In the beginning

Currently we are 18 days away from McKenna's wedding day. What that simple phrase does to my heart! 'McKenna's wedding day' just brings tears of joy to me. I recall being extremely pregnant with her and not knowing whether I carried a girl or a boy. We already had our bright little son, Christopher, and the little girl my heart wanted was a wish in the middle of the night. I wanted a girl to give the name we came up with. I wanted a girl who's hair I could braid. I wanted a girl I could pass down my wedding dress. I wanted a little girl that I could show how to play jacks with. I wanted a GIRL! Well, God heard me and gave us McKenna Lynn. She was feisty from the get go. She had many faces to show us but the one we could rely on the most started when she was, oh, about two. Like this one:

or this one:

And I'll bet money on it that the 2008 v.5 of that frown is on her face right now reading this!

On with the story. A few years back she and I were talking about LOVE and the fact that she'd been looking high and low for it and, God, Reno sucks for eligible men! She ranted and raved about how she'd prefer to live anywhere else because all anyone did here was party and drink. And it was all the same crowd, no new faces, nothing stimulating or interesting to her. Her focus was to graduate from college in a minimum amount of time and then to travel. She'd love to have someone travel with her...a soul mate...the love of her life. Her high school friends were going off into so many different directions and McKenna's social life was shrinking. She made new friends here and there, but her gal pals from high school knew her inside and out. She also did a complete about-face regarding how she treated her body and how she ate (and drank). She was on her way to become a fitness guru.

Skip ahead to Hot August Nights 2006. Our family was absolutely reeling in the wake of two of McKenna's grandparents dying a few months apart earlier that year. She decided to go out with her girl friends for dinner and drinks and to watch all the old classic cars drive around. One of her girl friends knew another group of guys who were into the HAN cars and would she like to meet up with that group? They were older but her friend vouched for whole gang. In fact, members from both groups decided that some matchmaking should be going on. Only, the bad part? They paired McKenna up with someone and had Dave paired up with someone else. Not each other. Throughout the evening the two groups laughed and talked and talked some more. Both McKenna and Dave eyed each other and made occasional small talk. When it became obvious that the other was so much more interesting than the one the group decided for them was. (My God, that was an awkward sentence). ANYWAY, they became more focused on each other. To the extent that they pretty much left the others in another dimension. Literally from that moment on, they have been together. It wasn't pretty when the original girl to be set up with Dave started to make waves about wanting him. McKenna began to feel, that perhaps, just maybe, was she being too hasty? But with every question she asked herself over the justice of it all, she kept coming back to..."well, I LIKE him. I really do!"

What their conscience told them to do and what their souls told them to do were the same thing. Get to know each other better, because, DAMN, this feels good and it feels right.

So what do you think happened when she told us all about him and his age?