Meet Megs' Mum

Introducing my Mum, Margaret!

When is your birthday? June 13

How Many kids do you have? Five

What is your favorite color? Orange

Favorite food? Pancake mozzarella 

What is your favorite TV show? Call the midwife 

Favorite flower? Freesias

Favorite perfume? Paris by YSL

Tell us some fun facts about you:

I Love my family and want to spend all my time with them.

I love to laugh,

I love to make others laugh.

How did you feel the first time you found out you were going to be a mum? I was scared and excited at the same time.

   I know this goes without saying, but I love my Mum. Not just because she is my mum, but because she is the kindest, strongest, most loving, patient and nurturing woman, I know. We live on opposite sides of the world, but somehow, she always knows how to make me feel better when I need it.  She knows me in a way that nobody else ever could. She gives the best advice, she knows when to encourage me and when to put me in my place. She hates when I call her cute, but she totally is! She loves to joke around and have fun and is totally corny in the best kind of way. One of the most precious things in the world to me is seeing my Mum with my kids, whether it be in person (which, unfortunately is rare) or on FaceTime. Both my boys adore her! There is no doubt in my mind that this incredible, beautiful woman was put on this earth to be a Mum and Nanna to my boys, and what a wonderful one she is!

Kennen Gregory

Kennen is our impatient child. He gets it into his head that he wants something and he has to have it NOW. He will do anything he can to get it. He could roll both ways from about a week old, he started trying to pull himself along on his belly at less than 3 weeks old, he could sit up at around 3 months, crawled at 4 1/2 months and walked at 9 months. He is one determined little guy and he has been that way right from the start and this is evident even in his birth story:

Many of you know that he was a rainbow baby. I suffered a miscarriage at the beginning of June 2013 and over four weeks later, my cycle hadn't returned, so I took a pregnancy test: NEGATIVE.
About a week and a half later, we were preparing to move house and I had this nagging feeling that I should take another test, just to be sure. I didn't want to be lifting heavy things if there was a chance I could be pregnant again. This time there were two lines on that wonderful pee covered stick of joy!
Of course this brought with it a huge rush of emotion. It wasn't just the joy that it should have been, but also sadness for the baby we had just lost and fear, a whole dang lot of fear.

Thankfully, apart from the morning sickness, a few small (and terrifying) incidences of spotting and slightly high blood pressure, baby boy and I were both healthy and feeling good by the end of my pregnancy!

We decided to try for a different type of birth with this baby and chose a wonderful midwife and a birth centre, rather than a regular hospital birth.

To deliver at the birth centre, you have to be between 37 and 41 weeks pregnant so I was nervous by around 36 weeks, when the baby was sitting super low, putting a lot of pressure on my cervix and one of the midwives said that she estimated it would be "about a week, maybe two" before I delivered. Of course, this freaked me out a little, especially because I So desperately wanted Mum to be there for the birth and she wasn't due to arrive until March 5th, 12 days before my due date.

37 weeks came and went and I was thankfully still pregnant and praying that baby would hold on until after his Nanna got here from Australia.

I had been having a lot of braxton hicks contractions with this pregnancy from about 35 weeks, which was something I didn't really experience with Lachlan, but by about March 1st, they had stopped.

Then on March 3rd, I was chatting on the phone to my friend, Amber, when Lachlan climbed up on me and fell asleep. It was only about 7pm which was super early for him, his bedtime isn't until 9:30, so I let him lay on me for a little while, then put him in bed and kept chatting to Amber. at about 8pm I realised that I was still having "cramps", which had started right when Lachie fell asleep on me. I casually said to Amber "um so I've been having contractions for the past hour..." 

She told me I was crazy and to call my midwife etc. so we got off the phone, and I called the labour line. The contractions were super mild, and inconsistent, so much so that I couldn't tell when they started and ended, but the midwives had been telling me at my appointments to call and give a heads up if I noticed anything different. My midwife, Jennie ended up texting me and saying to drink some chamomile tea and take a warm bath then try to get some sleep in case this was it.

Ant was at school, so I called him and got him to pick up some chamomile tea on the way home and just relaxed in the bath until he got here. By this time the contractions/cramps had stopped and had been gone for a while, but I was tired, so I relaxed for a bit and went to bed. Literally the minute I got into bed, I was hit with a strong contraction. I figured I would time it on my phone and the next hit 7 minutes later, then another 6 minutes after that. Okay so maybe this was it, but 6-7 minutes apart meant it would probably be a while. oh wait, the next one decided to come two minutes after that, then another one two minutes after that one. And these weren't just mild contractions, I'm talking the kind of contractions that made my whole body tense up and made me curl into a ball.

I called Jennie back and she said that because the real contractions had only just started, to try and get some sleep and call her back if I felt like I needed to go in. Then she suggested that I call my mother in law, Karen, and tell her to make her way over, seeing as she was almost two hours away and we needed her to watch Lachie for us.

So I called her, thankfully she was still awake, then she called my friend Stephanie, who had kindly offered to be my doula, and they got on the road.

Poor Anthony had been up for about 30 hours at this point, because of his busy work and school schedule, so I told him to try to take a nap before we had to go in. 

By this time, Lachlan had woken up and was full of energy, and as I scrambled to get the rest of my labour bag together between contractions, he followed me around the apartment, pulling everything out of the bag and laughing at me and copying every time a contraction hit and I squatted to try and handle the pain.

By about 1:45am, Karen and Stephanie had called me what felt like about a thousand times and because my contractions were so close together, they were starting to freak out a little, and said that they would just meet us at the birth centre, rather than coming to our apartment, so I called Jennie and said that it was time to head in and went to wake Anthony. He had been asleep less than an hour and thought I was crazy for going in so early, but got his stuff together anyway.

As I was getting ready to leave, I decided to go to the bathroom and pee and I ended up throwing up all over the bathroom and myself. I knew this usually meant that a woman was in transition, but seeing as it hadn't even been 2 1/2 hours, I figured there was no way I could be that far along. Then I remembered an article I had read about something called the "purple line" which was apparently an alternate, much less invasive way of checking how far dilated a woman was during labour. I went back into the bathroom and checked in the mirror, and sure enough there was a purple line and it was pretty long! 

So after changing into clean pjs and cleaning up myself and the bathroom, we were out the door. let me tell you, a 28 minute drive is NO fun when you are having intense contractions every 2 minutes!

we finally arrived at the birth centre at 2:29 and Jennie was waiting outside for us, with Karen and Stephanie.

Karen had brought some labour snacks and offered me some yogurt, which I promptly turned down, there was no way I could think about food by this stage! Jennie gave me a look like she knew I would be pretty far progressed, so she checked me and I was 7cm dilated! 

She filled the birthing pool, because I was hoping for a water birth, and I got in. Let me tell you, labouring in the water was absolute bliss! I wouldn't say it took away the pain of the contractions, but it definitely eased the back pain that I was experiencing in between the contractions, and it helped me to relax my entire body.

having a doula to talk me through each contraction and to tell Anthony what to do to help me with the pain was absolutely the best help I could have had at that point in time.

The whole atmosphere of the birth centre was so peaceful and relaxing and Jennie even let us facetime my family in Australia when I was in the tub, the cool part was, they were all together (except for my eldest sister, who lives in a different state) for a family dinner at mum and Dad's place, because mum was leaving to come see us for 5 weeks the very next morning.

facetime with my family

After what felt like hours, Jennie checked me and literally 2 seconds after she checked me, my waters broke! For a second, I thought that she hit me in the crotch, then I realised that the weird popping feeling was my waters breaking. She let me labour for a few minutes longer and checked me again because my body was taking over and trying to push. By this point, I was fully dilated with a slight lip on my cervix, so she suggested I get out of the water and walk around for a minute. As Ant and Stephanie were helping we out of the tub, I had another contraction, so Jennie asked me to lay on my side on the bed so she could check me again. By this point, He was on his way out, I couldn't stop my body from pushing, so she said to go for it, I pushed once and his head came out, then on the second push he was born! He came out so fast that we joked that I almost shot him across the room!

 after the birth, i asked Jennie what time he was born and she said it was 3:34am! I was in complete disbelief, it had felt like I was in that tub for hours, but in reality, we had only been at the birth centre for an hour and I had been in actual labour for just under four hours!

Just like Lachlan, I felt no pain during the actual birth, but this time, I got through it with absolutely no tearing whatsoever!

It was so amazing to be able to bring our son into the world in such a beautiful, peaceful atmosphere, and Lachlan was actually able to be in the room as well, so that was pretty special, even if he didn't take any notice of what was going on.

Literally the second they put our beautiful baby boy on my chest, I asked Ant to call my mum on facetime, we had wanted to facetime her during the actual birth, but it all happened so quickly that it just didnt happen, but my parents and siblings were able to meet our little boy at just a few seconds old, so that was super special!

kennen meeting his Aussie family on facetime

We chose to delay cord clamping, so he was put on my chest the moment he was born and was able to breastfeed and snuggle until after all the blood from the placenta had finished pumping through the unbilical cord and the colour difference in his skin was amazing, by the time Anthony cut the cord, he was glowing with this beautiful, healthy, bright pink colour.

Just like we did with Lachlan, we had decided to wait until we held him to choose his name, we had a list of a few names and two possible middle names, but the minute we held him, we knew his name was meant to be Kennen Gregory Mojica. Kennen after my dad and Gregory after Anthony's dad.

Kennen weighed 7lb 1oz and measured 19 inches long.

Within two hours of his birth, I had showered, eaten breakfast and was asking Jennie if I could go home. We had to fill out some papers, but as soon as that was done and Anthony had a little nap, we were out of there and were home by 8am. It was so nice to be able to recover in the comfort of my own home, rather than in a stark, cold hospital.

The boys napping - having a baby is exhausting!

The irony of the whole situation: Kennen was born just a half a day before my mum got on the plane from Australia to come be here with us, which is exactly what Lachlan did to us just two years earlier! 

Kennen on top and Lachlan on the bottom, both in the same outfit, same age, on the way to pick Nanna up from the airport!

Meeting Mum at the airport

Overall, I would have to say that a birth centre birth compared to a natural hospital birth is like night and day. It was such a warm, loving, peaceful environment and I will definitely be choosing to deliver at a birth centre, with a midwife and a doula for all of our future babies, and hopefully we will be able to have Jennie as our midwife again, because she is absolutely one in a million!

Jennie Joseph, our wonderful midwife!

A Close Call

The boys and I had a bit of a close call a couple of weeks ago.

It started out like any other day, with me trying to keep the boys quiet while Anthony finished work and the boys making as much noise as they possibly could. I made breakfast for the boys and as I sat down and picked up a slice of toast, Lachlan stopped me and said "Mummy! A prayer! A prayer!" 

If you have ever talked to Lachlan, you know that his words often sound like other words, so I had to make sure he was saying what I thought he was saying. "Are you saying you want to pray?"

"Yes! A prayer! A prayer!"

This isn't THAT strange a request from him, I mean, we usually pray before meals anyway, but this was the first time he had ever actually asked to say the prayer, let alone reminded me to pray, so I was a little surprised. I helped him say a prayer, and as always we asked Heavenly Father to keep us safe as we went on our walk and throughout the day. Little did I know how significant this moment would be.

We finished our breakfast and got ready for the day. Anthony helped me get the kids and the stroller down the stairs and the boys and I went off to enjoy our walk, while Anthony ran some errands of his own.

Now you have to understand, our stroller is BIG. Not only that, its BRIGHT! I purposely chose a bright colored stroller so that it would be easy to spot.

These pictures weren't taken on the day, but seriously... you can't miss this stroller!

Anyway, so a few minutes into our walk, we were on the busy, main road that our apartment complex is on. We stopped before crossing over one of the side streets. I am a touch paranoid when it comes to my kid's safety, so I am overcautious when crossing roads. There was a car stopped, waiting to turn onto the main road, but being that it was 9am, the traffic was pretty heavy. He was stopped pretty far back from the road and the traffic wasn't letting up. Being that there was no break in the traffic for him to turn, I determined that it was safe and started to cross the road. When I got about a third of the way across the road, I saw out of the corner of my eye that he had accelerated! Without even a second to react, I started running backwards and pulling the stroller with me. The seconds that followed seemed to slow down and I watched as this guy accelerated at a dangerous speed and hit my stroller! Thankfully, because I moved so fast and because of the backwards motion, the car only clipped the front point of the stroller and the kids barely felt a jolt, but I literally saw my life flash before my eyes! I saw the exact moment that the driver realised that we were there, literally the second that his car impacted with the stroller. 

Realising that my kids could have just been killed, I freaked out. I checked that they were okay and then the crazy mama bear came out of me and I started screaming and waving an arm in the air at him. He sat there for about a minute and then finally got out of his car. 

I kid you not, he insisted that he didn't see me or my stroller! You know, that giant, bright teal stroller? Yeah, he totally missed it.

I asked how he could have possibly missed it and pointed out that it was not only a rather cumbersome stroller, but it was bright freaking teal! 

He went on to tell me that he didn't look. He said "I didn't see you because I didn't look. I forgot to look".

Forgot to look. He almost killed my kids because he FORGOT TO LOOK!

At this point, I was still yelling at him, I asked how if he even had a driver's license and if he did, how could he possibly forget to check if it was safe to turn onto a busy freaking road?

What he said next was the real kicker: "I forgot to look because i was watching that other boy..."

(The "other boy" was a grown man that was walking towards us from the other direction when this all happened). Yes, you read that right, this man almost took the lives of my two beautiful boys because he was too busy watching someone walk down the street!

I kept yelling, "how could you be so distracted... What the hell?... You could have killed my kids... What is wrong with you?..." It was like I wasn't in my own body, I could see myself yelling at him and was telling myself to stop. This poor man was so distressed by the situation and I was letting the crazy mama bear take over!

I took a breath and pointed out the fact that there was no break in the traffic and that it wouldn't have been safe for him to go, even if we weren't there.

This was the intersection. The car was stopped a couple feet back from the line on the left. I was at roughly about the third line on the crossing when I noticed him accelerating.

Now that I had stopped yelling, he asked if the boys were okay, I said that thankfully, they were and he turned to Lachlan and said "Are you hurt?"

Lachlan's face lit up at the fact that the man was talking to him and he excitedly said "YEAH!" and laughed. Of course the guy paled so I reassured him that they were perfectly fine. 

He started apologising and showed me a picture of his daughter on his phone and said that he would never mean to hurt my kids, he has a daughter of his own. 

We once again checked and double checked that the kids were okay and that the stroller wasn't damaged and he offered up his information in case I needed anything. I was still furious and totally shaken up, but felt horrible for yelling at him the way that I did. By now, all I could bring myself to say to him was "You know what you need to do, you need to go home, kiss your daughter and hold her tight, because if we hadn't been here to stop you from turning onto that road, you could have been killed". 

And with that, I walked off. I couldn't stand there a moment longer, I was holding back tears and just had to get out of there.

All day, all I could think about was how bad it could have gone. If I hadn't reacted as quickly as I had and pulled the stroller back, he would have t-boned the stroller on the side that Kennen was on. At the rate he was accelerating, he would have killed Ken and most likely, the impact would have thrown the stroller into the traffic. If we hadn't been there, he would have driven right into the traffic and caused a major accident, which could have killed himself and people in other cars too.

Then I realised, I shouldn't be dwelling on what could have happened, but be thankful that it went down the way it did.

I have no doubt that we were right where we were meant to be at that very moment and that our Heavenly Father was protecting us. I truly believe that Lachlan was prompted to remind me to pray that morning for a reason and that that little prayer made all the difference. 

I am so thankful that everything went down the way it did. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for protecting me and my sweet boys that day and I am thankful for that little prayer that we said together that morning and for my testimony being strengthened by everything that happened that day.

This sweet lady was across the road at the bus stop and watched the whole thing happen. After I walked off, she shouted out to me to ask if I was okay and later that day, when the boys and I were walking to the store, we happened to walk past her again. She stopped us and asked how we were and said that she couldn't believe how fast he accelerated and that she didn't understand why he was driving so fast into traffic. She said that her heart stopped when it happened and she still didn't know how we got away!

Lachlan Alexander

When Anthony and I got married, we decided that we wanted to wait a couple years before having kids. That all changed about half way into our first year. I had gotten some vaccines mid June 2011 and that same night, I came down with a mild fever and heartburn. After a couple days, the fever went away, but the heartburn progressively got worse, I had never had heartburn in my life, but I figured it was just from the vaccines, I mean, it started the same day, so it had to be, right? I was also super tired, which also started that same night and continued to get worse. After about two weeks, I was at the point where I could barely go downstairs to check the mail without wanting to nap and the heartbun was keeping me awake at night and making me feel super sick. I told a couple friends that I thought I was sick from the vaccines and the first thing they said was to take a pregnancy test. I wasn't pregnant, I took my pill religiously! I couldn't be! But they insisted, so the next morning, I took a test, just so I could prove them wrong...

They were right.

I remember sitting there, staring at the test stick. Two lines. There were two lines! Immediately, I was overcome with emotion: I was going to be a Mum! But this wasn't in our plans! But I was going to be a Mum! But we wanted to wait! But there was going to be a BABY! But But But....

I was so overcome that I burst into tears and ran into our bedroom to Ant. He woke up and sat up to see why I was crying. As soon as he asked what was wrong, I threw the test at him! He asked what it was and through sobs, I said, "There are two lines, it's positive!" 

He said "so why are you crying?" 

I said "I don't know! I feel sick"

"You're not sick, we're having a baby!"

The rest of my pregnancy was filled with sickness, excitement, sickness, back pain, a move from Tennessee back to Florida and more sickness. But we got through it and I wouldn't take back a second of it. 

The final weeks of my pregnancy rolled around and I was praying and doing everything I could to avoid going into labour, in hopes that my mum would arrive in time for the birth.

I went in for my 39 week check up Tuesday February 21st 2012, and after I did the usual routine of peeing in a cup, blood pressure, getting weighed, etc. I went into the exam room and got changed into the super attractive paper gown, only to have the doctor come in, retest my BP and tell me that it was high. She did the rest of the exam and retested and it was still the same, so she sent me to L&D to be monitored. The Dr. said that if it didn't go back down, then I would have to be induced that afternoon, which happened to be my niece's 10th birthday!

We got to the hospital at around 4:30 and they hooked me up to a fetal monitor and blood pressure machine. After 2 hours my BP was normal (thank goodness! I did NOT want to be induced!) but I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart. I could barely feel them (I thought I was just crampy from having a pelvic exam earlier in the day). My cervix was still very high and the baby was so low that they couldn't even find my cervix so they said it would be about 3 days before I delivered and they sent me home. They put me on bed rest and said to come in if the contractions got so bad I couldn't talk through them.

By the time we got in the car, they had started to get stronger but I convinced myself that it was my imagination because I was aware of them now. Nope, they kept getting stronger. By 8:30pm they were 1.5min apart and lasting a full minute, I could talk through them but was so distracted by the pain that my sentences weren't coming out properly. Well at least that's what I thought, everyone else said I couldn't talk through them. Everyone was telling me to go back in but I refused until my mum finally convinced me at 10:30.

My mother-in-law called the hospital and they told her to bring me back in, so I had Anthony and his Dad give me a blessing, we grabbed my hospital bags and the rubbish bin from the bathroom (I was sure I was going to vomit from the pain!) and we headed in.

My cervix was still very high but had dropped just enough to tell that I was dilated to 2cm. After 2 hours, there was barely any change in my cervix but because the contractions were so strong and close they gave me a shot to help me sleep. It didn't help with the pain but I was sleeping through the 90 second break between contractions. The nurse told me that every time she checked me, she pulled down on my cervix to try and get it moving for me.

By 5am I was still only 3cm but the contractions increased to 30 seconds apart so she checked again at 5:30 and I was 6cm!

At 6:30 I was an 8 so she called the midwife. My waters hadn't broken by 7 and I was at 9cm so she broke them for me. Within about a minute, I had the overwhelming urge to push, but the midwife and nurses were nowhere to be seen! I remember saying "I gotta push, I really gotta push!" and My mother in law disappeared. She came back a minute later and said "she (the midwife) said to push" uhh ok. I was sitting completely upright on the bed, where did she think the baby was going to go??!

Another minute passed before the midwife came back into the room and she realised that I really was ready to push! they adjusted the bed, she and Ant lifted my legs and she told me to push as soon as I felt a contraction start. the first contraction came, I pushed and the midwife said, with more excitement than I expected, "you're doing really well, I can already see the head!"

Next Contraction came and she said she could see him trying to cry! I looked at Ant and he had a look on his face that I will never forget, he looked up and said "you're doing great!" I thought they were just being encouraging, while I sat there and wondered when the pain was going to start.

Contraction number three, I pushed and he came right out! much to the amazement of everyone in the room, including myself! I didn't experience any pain during the delivery!

I couldnt believe that I only pushed 3 times! Our perfect boy was born at 7:37am!

 Even though the labour was so bad (I had back contractions which don't mix well with a spinal injury) I pushed through, with the help and encouragement of my amazing hubby and mother in law. The actual birth was a piece of cake! It didn't hurt one bit and I loved that I could feel him come out! The look on Anthony's face as he watched and encouraged me through the birth was incredible. 

We had gone in there, with a list of 3 names: Spencer, Marshall or Gage and a set middle name: Alexander. we didn't want to name him until we saw him. Well, when I held him, I just wasn't feeling any of the names, in fact, the name that came to mind when I looked into his perfect face was one that Ant had mentioned in passing just a few days before: Lachlan. I told Ant, he smiled and agreed. so that was that, he had a name: Lachlan Alexander Mojica!

I ended up with what they thought was 2 minor tears, which they stitched up, only to discover a more serious tear behind one they had stitched, so they had to cut me open and re-stitch, which was so much worse than the birth! They had to check me hourly for the most part of the day and 2 hourly after that, even through the night. I wasn't allowed to get up even to pee for hours, to make sure I wouldn't need to go to the OR but luckily I only ended up with a small-ish hematoma, the Doctorr was sure the outcome would be much worse! They told me the next morning that they wanted me to stay in at least another night and I started crying because my mum was arriving early in the morning the next day, so they said that if I strictly follow the care routine, could go home as soon as Lachlan was cleared, which was that afternoon!

So there you have it! Our first perfect boy, Lachlan Alexander was born 2/22/12 weighing in at 6lb 15oz and 19.5 inches long <3

Anthony and Meghan sitting in a tree...

"How did you meet your husband?"

It's something I get asked pretty much every time I meet somebody new. I guess they are trying to figure out how I ended up so far from my days of eating vegemite for breakfast, lunch and tea, telling my mates to "put another shrimp on the barbie" and riding a kangaroo to school.

Well here is our love story, enjoy.

I met Anthony when we were 21. He was a missionary for our church and I was just investigating the church at the time. I didn't really like him at first, I thought he was a total dork!

See... Total dork haha! (Oh and he apparently took a picture with a random car because it had a FL license plate in Aus)

His companion at the time was a nice guy, but he had a little bit of a crush on me and he called me WAY more than could ever be considered appropriate. He wasn't trying to be inappropriate, he legitimately didn't get it. Anyway, he would call, I would tell him that I couldn't talk and he would call back a few minutes later. I ended up figuring out that when he called, I had to ask to speak to his companion so he wouldn't call back. At first, Anthony didn't realise that it was his companion calling me, he just thought I was a weird girl that called the missionaries all the time!
Anyway, we never talked about anything that a missionary shouldn't be talking about, it was always about the church and the gospel. All the missionaries I had spoken to knew with every fibre of their being that the church is true, but the way Anthony talked about it, this knowledge seemed so real.
I'll save my conversion story for another day (It's a long one!) but I ended up being baptised and Anthony's companion was still calling me. I had mentioned wanting to visit the US one day and Anthony said that I should come visit him in Florida if I went after he got home. Then one day, he asked me a weird question. He said that he would probably start dating when he got home and asked if it would be weird for me if he was dating someone else when I went to visit. Still thinking of him as nothing more than a friend, I said no, but then suddenly I realised how badly the thought of him dating anybody else hurt my feelings.
He told me that he didn't want to date anybody else, that he wanted to wait for me, but that he wanted me to wait for him too. I asked him what the point of waiting for each other was, I mean, we would wait for 6+ months, go on a few dates and then I would go back home to Australia and we would never see each other again. Seriously, what would be the point in that. He then told me that he was in love with me and was going to marry me. There was something within me at that very moment that knew that was true, I knew he was the man I was meant to spent eternity with.
Of course, being that he was a missionary, not only could he not date, but it really wasn't appropriate for us to see each other. He was there to do missionary work, to bring the gospel to the people of Melbourne, the last thing he needed was for me to be a distraction.
So for the next 5 months, we wrote to each other every week. When he wrote, he would send me photos of himself and his companions and, for the first time, I saw through the dorky short sleeved button down shirt and missionary haircut and realised that he actually was really really good looking! (Of course, I never thought he was ugly, I just never bothered to look past the dorkiness haha). Over those months and through all those letters/emails, I went from having strong feelings for him, to falling so madly and deeply in love with him, I could no longer see a life without him.
I remember the day he finished his mission. I knew he was leaving to go home and all I could think about all day was going to the airport to see him off. Of course, he was still technically a missionary, so I didn't, but it took a lot of self control not to!
The next day and a half felt like forever as he traveled home and I waited to hear from him. I have never been so happy to hear my phone ring as I was when he got home that day!
It was another couple months before I was able to go visit for the first time. My first visit was only for 3 weeks, but every moment was amazing! I fell deeper and deeper in love with him every second that we spent together and I fell in love with his family too. (Although, I'll be the first to admit that I found his dad a little scary... I still tell him that now haha!)
When it came time to go home, I was heartbroken. I started planning my next trip before I even got back to Australia.

The next ten months were pretty much torture for both of us. We talked all the time (thank goodness for Optus prepaid international minutes!) We would play video games together, watch movies together etc. but obviously, it wasn't the same as actually being together.
When I went back, it was even more amazing as the first time. I had been there for about 2 months, when he suggested we go to the beach one evening at sunset. It wasn't the first time we had gone to the beach (duh, we were in Florida) so I didn't really think much of it. On the way there, we were holding hands and I noticed that his hands were sweaty. I must have commented on it, because I remember him saying something that made absolutely no sense, like "uh its because the windows are open and the ac is on" or something totally silly.
Anyway, we got to the beach right before sunset and he said that he had a picnic blanket in the trunk of the car. He handed me a bag that had strawberries and chocolate in it and he went to get the 'picnic blanket'. When I saw what he was holding, I thought he was CRAZY. He was holding a quilt!!! I remember asking him why he had a quilt instead of a picnic blanket and he just kind of dismissed my question and started walking towards the water. We found a nice, quiet spot to sit and as he laid out the blanket, I realised why he had a quilt: it was hiding a tiny suitcase. I started laughing, thinking that he was playing a joke on me.
(quick background story: my sister's ex proposed by putting the ring, that she knew he had for like a year, in a suitcase and saying something like "I guess that's yours now" and I told Ant that I thought it was the most unromantic proposal ever (sorry sis!) and I joked that if he ever proposed by putting a ring in a suitcase, I would say no. So of course, he always joked that that was what he was going to do.)
Anyway, he bent down, opened the mini suitcase and pulled out a ring! Anyway, he got down on one knee, asked me to marry him, and of course I said yes!

8 months later, we were married for time and all eternity in the Orlando Florida Temple.
Actually, we were lucky, we got two weddings! One in Australia and one here in Florida. After the weddings, we had an amazing honeymoon, in Avon, Colorado, where I got to see snow for the first time ever and shortly after that, we moved to Nashville, TN, to begin our happily ever after...

Oh by the way: Aussies don't ride kangaroos and I have never heard anyone seriously use the phrase "put another shrimp on the barbie" (they are prawns in Australia). I do love my vegemite though!!

I think only other Aussies will get this picture haha

Hope you liked reading our love story. How did you meet your significant other?

honeymooning in Colorado

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