Our First Valentine's Day

My husband is not one who'd put in any effort to plan a romantic night out to celebrate Valentine's Day. The last few years he either had important meetings, was traveling for work, or just simply swamped with work. He wouldn't even save money by buying presents before the season (when prices are hiked up). He'd just not give me any presents for Valentine's Day. So Valentine's Day is just an ordinary day for us.

But he did ask me out one Valentine's Day some 16 years back... We weren't seeing each other exclusively then, so I was feeling kinda nervous. We attended the same JC, and had only gotten to know each other about a month back. I found him rather charming and I wondered if he liked me. Those days, we would chat over ICQ. Uh oh! How I love hearing that sound and a flower blinking beside his name... He asked me out by sending me a message thru ICQ. How convenient right?

So that Valentine's Day some 16 years back, he picked me up in a cab and we had dinner in a coffee shop. I can't even remember which one now. I don't even know if he had intended to bring me there. I think we just happened to walk by it, and he just went 'let's eat here'. It wasn't exactly the kind of place I'd bring my date on Valentine's Day... But that's just how he is. I don't have any photos to show of that momentous first date. We didn't own mobile phones at that time, much less a mobile phone with a camera. What followed after dinner was the start of a beautiful relationship... We walked up Telok Blangah Hill Park and spent time talking and getting to know more about each other. I remember it being a rather 'serious' conversation, centered around what we believed - our Christian faith, what we valued. A rather deep conversation that caused me to think more what is important to me. That was 16 years ago, and I think that was really the start of iron sharpening iron.

About 5 months after that first date, he asked me to be his girlfriend. And 7 years after that first date, at the very same spot, he asked me to marry him.

So here we are, 16 years after that very first date, married and blessed with two adorable boys.

Dean, may we continue to sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron, and may we always remember our First Love, who brought us together, blessed us in our union and gave us the honour to parent N&N. 

A cord of three strands is not easily broken

Ecclesiastes 4:12

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