I Was A Teenage Bride

image from anne taintor
(go see her stuff, it’s awesome)

Over 13 years ago, at age 18, I told Todd he had to ask my father’s permission before he asked for my hand in marriage. Being the last of 6 daughters, I knew this was “how it was done”. Problem was, I never actually told my parents that I was dating anyone seriously right after I had sent a boyfriend on an LDS mission.

So without any preparation, the conversation went something like this:

Future Father-in-law: “Hello”

Todd: “Hi, it’s Todd Lundell calling.”

FFIL: “Who?”

Todd: “Uh, Todd Lundell I have been dating your daughter Carrie for about three months now.”

FFIL: “oh, okay.”

awkward pause

Todd: “well, uh, it’s getting kind of serious, and I wanted to get your blessing to ask Carrie to marry me.”

FFIL: awkward pause

Todd: “hello?”

FFIL: “wait, seriously, who are you again? Tom? And how do you know Carrie? Last we heard she had just sent a missionary into the MTC.”

He says it was the worst conversation of his life. And for 13 years, I have been apologizing for putting him that situation.

While that first part of our engagement didn’t go as smoothly as it could have, our now 13 year story of young love has been pretty darn successful.

While shuffling through some old blog posts today, I found this little excerpt that Todd wrote on my old blog three years ago.

“So, while I would like to take credit for a successful marriage by saying that Carrie and I were mature and independent enough to handle getting married young, the truth is that I just plain got lucky. I married an incredible woman who has grown more beautiful, more loving, more patient (that one has surely been important), and more wonderful than I ever could have imagined ten years ago. Meanwhile, I have somehow managed to avoid the major pitfalls that could have derailed my charmed life.

That, it seems to me, is the real key to a successful marriage – a lot of luck and the knack for not screwing things up too badly.”

I love you too Honey–more than an smitten, eighteen year old girl could have ever dreamed of loving and I thank my lucky stars everyday.