I recently put an update on facebook about how I married the boy from the airport and some of you had asked about the story so for your amusement here it is.
Graeme and I had only met a couple times over the course of my year living abroad. Never once had we hung out one on one, so our encounters had been brief, around our church friends, and my goodbye party. After I left Wellington with Kristin to travel around Australia and the South Island we returned for one night to Wellington to pack up our belongings and catch a flight back to California.
We grabbed breakfast at our favorite spot the Chocolate Fish in Scorching Bay and headed to the airport. When we arrived several of our friends were there waiting for us to say goodbye. It was quite a surprise and shock to Kristin and I, but something I know we both appreciated.
In the Wellington airport they have a whole lobby/terminal type area that you can sit and wait with people before heading off to the gates. Several other friends showed up after we had checked in, and not too long before we headed to our gate Graeme showed up. To be perfectly honest I don't quite remember when he showed up, it wasn't until my friend Emma pointed him out to me did I realize he was there. I wondered why this guy I barely knew had showed up to say goodbye, but I was overtaken by the emotion of leaving this place I had called home and grown to love very much.
Graeme and I had a chance to talk a little bit about a job interview he had just come from and how he was looking forward to the challenge and change of something new. In a way I felt special that he would rush off from an interview to come say goodbye to me; but again my head was preoccupied with several other thoughts and not the specifics of why he was there.
By this point Kristin and I heard them boarding our flight, so in tears (more than I would like to admit) we said goodbye to everyone, went through security, and boarded our flight home. I cried on the plane, because I didn't think I would be coming back to this place for quite some time, but now, four years later I am tied to New Zealand in more ways than one. I can now say I truly have family there and it is just as much home as the States is.
So, that is how I came to marry the boy from the airport; over three plus years of e-mails, one trip back to New Zealand, two trips to the states, a proposal, civil ceremony, wedding, and now green card, I could not ask for a better best friend or partner in this life. I can truly say Grae is my better half and compliments me in ways I never thought another individual could.
Graeme and I had only met a couple times over the course of my year living abroad. Never once had we hung out one on one, so our encounters had been brief, around our church friends, and my goodbye party. After I left Wellington with Kristin to travel around Australia and the South Island we returned for one night to Wellington to pack up our belongings and catch a flight back to California.
We grabbed breakfast at our favorite spot the Chocolate Fish in Scorching Bay and headed to the airport. When we arrived several of our friends were there waiting for us to say goodbye. It was quite a surprise and shock to Kristin and I, but something I know we both appreciated.
In the Wellington airport they have a whole lobby/terminal type area that you can sit and wait with people before heading off to the gates. Several other friends showed up after we had checked in, and not too long before we headed to our gate Graeme showed up. To be perfectly honest I don't quite remember when he showed up, it wasn't until my friend Emma pointed him out to me did I realize he was there. I wondered why this guy I barely knew had showed up to say goodbye, but I was overtaken by the emotion of leaving this place I had called home and grown to love very much.
Graeme and I had a chance to talk a little bit about a job interview he had just come from and how he was looking forward to the challenge and change of something new. In a way I felt special that he would rush off from an interview to come say goodbye to me; but again my head was preoccupied with several other thoughts and not the specifics of why he was there.
By this point Kristin and I heard them boarding our flight, so in tears (more than I would like to admit) we said goodbye to everyone, went through security, and boarded our flight home. I cried on the plane, because I didn't think I would be coming back to this place for quite some time, but now, four years later I am tied to New Zealand in more ways than one. I can now say I truly have family there and it is just as much home as the States is.
So, that is how I came to marry the boy from the airport; over three plus years of e-mails, one trip back to New Zealand, two trips to the states, a proposal, civil ceremony, wedding, and now green card, I could not ask for a better best friend or partner in this life. I can truly say Grae is my better half and compliments me in ways I never thought another individual could.
