I knew you before I met you...

This all happened so fast, but details are recalled like slow motion. I never saw us coming, never expected such emotion. From the moment we touched, kissed, and considered, that what we have is more than love - it's the life we'd thought surrendered. The life we never thought we'd get - with a partner, an equal. When you asked me about Europe, I took a moment and looked into your eyes for the very first time. When they met and locked, the ice in the blue of yours melted, and the rest of the world fell away. The bolt of knowledge struck us - and changed so mcuh more than our minds about each other and our beliefs about love - it changed our worlds. They'd never again be separate. Your face changed - the expression softened as the knowledge not only of WHAT we found, but whom - our other halves. The noise of the rest of the world slowly melted from my consciousness, though we were surrounded by people, all talking, yelling, laughing. Yet all I heard was the sound of my heart as it finally began beating. I felt me soul come alive, my whole body heating. You see, I thought I'd known what love was, before looking into your eyes. But it isn't what I feel when looking to at you, it's what I see IN you - what I see reflected in your eyes. It's not how I see you that matters, but how I see myself when looking through your eyes. You make me a better version of myself - but through no intended effort. Somehow you see me as the person I want to be - the one I'm destined to become - the kind of successful businesswoman, friend, lover, wife, mother, and partner I always knew I was meant to be.
People at work have pictues of those they love - but it isn't just how you feel about those in the pictures - it's how they feel about you. Looking in your eyes, being with you has once again lit the fire deep in my soul - a burning, a yearning, for a life spent reaching dreams together. That fire burns so brightly the light shines through my eyes - those who know me best have said, "the color's back in your eyes..." The color only shows when I'm lit from within, when my cup runneth over, and the struggle finally ends in a win.
Having a fire burning in my soul for you only means so much unless I've ignited one in you, that torch we both must carry through the night until the morning light shines on us, signaling he end of the trials, tribulations, heartache, and hell we'll endure to see us through - until we can belong solely to and with each other.
I've won - not a trophy, not a game. Not a momentary thrill or temporary gain. I've won, not arrived, for what we have is not a destination. Now that I am at your side I'll travel the duration. As love like ours is not simply captured in a picture, or reflected in a ring. Our love is alive - it will grow, it's given us wings. Our love is not an object, not a bauble or a keepsake. Our love is carried with as, as it is a state. Not a state of destination, but a state of mind, a state of travel, a state of being. We have entered into a higher form of living - of living each day knowing you've found your purpose, your true life's reason. The certainty of knowing I was made to be your wife, that if asked I would readily lay down my life. I know I'm meant to be here, right here at your side. Because, you see, I saw you. I know your ice-blue eyes. Before they sent me back here, with questions I can't ask, I was told I wasn't finished I have still one more task. They didn't give me details; they don't explain their goals. They sijmply send me on my way, down a path to your bright soul.

Eric...

The thing is, I'm no longer concerned with what they think. I am in love with the man of my dreams and I get to make a life and memories of that life WITH him. I don't care what they think, because I think I'm living my dream come true. I don't need to impress them. I need to be happy. The fact that we'll spend our lives as the hottest, happiest, most content people in the room and the ones still madly in love with their spouse after decades of marriage and whatever children God chooses to bless us with... well, if that makeks them jealous, then that's just a bonus. I'm going to spend my life showing you off. I don't care who's looking. I'm showing off our love so you know I value it, value you, value US, not so THEY value it. Your opinion is the one that matters to me. Yours is the advice I'll seek for the rest of my life. Yours is the shoulder I'll cry on. You are the only man for whom I'll ever bear children, the last I'll make love with, the one I'll grow old with and travel and see the world at your side. I'll never want another man - you see, why would I wish for another when you have made ever dream come true? If I could write the book of my life, I wouldn't change a single chapter because whatever beginning I may have had, it lead me to this - to you. There may have been scary parts or sad parts, but each paragraph, each verse - got me to you. I wouldn't change a word of our lives together. But I can't wait to write the next ones with you...especially two in particular: "I do."