Chelsea and Ethan
What I love about love, is that love is unique to each person who experiences it. We all have heard that “love is patient” and that “love is kind”, but it can also be irrational and rebellious. Ethan and I have both been driven by love. Jesus did not take the wheel on our journey towards each other, love did. We met in high school. We had gym together. Ethan was much like he is today; tall and beautiful, with big shy smile that catches you off guard. We were paired together in gym as square-dance partners during our freshman year in 1999. Latter we became teammates on the Grant High School swim team. We sang together in the school choir. And we dated our sophomore year. Despite that relationship ending, we stayed closed throughout high school and made our own senior trip to Disneyland in 2003. After high school, we took different paths. I stayed in Portland and attended PCC before going off to get my bachelors. Ethan attended a private Christian college in Indiana. We stayed connected through postcards, letters, emails and a new form of communication called Facebook. We did not see much of each other until Ethan came home in 2007 to care for his mother Luanna who was dying of cancer. After Luanna’s death, Ethan was Portland bound. I had just moved out of my parent’s home and had landed a good job in Albany, OR at Linn Benton Community College. We began to spend a lot more time together, and our relationship evolved. However, this time, it became irrationaand at times, toxic. We were that annoying couple who you could never really figure out what it was that they were doing. We knew that our relationship at the time was unhealthy, but we could not stay away from each other. And in the end we had to put a hold on our irrational love. After several months Ethan called me and asked if I wanted to take a road trip with him. I felt like it was love calling me, and against better judgment, I agreed. So me, Ethan, Winston and Gradey took as short tour down the northern California coast. It was wonderful. Ethan obsessively took pictures and would scroll through them each night. Back in Portland, I had about a 15-minuet turn around before I had to leave for a work trip to Chicago. Ethan had uploaded all of his pictures from our trip. As I was packing, he grabbed my hand and said “look at this picture, you can feel the chemistry between us. I really want us to give this a better chance.” While I was in Chicago, Ethan sent me love songs, one after the other and when I returned home, we were inseparable. Five months later we were engaged, and 14 months later we were married at my aunt Katie and Uncle Mike’s home in Wilsonville, OR on August 3rd, 2013.
Our first two years of marriage have been challenging and filled with heartache. We lost Ethan’s father Jon, this past year on Valentines Day after a battle with ALS. Death is one of those things that make love so painful, but we are lucky to have a very supportive family, especially my parents, who have embraced Ethan like a son. Our love has been challenged, but it has also been strengthened over the last 15 years. We feel love all around us, but most importantly, we feel the love between us.
