If you are just now joining us, please go read Another hello: our love story pt. I to catch up on all the deets of our beginning.

…Continuing on…

We started to make our little “dates” a regular thing-not advisable. I was sneaking out late at night, staying up late talking-WE WERE JUST TALKING- in his backyard, and I distinctly remember my chemistry grade was slipping because I was falling asleep in first period. (Still a goody two shoes this wasn’t normal). I should have known our “perfect”, secret relationship would come crumbling down eventually, but I had no idea it would have turned up how it did. One night, we fell asleep, and I gave my mother a panic attack when I wasn’t home the next morning. She had no clue what I had been up to, and she was not happy. Let me tell y’all when momma ain’t happy, it ain’t pretty andI’m just happy I walked out of that house alive that day after the tongue lashing she gave me.

Needless to say, I was grounded. For life or longer. And my mom threatened to have Harley arrested…because that’s what rational people do in these circumstances (she never did, no worries). She went to the church, and our youth pastor decided to remove Harley from the youth (jokes though the church was so small there was no college program so he basically was being removed from the church). This was weird for me. My faith was challenged, I was confused and angry at every single person I loved. I became bitter, and for me, I also stopped attending church (we can talk about that journey more later too).

While I was pulling away from everyone, including my faith in Christ, thankfully Harley was drawing closer. He found another church and stuck through my tornado of navigating my mother’s wrath. He is patient, he is kind, he is steadfast. By being apart, we were able to strengthen our relationship, and he encouraged me to seek Christ still, even though I felt numb to the idea. Looking back, I just thought I loved him then. If only I would have known the love we are capable of today because of what we have endured.

Needless to say, we survived the rocky start of our relationship. My mom eventually forgave him and allowed me to go on (chaperoned) dates. We went to homecoming football games and my senior prom (well kind of, our school had a weird rule about being over the age of 21 and attending prom-should have had him sign up to chaperone or something…), and our friend group became family. There are so many memories I have of those late high school years, and Harley is there for every good one.

Harley withstood rude comments to fight for me, and for the future he knew God had curated for us. Most importantly, he continued to stand by my side through many of life’s difficulties big and small: the death of my dad as a junior in high school, losing my spot on my high school sports team where I had played for 3 years, losing friends, gaining friends, the learning curves of inheritance responsibilties, and the hard first years of being a Fighting Texas Aggie biochemistry student. He continued to be there, even when I was crazy and tried to break up with him because of my own insecurities. He stayed and continues to fight for our relationship, even to this day.

Now that I’m in tears because writing this reminds me how much I love him, I’m going to stop here. I hope you enjoy all the grainy, poor quality photos that come with the mid 2000’s era.

Next time, I’ll tell you about his propsal!

Talk soon,

xx, Lanna