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