what to do with my life with a boyfriend a day prior I thought I was going to marry and now a new guy I couldn't stop thinking of and he was at a family brunch telling his aunt and uncle he had met the woman he was going to marry.

(After we realized we had friends in common, I got out my camera and asked someone to take a picture of us. This one was taken at the same time by one of Brian's friends and given to us years later. It is my favorite picture of all time- it feels like pure joy)



Fast forward a month and a half and I had flown down to NC to see Brian secretly, called a family meeting to tell them I was in love, broken up with my boyfriend of 4.5 years and driven to Asheville, NC to live with the man of my dreams. The rest is history!

This moment above, when I met my future husband is by far the most important moment of my life. More significant than my wedding or the births of my babies. Without it, I'd be someone completely different and my dream life I have now would never had been.

In that moment, Brian looked into my soul and decided to stay. He opened up my heart larger than it ever had been before and changed me ( ask anyone who knew me BB ( Before Brian) and AB (After Brian).

I fell in love that night with my soul mate and also myself. He showed me in an instant that I was worthy and that he would love me for who I am, not who he wanted me to be.

Nine years later, I'm still living that dream everyday. I pray for God to continue to bless me and each day I thank God for the greatest gift I've ever received....Brian.

What an amazing nine years, Brian. Thankyou for who you are and who we've become and most importantly...having the courage to come up to me at Cherry Street on April 20, 2002.

I love you!