Celebrating National Tell a Fairy Tale Day

Once upon a time...

Today, February 26, is National 'Tell a Fairy Tale' Day. With a blog title like mine...how could I not participate in such an event!? I know some of you know this story well, but I'm not sure I've ever really shared the story as to where my blog got it's name. While I do love fairy tales (and have an obsession with Disney princesses), that's not the full story. So, in celebration of this day- here is my personal modern day fairy tale:

My fairy tale started when my home church got a new preacher, Steve. Until that point we'd been going through musical preachers, but finally we'd found a great one. He had a step daughter Bethany just a few years younger than me and during a church lock-in where we were the only two who managed to stay awake all night, we quickly became the best of friends. We were soon inseparable. I spent most of my days at her house, and when we weren’t together, we were leaving tons of comments for one another on Myspace (back when everyone actually still used Myspace!). She had recently reconnected with her half brother Matt who was a Marine in Iraq at the time. He spotted my picture from one of the many comments I left and thought I was cute…and he told her so. Soon, she decided to play matchmaker and we started talking over MSN messenger. Soon, we were talking daily and while I had no intentions of falling for him (after all, I didn’t believe I could handle the military life), you truly cannot help who you fall in love with and I fell…hard and fast. Before we’d ever even met in person we were talking wedding plans. Most thought we were crazy, especially since I was always very practical and never jumped into anything so quickly without overanalyzing it to death, but when you know you've met the right person, there is no denying it and no distance or amount of time makes it any less real.
Time seemed to pass slowly, but finally it was time to meet face to face. I knew he was planning something special but I didn’t have the slightest idea what it could be. I waited (impatiently) at his mom’s house with the rest of his family for him to finally arrive. After being told he would be awhile longer, imagine my surprise when his reflection suddenly appeared in the mirror in the entry room of his mom's house. He was wearing his dress blues, looking very princely and carrying a pillow. On that pillow was a single red rose and a pair of ‘glass’ slippers. My absolute favorite fairy tale and Disney princess had always been Cinderella (it was more of an obsession to be honest), and he knew it! He soon whisked me off to the ball (Marine Corps Ball that is!). We married soon after and have been living our happily ever after ever since. Over five years later, I still love him just as much as I did that day and I am truly blessed to have found my Prince Charming and to be living our very own modern day fairy tale!!