Letters to Emily

Before emails, texting, Facebook, or blogs, sharing your information was not as easy as a simple Tweet.  Where as today, alerting your social media hub your every emotion is almost necessary for most people to have a normal day.  My personal favorites are the fights over status updates.  Here is an example of two of my friends sharing their love with the rest of the world:
I FINALLY LEFT HIM! BEST THING I EVER DID!!!
I hope you enjoy being alone.  I'm happier too. 
NOW YOUR PAYING ATENTION TO ME! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT IN OUR MARRIAGE?!
Baby don't leave me.  I love you.
IT'S NOT GOING TO BE EASY.  IT'S GOING TO BE REALLY HARD.  WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO WORK AT THIS EVERY DAY - BUT I WANT TO DO THAT CAUSE I WANT YOU! I WANT ALL OF YOU FOREVER! YOU AND ME EVERYDAY!!
Thank you Nicholas Sparks for that Facebook quote from "The Notebook."  Oh, today's love letters. Not as wildly romantic as a wax stamped letter, carried by a solider on a white horse, but filled with just as much love. 

Before I moved to Virginia, I was working for a home improvement company in Sacramento, Ca.  I went door to door selling windows and paint.  I was very successful trying to explain to people how they could save up to $300 a months on there energy bill  by putting in $20,000 windows.  They pretty much pay for themselves!  "Oh, your about to loose your home...Oh, your bankrupt...But it would be an investment...So you're telling me the answer is no?"  Fun, huh?  Since I lived two hours away, I had a lot of time to my self in the car.  I remember one long drive home late at night, unhappy with my job and with my life in general, I prayed and asked God to help me be happy, to find a wife, and that I would be able to find her, and that we would help each other build our lives together. It seemed so far, this ideas of me being married.  I was far from being in an position of being someone's husband.

Truly forgetting what I had prayed for, I moved on with my life here in Virginia.  A few weeks after moving to Richmond, Emily left on her mission.  Since there was time and space between Emily and I during this period of our lives (Emily was across the county in Utah ), we were unable to call or see each other. The best way for us to communicate was through letters. I would love to say that our letters were poetic like Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, "I embrace you. My every waking thought is consumed with the idea of when we will next meet. Blah, blah, blah..."

 

Every week Emily and I wrote back and forth sharing our frustrations, and our triumphs.  I shared with her the amazing feat of being a 22 year old who was surviving without a microwave.  Before she had left on a mission were we just starting to really develop feelings for each other.  But, we decided that it was the best for both of us, if we remained just friends for the time being.

One very cold night in February, I was in my apartment writing Emily an email, praising her on the work she was doing.  All of a sudden it hit me!  I had a Godly smack across the face. "Hey stupid, remember what you prayed for?  That whole wife thing?  It's Emily."  Just then a montage of events flashed through my brain.  "I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for Emily.  Shut up!  Who knew?"  I erased the previous email I was writing.  I poured out my heart and said,  "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, so here's my email.  I love you, maybe?"  OK, OK, maybe not.  I wish what I wrote was as catchy as a Carly Rae Jepsen song.  I really wrote:
I love you.  I don't know if this is going to freak you out or not, but here it is - I love you and I'm grateful for you.  I'll be here waiting for you.
Love, Chris.
Send...What was I doing?!  She's going to think that I'm crazy!  She's going to be gone for a year and a half, and I just proclaimed my love! I felt just as foolish and corny as an N'SYNC song.  I guess the disadvantages of emails are you can't stop them after you push Send.  At least in the days of Napoleon you could send a few of your soldiers to ambush the man carrying your crazy letter, expressing your love to a woman who may not love you in return.

That following day I received a letter in the mail from an Emily Stoner, This was it.  I felt like I didn't need to open the letter at all because I knew what it already said: 
Dear Chris,
I think you're great, and you're like a best friend.  I think we should just keep it that way.
Sincerely, It's never going to happen.
I opened the letter to confirm my theory. I read:
I having been think about you a lot. I think I love you.  I hope that this doesn't scare you, but I love you.
Love, Emily
Wait...she feels the same?  As I actually thought about it, I realized, there was no way she got my email and sent a letter that quick.

She loves me.

To the relief of us both, we both got a Godly smack, and we sent our love letters at the same time, putting our selves our there, hoping that the other felt the same.  Even though our love letters were not as poetic, and there were no white horses involved, I still feel like I should end this post with the famous last words...And they lived happily ever after.  THE END.