This morning my beautiful niece, Drew Cynthia (Chickie)
was united and married
to the love of her life, Scotty in the Provo temple.
It was such a beautiful ceremony but made me miss
Christian sooooooooo much!
I sat in the temple feeling very homesick for him.
This was the same temple and perhaps the same room he and I were married in
almost 21 years ago.
It's been 18 days since we were together.
After the ceremony and photos my mom, dad, and I met
Lucy and Andrew and their kids for lunch before they
dropped me off at the Provo airport.
We stopped by Andrew's jewelry shop downtown Provo.
Provo is really such a fun place to be for the 4th of July.
It was a bittersweet goodbye.
As I was loading the airplane (I hate flying), I sent Christian a text
to tell him how much I missed him and in my woe-is-me attitude,
I sent him a pathetic text telling him how crappy my birthday (which is tomorrow)
was going to be without him and how I wished he could just fly out.
Before I left to Arizona with the Nies for most of the summer,
we talked about possible dates for him to come out
to visit and be with us, but work was so busy we could never find
a time that would work, and I had fully prepared to accept that I might not see
much of him this summer (and for my birthday).
He responded that he was so sorry he couldn't make it out for
my birthday and to call him if I wanted to talk about it.
Well, I didn't.
I loaded the plane and endured a super scary flight.
I mean, I know flying isn't scary for some people, but I think
I suffer from a little PTSD and any bump or jostle to me feels like
the crash all over again.
The poor girl who sat next to me was so kind to let me,
a perfectly weird stranger grab her leg when things got really dicey.
We finally departed the plane and I texted Jane that I had landed and
was ready for pick-up. I walked out into the airport lobby and
began making my way to the pick-up area when I looked over and saw
a man who looked very similar to Chrisitan.
They had the same haircut and sunglasses.
I looked again, AND IT WAS CHRISTIAN!!!!!!!
I repeat, IT WAS CHRISTIAN!!!!!!
I ran up to him and jumped in his arms.
He held me while I sobbed. I was already shaking from the flight but now was
shaking uncontrollably with excitement which was now
combined with an incredible emotional release.
He and Jane (and Lindsay) had been planning this birthday surprise
for me for weeks!! I had NO IDEA!
Christian drove us to dinner and then a hotel to spend the night.
I don't think I stopped crying the whole time.
I was so happy.
Best birthday surprise ever.
